Theos-Talk Archives (May 1999ar Message tt00056)

>>On the other hand it is also our duty (Karma) to help our fellow
'man', and this seems to me to be the essence of what Louis is
suggesting.  Thus those of us who live in those parts of the world where
wealth and resources of food are overly concentrated have a duty to help
those who are poor and destitute.  It is not for us to decide that their
Karma is such that they should be allowed to suffer or die.>>

Peter, I certainly agree that we should help others. If we see
someone starving, and we have plenty of food, then we should
give away some of that food (basic Compassion 101).

But Louis did not say that we should help others. He said
that we should feed the starving and redistribute the wealth
(which was distributed karmically in the first place).  This
is an example of how to help people the wrong way.

Anyway, giving food to starving people has been done
many many times by many organizations. Scientists have
done studies that clearly show that recipients of such
food simply have more children, so that when the food
stops, there is another famine all over again.  The answer
to this problem, according to basic Ecology 101, is to
teach underfed people to feed themselves by learning
argriculture and farming techniques. Redistributing food
is a short-term solution that does not work in any long-term
scenario simply because there will always be some point
at which no one has enough food and then everyone
will starve. I am not speaking theosophically here, but
in a pragmatic and scientific sense. This goes to what
I have been trying to say here for a long time and that
everyone ignores--that sometimes the obvious "help"
is not the right help at all. Teaching farming techniques
in famine areas is now recognized as the best thing
to do not because of spiritual insight, but from screwing
over a lot of innocent people for many years and
learning the hard way.  Wouldn't it be better to gain
spiritual insight first and then know how to provide 
the proper help to people?

Jerry S.

                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
         

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