As I wrote in my journal and explained earlier in class, I define poverty as suffering. And suffering is relative. It is relative to the person who is experiencing it. It is relative to the perception of the person, and if the person does not perceive that he is impoverished, then he really isn't. One may be in circumstances that would make one suffer, but that another would enjoy. And while reading All Souls, I could see that Michael Patrick MacDonald and his family really did enjoy themselves.
And while suffering is only suffering if the person thinks it is, then it's a choice. If one chooses to think that they are poor, they will be poor. If one thinks that they are in the best place in the world, having the best time of their life, then at that moment they really are. And those are the workings of reality.
In 'When We Were Kings' Muhammad Ali goes out the countryside of Zaire the morning after his championship fight with George Foreman and makes some very honest statements about poverty in America.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kKBJsWXFoc (clip at 1:10:00)
I think he agrees with you. It is a matter of someone suffering due to the status they have in society. Can one retain dignity, knowledge and pride when economically downtrodden? Yes.