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Sep. 25th, 2001 06:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scottobearI have a little confession to make.
Right now, I f-in' hate hobos. I'd been on a bit of a hobo kick for a while, enjoying reading about them and taking an interest after seeing O brother, and reading up on American folklore...
I'm just about done with a book called Beggars of Life, an autobiography by old-time hobo Jim Tully, that I've been reading off and on between other tomes of interest. It's one of the better hobo memoirs out there, more literate than most, and full of good stories and vivid imagery...and the more I read of it, the more convinced I become that Tully and his ilk are nothing more than a pack of colossal dinks.
Shooting straight and honest, with no legend, no folklore, no sparkling haze of nostalgia obscuring the facts, here. The truth is, hobos are not gallant, or chivalrous, or noble, or funny, or anything approaching anything I want to emulate in any way. Hobos are not George Clooney with some dirt makeup and a mustache on. Hobos are lazy and violent and ignorant, are often addicted to drugs or alcohol, are deeply prejudiced (ignore what the folklorists and white-washing apologists like Roger Bruns would have you believe...read a real hobo's memoirs and pay attention, not to what he says but to what he does), and carry with them a sense of entitlement so huge it would barely fit in an empty cargo train, let alone a vacant boxcar.
I've been homeless, and I'm not talking about that. I'm talking folks that make it into a lifestyle, a career choice, and thinks the world owes them a living. Folks that take advantage of others as a whole put me off to a great degree.
No, on second thought I don't hate hobos. I hate the spark of evil that's inside every person, and is so easily fanned to create the stupid, the base, and the vulgar, in all walks of life, from a white collar worker making a nasty comment, on down to a cruel child. I want to see more love, more hope, and more kindness...I know it's out there, but it seems like mankind has some real obstacles to overcome before it can be in the majority. There are no quick fixes, but I want to see something put into action to make the world, and humanity better.
In other news, a year ago today is the anniversary of my last face to face everway game, my last real confrontation with someone in general over my appearance (at the laundromat), as well as the day I met my sweetheart.
Right now, I f-in' hate hobos. I'd been on a bit of a hobo kick for a while, enjoying reading about them and taking an interest after seeing O brother, and reading up on American folklore...
I'm just about done with a book called Beggars of Life, an autobiography by old-time hobo Jim Tully, that I've been reading off and on between other tomes of interest. It's one of the better hobo memoirs out there, more literate than most, and full of good stories and vivid imagery...and the more I read of it, the more convinced I become that Tully and his ilk are nothing more than a pack of colossal dinks.
Shooting straight and honest, with no legend, no folklore, no sparkling haze of nostalgia obscuring the facts, here. The truth is, hobos are not gallant, or chivalrous, or noble, or funny, or anything approaching anything I want to emulate in any way. Hobos are not George Clooney with some dirt makeup and a mustache on. Hobos are lazy and violent and ignorant, are often addicted to drugs or alcohol, are deeply prejudiced (ignore what the folklorists and white-washing apologists like Roger Bruns would have you believe...read a real hobo's memoirs and pay attention, not to what he says but to what he does), and carry with them a sense of entitlement so huge it would barely fit in an empty cargo train, let alone a vacant boxcar.
I've been homeless, and I'm not talking about that. I'm talking folks that make it into a lifestyle, a career choice, and thinks the world owes them a living. Folks that take advantage of others as a whole put me off to a great degree.
No, on second thought I don't hate hobos. I hate the spark of evil that's inside every person, and is so easily fanned to create the stupid, the base, and the vulgar, in all walks of life, from a white collar worker making a nasty comment, on down to a cruel child. I want to see more love, more hope, and more kindness...I know it's out there, but it seems like mankind has some real obstacles to overcome before it can be in the majority. There are no quick fixes, but I want to see something put into action to make the world, and humanity better.
In other news, a year ago today is the anniversary of my last face to face everway game, my last real confrontation with someone in general over my appearance (at the laundromat), as well as the day I met my sweetheart.
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no subject
Date: 2001-09-25 03:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2001-09-25 03:46 pm (UTC)And... last... You tell 'em!! :)
Re:
Date: 2001-09-25 03:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2001-09-25 03:46 pm (UTC)I find nothing romantic at all, about people who live to leech off others. I am not speaking of just hobos here; but ALL forms of leech. Certainly the human existance is somewhat parasitic in nature - any communal living would be so; it's the nature of the beast of being a social organism - but there is a line to be drawn between those who honestly need and CAN'T give back, those who need and TRY to give back, and those who take and give very little, or nothing, back.
And by giving back I mean something of some value. Not empty thanks or praise, not something that isn't needed, not the sycophantish over-emotionalism of the human black-hole, not more trauma, and certainly not more of what will keep the "taker" in their position of taking.
I DO feel for some people who are in the position of begging for sustenance - whether that be food, drink, lodging, contact, whatever. I don't have much of anything but contempt for people who simply take. Yes, and that includes the times I feel self-loathing for indulging in the actions of taking. I often worry whether I am being appreciative or thankful enough. But that's another story.
I DO give money to people who ask me for it, and it doesn't matter who they are, or why they're asking. If it's some old man whose only comfort in life is the bottom of a bottle of booze, so be it. I won't deny him. If it's some woman whose got nothing better to do with her time but stand on a street corner and ask for change because she's too lazy to do otherwise, that's fine too. I don't question. I just give. I figure that there's always a reason (maybe it's not always good) for someone to beg. It's obviously embarassing for some of these people, and for those people I have real sympathy.
There are countless times in film and story, where otherwise objectionable pasttimes are made out to be romantic. Take, for example, the film "Pretty Woman". Sure, most of us realise it's simply a fairytale, and that there's nothing "wonderous" about the profession of being a hooker, but is that the point? No. The point is - plain and simple - that the life of a prostitute is nothing short of vile.
It's safe to say that enjoying the stories of a hobo's life is just dandy, but indulging in the impression that the "lifestyle" itself is somehow laudable, is not.
Re:
Date: 2001-09-25 03:53 pm (UTC)I have nothing against beggars, depending on the desire. If someone's hungry, feed 'em. I recently helped out some folks, and have been feeling skittish about it since, because I feel that they may've (though they may not have) used the money for drugs, or some other unheathy pursuit. I came to the conclusion, that I was reading too deeply, and just wrote it off as "someone asked for something in the name of help, and I gave"... if they're going to use what was provided for an unhealthy lifestyle, and it's not my fault. nor do I take pleasure in feeding them, it was a duty, not a joy.
no subject
Date: 2001-09-25 04:02 pm (UTC)It doesn't, you're right, matter what they used that money for. You did your part; and perhaps the action of you giving, will one day make an impression on them - perhaps they'll change their lives, perhaps they in turn will give to someone who asks.
That's the true pay-off. Not getting back what you give, but making the impression. Even if that impression is only within yourself, with the realisation that you have done a good turn somewhere.
Things like that are recursive. One day, someone will give something to you without question, and help you out of a bind.
Am I too idealistic? :>
Re:
Date: 2001-09-25 04:07 pm (UTC)It's a nice idea, but I've seen too many people be beautiful, an dnot catch a break, and too many uglies get away with being villians.
The big picture?... hard for me to see, being one of the typographic dots in it, at best.
no subject
Date: 2001-09-25 05:16 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2001-09-25 05:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2001-09-25 06:26 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2001-09-25 06:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2001-09-27 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2001-09-27 05:45 pm (UTC)It's not the way karma really works anyhow; but I was taking a very simplistic view for the sake of argument.
My mother likes to say "While there's life, there's hope." while I don't always agree, it's still sometimes the only thing to cling to, to keep oneself going.
Re:
Date: 2001-09-27 05:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2001-09-27 05:49 pm (UTC)I'm just not in my right mind today. :>
no subject
Date: 2001-09-25 04:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2001-09-25 04:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2001-09-25 07:44 pm (UTC)It's true.
Oh, and here's some love
: *
: )
Hope and kindess to follow at some later time.
Re:
Date: 2001-09-25 07:45 pm (UTC)thanks for the love! hee hee... you said f-ing too.
:)