Rejecting Status – TWC Interactive

Resentment by Moralism

Zack Mason September 20, 2024

In our society we value kindness, and a person’s moral standing is often based on how socially aware they are. The problem that speaking to Brenda showed me is that sometimes we become dependent on other people for our moral value, and therefore, our self concept. The way our actions are perceived by others becomes more important than the actions themselves. In order to preserve our value and virtue, we objectify those around us. By being overly socially aware, polite for politeness’ sake, we use the people around us as ladder rungs towards moral superiority.

Homelessness: A Day in the Life of a Street Outreach Worker

Candace Pitvor September 1, 2019

Homelessness is an issue that continues to impact our community that affects so many people from diverse walks of life. And, it can happen to anyone at any given time. Not too many people choose to be homeless as it is scary, stressful, unsafe, unhealthy, unpleasant, nasty, and extremely exhausting. Homelessness can relate to people living life out on the streets, in abandoned buildings, parks or on park benches, couch surfing and in shelters. This paper brings into light my personal involvement in working with people who experience homelessness, mental health and addiction.

Institutional Inversion

Joe Mancini September 1, 2017

We were honoured to have David Cayley as the speaker at our first Fermented Thoughts evening this July. 50 people at the Fermented Thoughts event heard David describe the roots of Illich’s thinking. Earlier in the day David joined us for a roundtable discussion on Illich. This all led up to our second Summer Institute. David offered an outline of how Ivan Illich understood the evolution of institutionalization and how it then moves beyond limits, fostering dependency and reducing native capacity.

Developing a Wider Understanding of Homelessness Issues

Joe Bauman September 1, 2015

Homelessness is a problem. And it turns out that the physical, mental and social ills associated with it are not only felt by the individual sleeping outside, but also by the public in the form of taxation toward the over-use of certain public services. Hospitalizations and police involvement drop considerably when someone who was homeless finds an apartment. This is a win-win. People have housing and the system is saving money. With the help of academic research and political attention, ending homelessness is now not only a moral responsibility but a fiscal one, too.

Belonging – New Story Group

John Lord March 2, 2014

We all want to belong, to feel accepted and included. This universal human experience applies across all cultures and relates to our connections with family, friends, neighbourhoods, and workplaces. We know there are negative consequences when people do not belong, when they are excluded or isolated from community life.

The New Story Group of Waterloo Region is a grass roots group that is committed to belonging within the context of community and social inclusion. In the fall of 2013, the New Story Group sponsored two days of conversations about Building a Community of Belonging. This important community work is being supported by the K-W Community Foundation in collaboration with a number of community partners.

Respect, Acceptance, Dignity

Leslie Morgenson December 1, 2012

Allowing another person dignity should not be difficult. It should be second nature to us. After all it is what we too want most. So why is it difficult? Because we fail to understand that the concept of dignity is twofold. It is recognizing that a being has a right to respect and ethical treatment. But also this: it is accepting that a person has the right to choose their own actions. This is the one that challenges us to see beyond our own understanding. It requires us to step through the passageway into the realm of our imagination and suspend those old notions that have served us well. It is difficult because we love those old notions for their predictability and yet in a corner of our minds we know how invigorating risk can be.

Myths About Homelessness

Michael Brown March 1, 2012

“Why don’t the homeless take responsibility for finding themselves a job and for getting on with their lives? Why don’t those street people stop whining and pick up their boot straps? Aren’t social services enabling them to remain lazy and dependent on those services? I have gone through hard times and I made it through, so why don’t they?”

These types of questions sit deep among members of our community in the Waterloo Region, and at an emotional level, I sometimes must pause before I respond back. In that pause, I remember when I used to ask the same questions, based on my snap judgments and hazy assumptions.

Disability Studies – Fertilizer for Cultivating Local Democracy

Myroslava Tataryn March 1, 2008

Local democracy may be less about structured democracy and more about things that happen at the community level that connect people and cultivate sharing. Yet, even within this movement dedicated to inclusive community, people with disabilities are typically left out. What assumptions allow for the continued systemic marginalization of people excluded from generalized public considerations of “all people”? What ideas and principles of local democracy can help us to move away from this cycle of discrimination? How can Disability Studies deepen our understanding of concepts such as dependence, interdependence and reciprocity? And how can a social model of disability inform the development of democratic communities?

St. John’s Kitchen – A Slow Process

Leslie Morgenson March 1, 2005

I remember the day five years ago when I first came to the community of St. John’s Kitchen. It was a day I witnessed two fights, one in the kitchen and one outside in a parking lot near a high school. It wasn’t the fights themselves that stood out because surely tempers flare in every workplace, school and home, but what was surprising was how differently they were handled. The morning fight at the kitchen was handled by concerned people who gently pried the two combatants apart. There was worry in all of the faces I observed. Everyone seemed to understand that such outbreaks have implications for the entire community, chipping away at the stability one feels both personally and commonly.

Living on “the Fringe”

Leslie Morgenson March 1, 2003

Years ago I was speaking with a new Canadian. He made the comment that his country was not well represented by its citizens who had emigrated to Canada. He said it as a criticism meaning the best his country had to offer was still back home. But later I realized it was a compliment to those immigrants who were willing to stretch themselves beyond their comfort zone. Eric Hoffer, a social philosopher popular in the 1950’s would agree. Hoffer said that North America was essentially settled by those whom, in their homelands, would have been considered misfits, rebels, risk-takers; those “living on the fringe”. Those for whom life was stable and comfortable would have felt no reason to leave. For change, the world depends, in part, upon those who live on the fringe and as such, it is a high calling.

Tag: Rejecting Status