Morality

November 26, 2023

I have had major writer's block over these past few months. Originally I attributed it to feeling overwhelmed with the number of newsletters out there at the moment, and wondering whether my voice is really necessary amongst so many wonderful new additions to our inboxes, and then after that it was followed by deep sadness - a sadness that I suspect most of the rest of the world is feeling right now too. The air feels thick with anger, so many of us are feeling heartbroken and freshly disappointed in the world and its doings, and I know I am not the only person in pain right now. I’m really genuinely sending love to everyone who is also having a hard time.

Through my friend Charlotte Palermino I have lately been watching unfold the wellness world conversation on The Morality of Health. In a world where we have elevated access to health to the heights of a luxury product, I see this conversation often in food “choice”, and the issue that intersects both of these conversations, which is Poverty. We have made simple, healthful food all but inaccessible to the majority of the population, and then judged that majority harshly in its inability to avoid genetic, environmental or social disease… or even just general poor health.

The Cystic Fibrosis survivor and advocate Piper Beatty Welsh wrote something a few years ago that stuck with me in the way I think about our cultural unwillingness to support poor health. As a cystic fibrosis survivor, she did not acquire a virus or develop a novel disorder. She was born with cystic fibrosis genes. What she pointed out in this writing is that, culturally, when encountering illness, we have trained ourselves to find a way, at all costs, to place blame on the sick person. Whether it’s cigarettes or sexual preferences or love of unhealthy foods or unprocessed trauma, we will lithely acrobat ourselves to the conclusion that the sick person has brought illness upon themselves, or are somehow deserving of illness.

Piper posed that these mental acrobatics are inspired by self-preservation. If that person brought this upon themselves then it certainly cannot happen to me, because I did not do A, B or C. To place blame is to distance ourselves from the problem, to create a barrier around it that ensures that if we simply do not smoke cigarettes or drink too much or ever eat Flamin Hot Cheetos, we will remain safe.

But we know that’s not true. We do not have pathology for every disease, and we are not even entirely familiar with our environments, not really. If you live in an apartment, do you know where your neighbor’s ethernet comes from? Do you know what the farms neighboring the one you like to buy produce from spray on their crops? Do you actually know which vitamins you are deficient in, and why?

For most people, the answer to most questions like that is no, but we still desperately hold onto the illusion of control that comes along with finding ways to blame others for their misfortunes.

This weekend - a holiday weekend constructed so firmly around consumerism that each day has its own little spending nickname - always makes me think about the last day, Tuesday, dubbed “#GivingTuesday”. Now that you have spent absolutely all of your money on shit you most likely do not and never will need, have you considered giving a wee bit to those who can afford nothing? Many religions instruct that charity should come first - whether it be tzedakah, or sadaqah, or a tithe, the very clear instructions are that charity and giving is righteous and bring us closer to god.

Why have we culturally deprioritized giving? Because we have ascribed poor morality to poverty and need. In a culture where a human’s highest possible societal value is only attained through achieving wealth and fame, certainly it could only be a choice to inconvenience yourself with poverty by simply refusing to pull yourself up by your bootstraps - a universal elixir if there ever was one. Why would anyone choose such a life?

It is not a moral failing to lose your job, it is not a moral failing to fall behind on your bills, it is not a moral failing to struggle to feed yourself and/or your family with or without inflation. It is not a moral failing to have an unaffordable health emergency, it is not a moral failing to need more than you have the personal resources to provide at any given moment. It is not a moral failing to be poor, or to fail to stop being poor.

I think about this a lot, living in a city that was already crippled with financial disparity before the pandemic and has only become more so in the past four years. One of the major motivating factors behind my involvement with One Love Community Fridge is their absolute insistence that Respect and Dignity be centered in every conversation, activation, and program.

Humans have figured out a way to create a ruling class throughout human history, but one remarkable thing about the American ruling class is that they are largely nouveau riche. There are no centuries old dukedoms here, there are only Kardashians, Bezoses (Bezis?). Even the oldest money, the Astors, the Rockefellers, the Hearsts, are families that were not born into aristocracy but traded, built and worked their way to great wealth. America is the land of the come up. And I suspect everyone here knows that what comes up can always come down.

Piper’s theory was that if we distance ourselves from illness by reasoning and blame-placing, we seek to protect ourselves from becoming ill by creating a sense of control. We crave control more than we crave anything. I suspect the same is true for the way we look at poverty. If it’s no longer something that can happen to anyone, without good reason, and is no longer a condition that we can just bootstrap ourselves out of if we just work hard enough, it’s no longer under our control. And how scary is that?

A few organizations to donate to this Tuesday are below. By the way, most NPOs have fundraising goals tied to Tuesday, so while you may prefer to donate at other times during the year, your one-time impact may be felt further if you process your donation on Tuesday. And don’t forget - committing to a monthly donation allows NPOs to plan their budgets throughout the year. Tell a friend!

There are so many more orgs in NYC doing great work. Please feel free to leave any that you particularly love in the comments.

Here is a short list of some of the great newsletters I have been reading, some for a while, some brand new:

All Left Turns, by Charlotte Palermino

Passerby, by Clemence Poles and friends

Carefree Black Girl, by Zeba Blay

Is It Okay, by Bonnie Morrison

The Green Spoon, by Fanny Singer and Greta Caruso