More of Everything and More of Everywhere: Thoughts on Poverty

Our Pilgrim forefathers were in a unique position to reach for More of Everything and More of Everywhere, and for this opportunity they established a Day of Thanksgiving to God for this. But, paradoxically, they also put into motion in this new society that the poor were poor because of their own fault, and suffered God's punishment of not being able to reach for More of Everything and More of Everywhere. As we celebrate this holiday, a concern for the poor will be manifested in distributing turkeys, providing dinners, etc. Yet, we all suffer a nagging anguish that these gestures do not make the poverty go away. Austin Smith, CP, PH.D, an English clergyman who lives in one of England's worst pockets of poverty, offers here some profound reflections on what must be done to eliminate poverty.

When I was a child the moon was a mystery. The moon was 'up there', the moon was 'beyond my reach'. Space boots had not kicked up its dust. The footprints of the human explorer had not yet marked its surface. Now as a man I know footprints are as real on the moon as they were in the ashes of Hiroshima.

When I was a child my father pointed out ships to me at the Liverpool dockside soon to set sail for the Far East and the Far West. In those days the United States of America, never mind the moon, was 'beyond my reach'. The horizon looked like something you could 'fall over'. I have now travelled beyond that horizon. And I have travelled far faster than the ships tied up at the Liverpool dockside of my childhood.

The moon, and the horizon may well have been the occasions for my linguistics of 'up there' and 'beyond my reach', but they did not cause such language. The sense of 'beyond' and of 'more of everything' and 'more of everywhere' seem to be fundamental to my very nature as a human being. We are not in the habit of explicitly reflecting upon this inner quest of human existence. But that quest is there.

I Am Not Born for Confinement

I am a person bent upon defying my contingency and finiteness; the being I am by virtue of my very essence and existence, is one which reaches for more of everything and everywhere'. In recognising this in every human being I recognise that which is fundamental to every human being. It is the right of not this person or that person, but of every person. It is the right because it wells up from the nature of humanity. If I deny this to another I deny this to myself. If I contribute to a philosophy of life which carries with it a policy of confinement for another or others, then I have confined myself. One is dealing with what is fundamental to humankind.

Confinement in the Ghetto

The Ghetto, the most dramatic portrayal of confinement, is the consequence of a failure to recognise the transcendancy of every human being. It is in the last analysis a failure in the whole of society to recognise what is fundamental to 'being a human being'. The revolution, then, is about not only my changing the Ghetto, it is about changing myself. It demands my being true to my vision of life. Even more so it demands that I change radically my vision of life.

One cannot change the lot of the powerless without changing the lot of the powerful. The cause of the Ghetto is not to be found ~ the Ghetto, it is in the non-ghetto. For this reason discussions about the ghetto are useless unless one talks about those who are not in ghettos.

It can be surmised that I am saying that a ghetto exists because of the impossibility in the lives of certain human beings to 'reach for more of everything and everywhere'. But how does this come about? Simply through the erection of, or toleration of, institutions and structures in society which affirm a certain 'status quo'; through the fostering of philosophies in life which perpetuate the belief that hundreds, thousands, indeed millions, cannot possibly reach for 'more', and this is the denial of the human being in his or her essence. We live with a terrifying 'contrast experience': we shuttle into space while millions shuffle their way up to Red Cross wagons with an empty rice bowl.

Creativity in the Ghetto

I have found in the structureless existence of the Inner City where I live, people struggling to stay alive in the midst of social neglect, poor housing, bad planning, incongruous education, political manipulation, a repulsive environment, racial discrimination and a vacuous future. I have found hope in the centre of hopelessness. And I have found so many striving to recreate life. I am in the midst of a wounded world. Yet in the midst of that wounded world I still hear the steady and firm heartbeat of God's creation. Why do parents without a sign of hope in the today stay alive with a hope in tomorrow? Why does a community educationalist spend so many hours helping to mature a few children in the midst of a world dominated by a philosophy of success founded upon competitive academic results? Why do these residents go on fighting for an adventure playground, a say over their environment when experience seems to suggest their efforts will be fruitless? Where does all this tenderness in neighbourhood care find its origin in a world of such social neglect? Why do they suffer such structural violence when there seems no conclusion possible to the relentless struggle for power in the political and economic world forces which govern their lives? Because, there is buried within them all a sacred creativity, or transcendancy. In the depths of their 'is-ness' they are possessed by a yearning for goodness, truth and unity. And even in the midst of total oppression creativity will struggle for and, no matter how minimally, realise expression. The ability of this creativity to survive and even develope is the indicator of the evil and perversion of the institutions which oppress it.

The Deepest Suffering

To suppress, and worse still to oppress, this creativity, this yearning for goodness, truth and unity, is to inflict the deepest suffering of all. One speaks of the artist's suffering in the creation of his masterpiece. What incalculable suffering it is when the artist is common-poor-man and the masterpiece is simply life! What incalculable suffering when structures of society say: "You are man and woman without a future." When I say of anyone "you have no future", I am not merely dismissing the possibility of what may be, I am dismissing what is. I say to the poor: "Better to sleep and dream, for if you awaken to the harsh reality of daylight, like Caliban, you will weep to sleep to dream again." One must be conscious of the fact that being in the presence of the poor, one is in the presence of the most deeply wounded and suffering part of God's creation.

The problem of the suffering of the ghetto is to do with the nature and quality of 'existence'. In other words, to have done with the ghetto of powerlessness one must not ask what will the powerful of this world do for the powerless. That may well be a question, in the process of reform. But it is not the primary question. The fundamental question is: HOW SHOULD HUMAN BEINGS EXIST AND SUFFER WITH EACH OTHER IN ORDER TO LIBERATE THAT CREATIVITY AND TRANSCENDANCY WHICH IS INTEGRAL TO THEIR NATURE? One cannot lift the burden of oppression off the shoulders of the poor and leave oneself unchanged. Sporadic philanthropic action alleviates; shared unselfish existence recreates.

The Ghetto and the Institutions of Society

My life in the Inner City and as a prison Chaplain has taught me this lesson. No matter how much I try, no matter how much many others may try, to discover this 'unselfish existence', there is little use unless I and others at the same time struggle to critique, and attempt to radically change, the inherited institutions of our society.

The fundamental cause of the suffering of the ghetto is to be found on this institutional dimension. We must face up to the challenge of the institution. This has been well analysed in England by Peter Townsend in "Poverty in the United Kingdom". In this he points out that the institutions which are so powerful are so because they control the access to resources, and this determines the 'having' and 'being' of millions.

The Institutions, and the style of life in their interaction, sustain and preserve each other by a mutual empowering which is at the heart of the problem of powerlessness. In a word, it achieves and locates power over destiny in society. It achieves this power by controlling 'the access to resources'. As Townsend puts it, "It is not just a question of how incomes come to be graded or resources distributed, but how access is decided." Such a power in controlling resources (all resources, not just money) sets the pace both for the 'having' and 'not having' and consequently the 'being' of humans.

Such an 'existing with and suffering with' may not be realised in a physical sense when it comes to the poor. But genuine equality must be found in the order of existence. There must be a mutual sharing of power over life with the most powerless of this world. Existing with the poor for the sake of liberating the poor is the only way to obliterate the ghetto. And the closer I get to the poor of this world, the more chance there is for me to experience personal liberation.

Creating the Context of Violence

As far as my own life is concerned, my pain is to be found in sharing by only hearing the frustrated longing 'to be more'. It is a cry I have heard on prison reception lines, in the streets of my neighbourhood, in resident and action groups, in my home. It is a cry not of a social, political and economic animal. It is the cry of a human being with that infinite potential. The desire "to have more" there may, and indeed must, be; but it is, though often locked in an inarticulateness of expression, the yearning "to be more". It is the longing and the struggling to get out 'beyond the self to return to the self in a deeper self-realization'. And for this very reason in such an oppressed human being there is always potentially, sometime erupting with actuality, a simmering violence. All ghettoes of their very nature are violent. It has been remarked, and with depth of perception, "Finiteness must not be confused with violence. But it is the condition that makes violence possible." If I choose a course of thought and action destined to push others into their finiteness I create the context of violence. I am attempting to imprison a creative energy. I may well remind another of their finiteness, I may remind myself that I am contingent, that I am here today and gone tomorrow. But such reminders must be balanced by the challenge to greatness, must be given within the respectful recognition of the human beings potentiality for infinite reaching. If I do not make sure of this balance I invite a violent world to take the stage.

The Web of Human Relationships

It has been said, and with truth, that you cannot take on the whole world. In other words, we cannot change everything. We can only go to work on our own small and chosen acre. Yet at the same time we must identify in that small and chosen acre, when it comes to the question of the powerless, those things which build up the creativity of the millions who are powerless. Whether one speaks of a third world riddled with the ghetto experience or one speaks of the western Urban cycle of deprivation in our Cities, it finally comes to one thing. They are all denied, explicitly or implicitly, the inalienable right to reach for more of everything and more of everywhere. In effect they are denied the richness of being infinitely creative.

The existence of that ghetto is not only destroying the life of those within the ghetto. It is destroying the life of those who do not belong to the ghetto. For while both camps face each other across a no-man's land of violence the infinite potential of all has become a mockery.

The message of Jesus was to affirm that humankind would only be truly human when it realised that it could reach beyond itself. It could reach for the infinite. Yet it could only authentically reach for the infinite if it reached for itself in a web of human relationships. "If you love not the brother whom you see, how can you love the God whom you see not." So precious was all this, so fundamental to the plan of God, that Jesus accepted suffering, eventually the suffering of the Cross, for that 'web of human relationships'.

The 'Option for the Poor'

One becomes a little puzzled these days by such terminology as 'option for the poor' and the 'social Gospel'. The former terminology, when spoken or used in Christian circles, would seem to imply that the Christian can have an 'option for the rich'. This is plainly ridiculous for, judging by the method and message of Christ, we can get nowhere unless we all become poor. How we are to achieve 'becoming poor' is another question. But one thing is certain, being poor must play some part in our salvation. The poor of this world must figure in our programme. And it must figure in our programme not through sympathetic mumblings, but by struggling for justice. And how possibly can a Gospel which is built upon the fact of Community and human relationships be anything else except 'a social one'. . .?

Editors Note:

• Please allow me to link a related thought to Austin Smith's article. Since I have been closely associated with many disabled persons, I have found this same creative capacity among them, in reaching for "more of everything and of everywhere". But I have also found that their deepest suffering arises from being shut out by attitudinal and architectural barriers as well as educational and employment opportunities. In such deprivations they, too, hear the unspoken words: "you are man or woman without a future."