Thoughts on World Hunger: Do We Have an Obligation to the Poor?

Should we feed the hungry and offer relief to the poor? Individuals will often offer an in depth and diverse analysis of this question, proposing there is no simple answer. I suggest however, the question is not a difficult one. Rather, to answer, requires only one “simple” action, self-evaluation. What if I were the one in need? What if I were the one hungry? What would I hope for or expect from my community if I were to find myself in this situation? I find it hard to imagine that any person in such a situation would not wish to receive help from his neighbor. Some individuals, of course, have a level of pride which prevents them from seeking help, but once all options for self remedy have been exhausted, I expect that they too would reach out for aid.

In many cases, those individuals attempting to interface with this societal problem begin to dissect the causes of the poverty or hunger, proclaiming that these are important factors to determine whether a person is worthy of assistance. Does the condition of being in need not supersede the “why” and the “how”? Doesn’t the mere fact that one is human offer enough incentive for intervention? Apparently not. Seemingly, individuals feel little to no responsibility to act on behalf of others, who have no access to the resources needed to meet even the most basic survival requirements. That is food and shelter. The idea is somehow entertained (and in some cases may be valid) that people are poor due to their own shortcomings, but in the majority of instances of poverty, I would suggest this claim is a false one.

Commonly, the thought does not seem to prevail that people could be suffering poverty due to a direct limitation imposed on the person by their own or another society. The idea does abound, though, that the poor should be able to save themselves. Often, the poor are blamed for their position and expected to fix themselves, regardless of the true cause of their impoverishment. People often forget to “walk a mile” in the other man’s shoes. It is my opinion that in doing so, the ability to deny assistance to a person in need would be greatly diminished. This type of evaluation places the problem in a shared arena. We become like those who are suffering (if only mentally), and in turn, we accept that their suffering could just as easily be our own.

When suffering is or could be our own, it becomes increasingly difficult to delay solutions to the problem, whatever it may be (poverty in this case). As long as the affliction is separate from us and does not directly impact our lives, we are less likely to be motivated to action. We forget, what is happening to others could soon be happening to us. We live in the safe bubble of our affluence, and we judge with impunity. This, in my opinion, is the root cause of lack of action. If we are to fulfill our obligation to others, be it the poor or anyone, we must first realize our commonality, and from our commonality, we will realize our obligation. Once obligation is realized, there can be no further reasonable procrastination of action.

Clarification on all of this Kant mumbojumbo....

Forward from Facebook with slight revision:

I am trying to work out a categorical conception of God that I can compare to Kant's Categories of Pure Understanding. Like his non-empirical self that exists to make understanding all all experience possible, I think God is a non-empirical preexisting matrix of categorical ideas that make all existence possible (I don't know if Kant or anyone else has commentary on this subject. Perhaps,these would be most akin to Plato's Forms?). I would argue that we can only access these categories intellectually, not physically. The categories would include concepts like infinity or perfection. By comprehending these categories we come to see their necessity in the construct of reality. I really believe if we are looking for God, this is where we should start, not with just our senses. Not just with a scientific experiment. I do think these concepts are in us universally, just like the self is, except the God Categories are not as easy for some of us to recognize. (I have been thinking on this ALL night!)