MetabolicTrash
Member
I have always wondered if being homeless is really supposedly the "zero world" -- the rock bottom -- the sign that you've "lost the game of life." There are obviously cons of it like anything but has anyone really poked the proverbial bear of experience? Sure, it sounds bad which makes finding pros for it seem possibly backwards at first, but let's be open/considerate here regarding what it really means in deeper discussion.
Like many speculations there are bound to be some wrong assumptions or accusations, stereotypes, etc. associated with things that -- when experienced -- may not always ring the same way. Given that you don't ideally want a solidified, domineering, rank-based system that's ruthless and cutthroat to no end, where the few must always "win because of hard work" and the majority fall short "because life," how would one figure the extent to which homelessness is considered bad?
Off the top of my head I will point out (ironically) some good things you can envision about being homeless:
1. No obligations. You know those stressful jobs you have to hold five days a week to survive? Not live, but survive. Now let's erase those away and reduce our obligations of having such to zero. Are we already off to a good start? You don't wake up on the clock to start working -- in fact you can really wake up/get up when you want to, which gives you freedom. Funny how the first thing you can associate with being on the "lowest rung" of the social ladder is more freedom and less strains, obligations, worries or just BS one might be expected of that doesn't align with any natural ebb, flow or etc. Now there is of course the bad side of having no obligations, duties and being "out of the cog" in a sense -- you have no stable ideal of home, financial or "economic pursuance power," security or so on -- but maybe those things out of grasp can be dealt with over time in a healthy way for some. Nevertheless the option of revamping your life and being free of any chains can be enough for some to then create an eventual, possibly spiral in to things better for themselves, but no guarantees I don't think.
2. The ability to truly understand one's self (possibly). This one is quite similar to the first one, but viewed from a slightly turned perspective: your personal/innate/oneness aspect. How "true" to yourself are you? I'll be honest and tell you guys that in some ways this is encouraging -- breaking free from any sense of imprisonment in one's environment, living style, social connections and so on. Sure, going and living in the street is probably not the most promising or endearing way of breaking free and becoming true to one's self/etc., but sometimes it's an option better than no other that's evident. When you reduce yourself to only yourself it begs the idea of the health questioning survival tactics, but also shines some light on deeper self-reflection. Who are you? What are you? What do you do? What do you want? Without the cloudiness or mental baggage of maintaining a "standing" or image in a fixed, routinized, mechanical form of life that many must succumb to, aren't you given more time to truly be yourself? You've rid all obligations of "who you should be" or "need to be" so perhaps you'll learn what it means to truly be yourself, no? I mean of course for those who may never have gotten that crisp image or "oneness" aspect pat down. Many people just go through the motions, often at times judging those "freaks" who bend the rules -- the pinnacle of sorts in avoiding a deranged, detached society. While it's not some "cure" and doesn't necessarily do much "good" one can argue for everyone you can find benefits along the way by living with less restricted terms, obligations or "enshadowing" of what it means to just be yourself in your immediate setting -- like being in the "game of life" but observing it and participating at whim in a sense if one chooses.
3. The foreshadowing of rank importance (or not). If you're on the "bottom" then what's worse, right? You can't go "lower than the lowest" -- that doesn't make much sense in general. So what do you have to fear? It may sound primal, but maybe it's not entirely a bad thing depending on the world as a whole. The reason being on the "bottom" sounds bad is because there's the fear, envy or dogma with those more "above" you -- but that's the polar opposite of those on the "top" frowning or looking down at those lower too. In other words when you reach this point you can't fear falling further -- which is possibly unlike those in higher positions that stress themselves to no end because they can't afford -- in their minds -- to "fall" farther down the ladder and end up in misery (yet funny enough they are probably in some misery to try and avoid misery -- kinda makes no sense there). I mean if you live like hell to avoid living like hell that's supposedly worse in your perspective/current understanding, then what's life? The lesser of hell/suffering? You work hard to not suffer more, but suffer anyways? How much would one suffer if they didn't have to do so many stressful things so often, along with having a different perspective, even if it costs your ability to have a steady roof over your head? Is that steady roof over your head worth it so badly that you'll make yourself suffer just to avoid living without one for a while, even if that may not be your whole life story? Plus sometimes a lot of suffering may be needed -- it's in fact unavoidable for some anyways so make with that what you will. The bottom line, I think, is that people fear falling down so they do everything they can and stress themselves out over falling sometimes -- but they could be putting themselves under more misery than a person already on the so-called "bottom of the ladder" may feel.
4. A true understanding of place in the world, mostly as a byproduct of experience. It's known by many -- you can't really know something until you've experienced it. Many people are afraid of experiencing "bad things" because, well, they're supposed to be "bad" -- something to be avoided. The problem? Many times people grow to be afraid of experiencing almost anything beyond their immediate lifestyle, regimens, and instilled comfort zone. Isn't a little exploration a part of life? Adventure? Seeking out new things? People acclimatized to a robotic lifestyle and set of rules may fear those "left-field" things and avoid them, reducing their life to a slow crawl of repetitions and eventual decay since there is no attempt made to remedy it by most. The thing is when you are homeless it's likely you were not homeless once -- so a homeless person could, in a sense, have seen more adventure, spontaneity, and freedom in a sense than some people in tight, stress-driven, obligation-ensued predicaments they become engraved within in life (i.e. upbringing factors, schooling/socializing/education, job/work duties, family/raising kids (if applicable), etc.). Those who have "fallen" have been above -- so they've seen the different "ways of life" -- those stuck in a rat race, you could say, often do not see much different than what they first begin with (professionally for example). I think experiences can be the greatest "gifts" of existence for as long as it can be managed -- but people writing off everything out of their sense of order as dangerous or "wrong" might be worse than a few steps up/down and appreciating the ride, for better or worse, than dedicating everything in your power to avoiding any missteps that might result in you feeling as if you are falling down farther/having too much to lose.
Like many speculations there are bound to be some wrong assumptions or accusations, stereotypes, etc. associated with things that -- when experienced -- may not always ring the same way. Given that you don't ideally want a solidified, domineering, rank-based system that's ruthless and cutthroat to no end, where the few must always "win because of hard work" and the majority fall short "because life," how would one figure the extent to which homelessness is considered bad?
Off the top of my head I will point out (ironically) some good things you can envision about being homeless:
1. No obligations. You know those stressful jobs you have to hold five days a week to survive? Not live, but survive. Now let's erase those away and reduce our obligations of having such to zero. Are we already off to a good start? You don't wake up on the clock to start working -- in fact you can really wake up/get up when you want to, which gives you freedom. Funny how the first thing you can associate with being on the "lowest rung" of the social ladder is more freedom and less strains, obligations, worries or just BS one might be expected of that doesn't align with any natural ebb, flow or etc. Now there is of course the bad side of having no obligations, duties and being "out of the cog" in a sense -- you have no stable ideal of home, financial or "economic pursuance power," security or so on -- but maybe those things out of grasp can be dealt with over time in a healthy way for some. Nevertheless the option of revamping your life and being free of any chains can be enough for some to then create an eventual, possibly spiral in to things better for themselves, but no guarantees I don't think.
2. The ability to truly understand one's self (possibly). This one is quite similar to the first one, but viewed from a slightly turned perspective: your personal/innate/oneness aspect. How "true" to yourself are you? I'll be honest and tell you guys that in some ways this is encouraging -- breaking free from any sense of imprisonment in one's environment, living style, social connections and so on. Sure, going and living in the street is probably not the most promising or endearing way of breaking free and becoming true to one's self/etc., but sometimes it's an option better than no other that's evident. When you reduce yourself to only yourself it begs the idea of the health questioning survival tactics, but also shines some light on deeper self-reflection. Who are you? What are you? What do you do? What do you want? Without the cloudiness or mental baggage of maintaining a "standing" or image in a fixed, routinized, mechanical form of life that many must succumb to, aren't you given more time to truly be yourself? You've rid all obligations of "who you should be" or "need to be" so perhaps you'll learn what it means to truly be yourself, no? I mean of course for those who may never have gotten that crisp image or "oneness" aspect pat down. Many people just go through the motions, often at times judging those "freaks" who bend the rules -- the pinnacle of sorts in avoiding a deranged, detached society. While it's not some "cure" and doesn't necessarily do much "good" one can argue for everyone you can find benefits along the way by living with less restricted terms, obligations or "enshadowing" of what it means to just be yourself in your immediate setting -- like being in the "game of life" but observing it and participating at whim in a sense if one chooses.
3. The foreshadowing of rank importance (or not). If you're on the "bottom" then what's worse, right? You can't go "lower than the lowest" -- that doesn't make much sense in general. So what do you have to fear? It may sound primal, but maybe it's not entirely a bad thing depending on the world as a whole. The reason being on the "bottom" sounds bad is because there's the fear, envy or dogma with those more "above" you -- but that's the polar opposite of those on the "top" frowning or looking down at those lower too. In other words when you reach this point you can't fear falling further -- which is possibly unlike those in higher positions that stress themselves to no end because they can't afford -- in their minds -- to "fall" farther down the ladder and end up in misery (yet funny enough they are probably in some misery to try and avoid misery -- kinda makes no sense there). I mean if you live like hell to avoid living like hell that's supposedly worse in your perspective/current understanding, then what's life? The lesser of hell/suffering? You work hard to not suffer more, but suffer anyways? How much would one suffer if they didn't have to do so many stressful things so often, along with having a different perspective, even if it costs your ability to have a steady roof over your head? Is that steady roof over your head worth it so badly that you'll make yourself suffer just to avoid living without one for a while, even if that may not be your whole life story? Plus sometimes a lot of suffering may be needed -- it's in fact unavoidable for some anyways so make with that what you will. The bottom line, I think, is that people fear falling down so they do everything they can and stress themselves out over falling sometimes -- but they could be putting themselves under more misery than a person already on the so-called "bottom of the ladder" may feel.
4. A true understanding of place in the world, mostly as a byproduct of experience. It's known by many -- you can't really know something until you've experienced it. Many people are afraid of experiencing "bad things" because, well, they're supposed to be "bad" -- something to be avoided. The problem? Many times people grow to be afraid of experiencing almost anything beyond their immediate lifestyle, regimens, and instilled comfort zone. Isn't a little exploration a part of life? Adventure? Seeking out new things? People acclimatized to a robotic lifestyle and set of rules may fear those "left-field" things and avoid them, reducing their life to a slow crawl of repetitions and eventual decay since there is no attempt made to remedy it by most. The thing is when you are homeless it's likely you were not homeless once -- so a homeless person could, in a sense, have seen more adventure, spontaneity, and freedom in a sense than some people in tight, stress-driven, obligation-ensued predicaments they become engraved within in life (i.e. upbringing factors, schooling/socializing/education, job/work duties, family/raising kids (if applicable), etc.). Those who have "fallen" have been above -- so they've seen the different "ways of life" -- those stuck in a rat race, you could say, often do not see much different than what they first begin with (professionally for example). I think experiences can be the greatest "gifts" of existence for as long as it can be managed -- but people writing off everything out of their sense of order as dangerous or "wrong" might be worse than a few steps up/down and appreciating the ride, for better or worse, than dedicating everything in your power to avoiding any missteps that might result in you feeling as if you are falling down farther/having too much to lose.
