Are we losing our humanity?

[Luddly Neddite]

An anonymous resident of the residential complex told the Telegraph, that “there was a homeless man asleep there about six weeks ago. ‘Then about two weeks ago all of a sudden studs were put up outside. I presume it is to deter homeless people from sleeping there.”

However, London resident Nathan FitzPatrick tweeted after talking to locals outside the building that only one person could confirm homeless were sleeping there – and that was a woman and a child.

“It is a scandal that anyone should sleep on the streets in 21st century Britain. Yet over the last three years rough sleeping has risen steeply across the country and by a massive 75% in London. Behind these numbers are real people struggling with a lack of housing, cuts to benefits and cuts to homelessness services to help them rebuild their lives,” said Katharine Sacks-Jones, head of policy and campaigns at Crisis.

Local Londoners went to investigate and confirm the installation of spikes on Southwark Bridge Road. What is ironic is that part of the building where metal needles were installed is the office of the British School of Osteopathy – an alternative medicine school focused on healing through moving, stretching and massaging a person’s muscles and joints.

More at the link.

This is such a horrifying thing - that we humans could do this to each other. Instead of helping our fellow man, we want to make sure we don't have to look at him.

There are empty buildings every where but we can't use them because all we care about is money.

Gawd damn but that is just sad. Beyond sad.

 

[Politico]

First off they aren't needles. What a hack piece. And we live in a society where people gather around with iPhones to film you getting murdered. Do you really have to question their humanity?

 

[S.J.]

We lost it a while back. Well, a lot of you did.

 

[Noomi]

There is no link to the story.
But I have heard of this already - its sickening.

 

[PratchettFan]

We lost it a while back. Well, a lot of you did.

At what time did we have it to lose?

 

[Katzndogz]

I don't blame them for putting up spikes. They have to do something. It's private property, the building owns it. They can do what they want.

There really is no solution to housing the homeless. Many cities have tried and failed. We tried and failed in this country. San Francisco went above and beyond reasonable efforts to house the homeless. Everything failed.

 

[boedicca]

One can't help but wonder if Luddly invites homeless people to sleep on his sofa.

 

[whitehall]

There are hundreds of thousands of public and private shelters scattered around the Country. The problem is that the majority of "homeless" people refuse to abide by simple rules that exist in humanity. Some are genuinely crazy and should be institutionalized for their own health and protection and some are so addicted to substance abuse that it will eventually kill them. Throwing more federal dollars to poverty pimps to distribute for votes for democrats is a proven failure.

 

[jwoodie]

Are YOU losing YOUR humanity? Please leave me out of your WE.

 

[sameech]

This is such a horrifying thing - that we humans could do this to each other. Instead of helping our fellow man, we want to make sure we don't have to look at him.

There are empty buildings every where but we can't use them because all we care about is money.

Gawd damn but that is just sad. Beyond sad.

I think the homeless problem in the UK is different than it is in the US, and even within the US, it largely depends on where one lives. Generally, I would say that in the US substance abuse and/or mental illness are so prevalent in the homeless community that not wanting one squatting in your area is as much about self-protection as it is humanity.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

http://rt.com/news/164524-spikes-homeless-london-outrage/
http://rt.com/news/164952-anti-homeless-spikes-remove/

One can't help but wonder if Luddly invites homeless people to sleep on his sofa.

I don't have homeless sleeping on my sofa but we do currently have a single mother and her son living rent-free in a rental house we own. That's not much, I know, along with what we give to the homeless shelter, but its what we can afford.

I just don't believe the answer is in making their lives even harder.

 

[sameech]

http://rt.com/news/164524-spikes-homeless-london-outrage/
http://rt.com/news/164952-anti-homeless-spikes-remove/

One can't help but wonder if Luddly invites homeless people to sleep on his sofa.

I don't have homeless sleeping on my sofa but we do currently have a single mother and her son living rent-free in a rental house we own. That's not much, I know, along with what we give to the homeless shelter, but its what we can afford.

I just don't believe the answer is in making their lives even harder.

For them, it is actually quite a bit. Don't feel bad that you cannot do more when you are doing more than most.

 

[Bush92]

So people do not want drug addicts and nut cases sleeping on their doorstep. So whats the newsflash here? What do you expect people to do when they see a homeless guy lying on the sidewalk? Give him a hundred dollars and a hand job? Be real.

 

[MikeK]

First off they aren't needles.

That's true. But if you lie down on those spikes the effect after awhile will be that of needles.

What a hack piece. And we live in a society where people with gather around with iPhones to film you getting murdered. Do you really have to question their humanity?

Both situations reflect a social condition referred to by Dr. Erich Fromm in his 1940s classic, Escape From Freedom, as alienation.

Moving forward to the 1960s, Marshall McLuhan expanded on Fromm's work in his best-selling book, The Medium Is The Message, in which he predicts the eventual effect of television as desensitization of the psychological response mechanisms in human interaction.

And here we are in the 2000s, standing around, as you've said, filming other humans being murdered -- as casually as watching and hearing it happen, day after day, night after night, on television.

Or as Orwell calls it in, Nineteen Eighty Four, the telescreen.

What price, technology?

 

[MikeK]

So people do not want drug addicts and nut cases sleeping on their doorstep.

The critical point most seem to miss when contemplating this increasingly serious social problem is all of these examples of impoverishment are not drug addicts and "nut cases." Many of them are other humans who for one reason or other have fallen through the cracks in our defective social order.

So whats the newsflash here? What do you expect people to do when they see a homeless guy lying on the sidewalk? Give him a hundred dollars and a hand job? Be real.

There needs to be some effective, socially implemented means of providing for basic human needs in a civilized manner. To begin with the "War On Drugs" is not the way to deal with the problem of drug addiction. There are better, more effective, and less costly ways. And you should understand that those whom you refer to as "nut cases" are other humans whose brains are not functioning normally and who need help.

 

[Bush92]

So people do not want drug addicts and nut cases sleeping on their doorstep.

The critical point most seem to miss when contemplating this increasingly serious social problem is all of these examples of impoverishment are not drug addicts and "nut cases." Many of them are other humans who for one reason or other have fallen through the cracks in our defective social order.

So whats the newsflash here? What do you expect people to do when they see a homeless guy lying on the sidewalk? Give him a hundred dollars and a hand job? Be real.

There needs to be some effective, socially implemented means of providing for basic human needs in a civilized manner. To begin with the "War On Drugs" is not the way to deal with the problem of drug addiction. There are better, more effective, and less costly ways. And you should understand that those whom you refer to as "nut cases" are other humans whose brains are not functioning normally and who need help.

Then it begs the question: was it more humane for mentally ill to be "put to sleep" under Nazi German policy, or is it better to have them lie on the cold streets in puddles of their own excrement?

 

[Sallow]

Conservatives really don't have humanity. And they are proud of it. They regard themselves as without emotion. Sort of like reptiles or insects.

A perfect example is the old Scorpion on the Frog story. The scorpion of course..being the Conservative.

 

[sameech]

The critical point most seem to miss when contemplating this increasingly serious social problem is all of these examples of impoverishment are not drug addicts and "nut cases." Many of them are other humans who for one reason or other have fallen through the cracks in our defective social order.

Most of whom are substance abusers, mentally ill or handicapped based on the statistics I have seen (In the US at least)

There needs to be some effective, socially implemented means of providing for basic human needs in a civilized manner. To begin with the "War On Drugs" is not the way to deal with the problem of drug addiction. There are better, more effective, and less costly ways. And you should understand that those whom you refer to as "nut cases" are other humans whose brains are not functioning normally and who need help.

So you support institutionalizing them instead or just letting them run the streets with their abnormal brains?

 

[emilynghiem]

Part of losing our connection as one humanity
is pointing at other people more than we correct ourselves.

I credit drifter on here for helping identify biases I still have on some political issues
(like drug addiction, since I know spiritual healing can cure addiction and solve the problem altogether)

I tried to apologize to Luddly for coming across wrong,
but was told to go away.

So what kind of humanity and "equal rights" is that?
We all have limits on what we can change.

I try to address and correct faults I have, and
appreciate help from all of you to be more effective.

Sorry if I still come across as negative and unworkable with.

Luddly if you can understand the "change in perception of me" you don't agree to,
then you can understand why "other people won't change or seem so harsh on others."

We all have our limits. If I am beyond your limits, and you can accept this,
can you understand that other people have limits you don't agree with either?

We all do. Thanks for pointing this out!

An anonymous resident of the residential complex told the Telegraph, that “there was a homeless man asleep there about six weeks ago. ‘Then about two weeks ago all of a sudden studs were put up outside. I presume it is to deter homeless people from sleeping there.”

However, London resident Nathan FitzPatrick tweeted after talking to locals outside the building that only one person could confirm homeless were sleeping there – and that was a woman and a child.

“It is a scandal that anyone should sleep on the streets in 21st century Britain. Yet over the last three years rough sleeping has risen steeply across the country and by a massive 75% in London. Behind these numbers are real people struggling with a lack of housing, cuts to benefits and cuts to homelessness services to help them rebuild their lives,” said Katharine Sacks-Jones, head of policy and campaigns at Crisis.

Local Londoners went to investigate and confirm the installation of spikes on Southwark Bridge Road. What is ironic is that part of the building where metal needles were installed is the office of the British School of Osteopathy – an alternative medicine school focused on healing through moving, stretching and massaging a person’s muscles and joints.

More at the link.

This is such a horrifying thing - that we humans could do this to each other. Instead of helping our fellow man, we want to make sure we don't have to look at him.

There are empty buildings every where but we can't use them because all we care about is money.

Gawd damn but that is just sad. Beyond sad.

 

[emilynghiem]

Conservatives really don't have humanity. And they are proud of it. They regard themselves as without emotion. Sort of like reptiles or insects.

A perfect example is the old Scorpion on the Frog story. The scorpion of course..being the Conservative.

Sallow I am shocked.
Isn't this dehumanizing to make such a generalization about conservatives?
To say they are not acting humane as a group?
Isn't that a tactic in warfare, to dehumanize people as "the enemy"
to DISTANCE themselves from yourself so you can justify negative actions toward them?

Isn't THAT dehumanizing in itself?
[MENTION=25283]Sallow[/MENTION]! Please reconsider this approach!
Be the bigger person you want others to be, for humanity sake