9 Mar 18

“It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is, than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.”

Carl Sagan

Beggars:

People openly begging, in public places, is yet another telltale sign of the progressive deterioration of our civilization!

When I was growing-up in the 1960s, public begging was something rarely seen in America. In fact, Americans took great pride in the fact that public begging was a unsavory activity, mostly confined to third-world countries, like Mexico.

Curiously, state-run lotteries used to fall into the same category. Americans were always too proud to stoop to such squalid, dishonorable ways of extracting money from citizens. Mexico had state-run lotteries, but you would never find them here!

Just a distant memory now, as amoral, money-groveling leftist politicians piously insist that the end always justifies the means!

Back to the modern phenomenon of public begging:

I tell students that public beggars are mostly dishonest, and some are extremely dangerous. Your best interests are thus served by avoidance, particularly when you go armed. When that fails, aggressive verbal disengagement and rapid separation generally represent your best tactic.

In fact, we practice all this in class during roll-playing exercises.

Yet, some insist that an expression of charity (giving beggars money, food, etc) is appropriate, particularly for those of us who profess adherence to established religious beliefs.

Not so!

Giving beggars money, motivated by your own guilt, helps neither them, nor you! It is extortion, pure and simple, plus it exposes you to significant personal risk.

Begging is neither an honorable, nor sustainable, lifestyle! Beggars need to be shown how to make an honest, upright living.

Giving them money just keeps them where they are!

Giving free money to beggars, out of personal guilt, is indicative of a pernicious neurosis! When people receive money which they know and understand they did not earn, and don’t deserve, it degrades both the giver, and the receiver!

No good comes from it!

When you need to give-away money to beggars in order to “feel good,” I suggest you get some competent physiological counseling!

In the interim, “Disengage and Separate!”

/John