Is it simply lacking a shelter such as a covering over one’s head? If so, is someone standing or sleeping under a bridge or some other covering no longer homeless? I would think not but then again I am wondering what is homelessness? If it is having shelter on all sides, are those in a box or a tent no longer homeless? I still cannot see that, as being correct. Therefore, it is more than cover, is it not? Homelessness seems to be a deeper issue, state of living, or state of experience that must be involved outside of just the aspect of shelter.
Therefore, homelessness would seem to not simply mean you are sheltered, as one can be sheltered by squatting in an abandoned building and that mere shelter from the elements would not convince anyone that you are no longer homeless. Could we then say having a HOME is something that offers a place where you can feel a measure of safety, security, and comfort? As the shelter aspect seems inadequate, seen in how people who get temporary housing in a homeless shelter does not remove their status of homeless does it? Homeness, could then be said to involve maintaining regular, safe, secure, and adequate personal residence not only for one’s person but ones things. Then I wonder, do we know what this deeper issue hiding behind the loaded term homelessness really is? We must at some level as most people can hear the word homelessness and feel they know what it is, do they not?
Homelessness, it would seem attaches to a connotation of risk or crisis, simply help is needed ASAP. However, do most people think about its meaning or just use it as a convenient label that is provided for them to classify others who are not living the accepted norms of society? Are they seen on the boundaries of society or worse, not even seen as a part of society? Ask yourself, are homeless seen as part of society? If not, why? This makes me wonder is there something one must do, be, or have to keep or be added as a part of accepted society? If there is, how can we not ask who gets to decide and why?
Next, the question that should be asked is what justification is there for this acceptance into or part of society and is it a true ethical one or just an authority power driven one that has no ethical standing? Can we really look at fellow humans in need and say they are not equal and deserving of care? How do we act or should we act in natural disasters, when people are also in need, does an ethical standard to help only apply to “special persons” seen as not on the boundaries of society before the event in natural disasters or do we simply help all in need regardless of some status? If we can see an ethical motivation to help sometimes, why and how do we ethically justify this ethical society awareness to only be expressed occasionally? If such a persuasion is true, to me it is not a temporary thing but instead a deeper truth of ethical concerns in societal behavior. Therefore, again I am back to asking what is homelessness? I see the name homelessness itself, as one of the problems for it is a class segregation label of have and have not. Thus, I will stop calling the issue homelessness; I believe that my fellow humans in need are the materially abandoned.
My restating the term from homelessness to the materially abandoned, is to enhance the awareness of social responsibility and impress upon society the ethical motivation to assist in providing for our fellow humans in need, instead of just seeing it as the problem of the homeless persons self-responsibility for being materially abandoned in society. To me the materially abandoned can involve living on the street and in places not meant for human habitations such as cars and abandoned buildings, staying in emergency shelters, transitional housing. However, this can also involve insecure residence like living in motels or unsure living status like depending of temporary residence with family, friends, or other non-relatives.
The Human Right to Housing: In 1948, the U.S. led the world in shaping the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which provides, among other things, that “everyone has the right to an adequate standard of living…including the right to housing. However, the following year, the 1949 federal Housing Act stated a goal of a decent housing and suitable living, but never enshrined this as a right for every American. As stated by National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, this continuing travesty of humanity is “Simply Unacceptable”: Homelessness and poverty is not a crime and the Human Right to Housing must be acknowledged and acceded upon in the United States.
On Monday, May 11, 2015 the U.N. Human Rights Council reviewed America’s compliance with its human rights obligations, raising concerns about the criminalization of homelessness and poverty as well as the lack of adequate housing in America.
Members of the U.N. Human Rights Council recommended America amending laws on criminalization of homelessness that are not in conformity with human rights standards. There was a call for America to reduce poverty and ensuring access to adequate housing, this included a specific called for addressing discriminatory housing conditions, and numerous countries called for America’s ratification and implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, including the right to housing, and addressed police targeting and brutality against homeless, poor, and minority communities. A concern was addressed in regards to Housing First as the best way to prevent criminalization of homelessness and negative police interactions with homeless persons.
Over all this year’s U.N. Human Rights Council review showed the whole world sees the connection between the criminalization of poverty and the underlying conditions of lack of adequate housing, healthcare, and education in our communities, stated Senior Attorney at the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty. “As acknowledged in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we cannot make progress on civil rights without addressing economic rights as well.”
A U.N. Human Rights Council official stated America holds itself up as a leader on human rights, and must walk the walk as much as America talks the talks.
http://www.nlchp.org/Simply_Unacceptable
What Makes a Good Person Great?
Good people do good in their own lives and the lives of others. Great people do good by helping others do good in their lives and the lives of others.
I sometimes say “bum”, I am sorry if doing so offends others, I say it out of habit not trying to put the homeless down. If I do use bum, and I am referring to homeless, I am doing this not because I agree homeless deserve to be called a bum as a putdown, I say it in the colloquialism thinking that classists “think in.” I am trying to stop saying this and I reject the value of the world (I see I need to change my word use learned as a child. I heard others call homeless, bums. I thought the term was the same, not realizing until later that it is a value judgment against others, thus labeling them, with intended shame. I now more fully understand how we live in a mostly “classist-world” is my point, they see all homeless as good for nothing bums, as in for them “homeless by way of laziness”).
While hallucinogens are associated with shamanism, it is alcohol that is associated with paganism.
The Atheist-Humanist-Leftist Revolutionaries Shows in the prehistory series:
Show two: Pre-animism 300,000 years old and animism 100,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”
Show tree: Totemism 50,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”
Show four: Shamanism 30,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”
Show five: Paganism 12,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”
Show six: Emergence of hierarchy, sexism, slavery, and the new male god dominance: Paganism 7,000-5,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Capitalism) (World War 0) Elite and their slaves!
Prehistory: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” the division of labor, power, rights, and recourses: VIDEO
Pre-animism 300,000 years old and animism 100,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”: VIDEO
Totemism 50,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”: VIDEO
Shamanism 30,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”: VIDEO
Paganism 12,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Pre-Capitalism): VIDEO
Paganism 7,000-5,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Capitalism) (World War 0) Elite and their slaves: VIEDO
Paganism 5,000 years old: progressed organized religion and the state: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Kings and the Rise of the State): VIEDO
Paganism 4,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (First Moralistic gods, then the Origin time of Monotheism): VIEDO
I do not hate simply because I challenge and expose myths or lies any more than others being thought of as loving simply because of the protection and hiding from challenge their favored myths or lies.
The truth is best championed in the sunlight of challenge.
An archaeologist once said to me “Damien religion and culture are very different”
My response, So are you saying that was always that way, such as would you say Native Americans’ cultures are separate from their religions? And do you think it always was the way you believe?
I had said that religion was a cultural product. That is still how I see it and there are other archaeologists that think close to me as well. Gods too are the myths of cultures that did not understand science or the world around them, seeing magic/supernatural everywhere.
I personally think there is a goddess and not enough evidence to support a male god at Çatalhöyük but if there was both a male and female god and goddess then I know the kind of gods they were like Proto-Indo-European mythology.
This series idea was addressed in, Anarchist Teaching as Free Public Education or Free Education in the Public: VIDEO
Our 12 video series: Organized Oppression: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of power (9,000-4,000 years ago), is adapted from: The Complete and Concise History of the Sumerians and Early Bronze Age Mesopotamia (7000-2000 BC): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szFjxmY7jQA by “History with Cy“
Show #1: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Samarra, Halaf, Ubaid)
Show #2: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power
Show #3: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Uruk and the First Cities)
Show #4: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (First Kings)
Show #5: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Early Dynastic Period)
Show #6: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power
Show #7: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Sargon and Akkadian Rule)
Show #9: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Gudea of Lagash and Utu-hegal)
Show #12: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Aftermath and Legacy of Sumer)
The “Atheist-Humanist-Leftist Revolutionaries”
Cory Johnston ☭ Ⓐ Atheist Leftist @Skepticallefty & I (Damien Marie AtHope) @AthopeMarie (my YouTube & related blog) are working jointly in atheist, antitheist, antireligionist, antifascist, anarchist, socialist, and humanist endeavors in our videos together, generally, every other Saturday.
Why Does Power Bring Responsibility?
Think, how often is it the powerless that start wars, oppress others, or commit genocide? So, I guess the question is to us all, to ask, how can power not carry responsibility in a humanity concept? I know I see the deep ethical responsibility that if there is power their must be a humanistic responsibility of ethical and empathic stewardship of that power. Will I be brave enough to be kind? Will I possess enough courage to be compassionate? Will my valor reach its height of empathy? I as everyone, earns our justified respect by our actions, that are good, ethical, just, protecting, and kind. Do I have enough self-respect to put my love for humanity’s flushing, over being brought down by some of its bad actors? May we all be the ones doing good actions in the world, to help human flourishing.
I create the world I want to live in, striving for flourishing. Which is not a place but a positive potential involvement and promotion; a life of humanist goal precision. To master oneself, also means mastering positive prosocial behaviors needed for human flourishing. I may have lost a god myth as an atheist, but I am happy to tell you, my friend, it is exactly because of that, leaving the mental terrorizer, god belief, that I truly regained my connected ethical as well as kind humanity.
Cory and I will talk about prehistory and theism, addressing the relevance to atheism, anarchism, and socialism.
At the same time as the rise of the male god, 7,000 years ago, there was also the very time there was the rise of violence, war, and clans to kingdoms, then empires, then states. It is all connected back to 7,000 years ago, and it moved across the world.
Cory Johnston: https://damienmarieathope.com/2021/04/cory-johnston-mind-of-a-skeptical-leftist/?v=32aec8db952d
The Mind of a Skeptical Leftist (YouTube)
Cory Johnston: Mind of a Skeptical Leftist @Skepticallefty
The Mind of a Skeptical Leftist By Cory Johnston: “Promoting critical thinking, social justice, and left-wing politics by covering current events and talking to a variety of people. Cory Johnston has been thoughtfully talking to people and attempting to promote critical thinking, social justice, and left-wing politics.” http://anchor.fm/skepticalleft
Cory needs our support. We rise by helping each other.
Cory Johnston ☭ Ⓐ @Skepticallefty Evidence-based atheist leftist (he/him) Producer, host, and co-host of 4 podcasts @skeptarchy @skpoliticspod and @AthopeMarie
Damien Marie AtHope (“At Hope”) Axiological Atheist, Anti-theist, Anti-religionist, Secular Humanist. Rationalist, Writer, Artist, Poet, Philosopher, Advocate, Activist, Psychology, and Armchair Archaeology/Anthropology/Historian.
Damien is interested in: Freedom, Liberty, Justice, Equality, Ethics, Humanism, Science, Atheism, Antiteism, Antireligionism, Ignosticism, Left-Libertarianism, Anarchism, Socialism, Mutualism, Axiology, Metaphysics, LGBTQI, Philosophy, Advocacy, Activism, Mental Health, Psychology, Archaeology, Social Work, Sexual Rights, Marriage Rights, Woman’s Rights, Gender Rights, Child Rights, Secular Rights, Race Equality, Ageism/Disability Equality, Etc. And a far-leftist, “Anarcho-Humanist.”
I am not a good fit in the atheist movement that is mostly pro-capitalist, I am anti-capitalist. Mostly pro-skeptic, I am a rationalist not valuing skepticism. Mostly pro-agnostic, I am anti-agnostic. Mostly limited to anti-Abrahamic religions, I am an anti-religionist.
To me, the “male god” seems to have either emerged or become prominent around 7,000 years ago, whereas the now favored monotheism “male god” is more like 4,000 years ago or so. To me, the “female goddess” seems to have either emerged or become prominent around 11,000-10,000 years ago or so, losing the majority of its once prominence around 2,000 years ago due largely to the now favored monotheism “male god” that grow in prominence after 4,000 years ago or so.
My Thought on the Evolution of Gods?
Animal protector deities from old totems/spirit animal beliefs come first to me, 13,000/12,000 years ago, then women as deities 11,000/10,000 years ago, then male gods around 7,000/8,000 years ago. Moralistic gods around 5,000/4,000 years ago, and monotheistic gods around 4,000/3,000 years ago.
To me, animal gods were likely first related to totemism animals around 13,000 to 12,000 years ago or older. Female as goddesses was next to me, 11,000 to 10,000 years ago or so with the emergence of agriculture. Then male gods come about 8,000 to 7,000 years ago with clan wars. Many monotheism-themed religions started in henotheism, emerging out of polytheism/paganism.
Damien Marie AtHope (Said as “At” “Hope”)/(Autodidact Polymath but not good at math):
Axiological Atheist, Anti-theist, Anti-religionist, Secular Humanist, Rationalist, Writer, Artist, Jeweler, Poet, “autodidact” Philosopher, schooled in Psychology, and “autodidact” Armchair Archaeology/Anthropology/Pre-Historian (Knowledgeable in the range of: 1 million to 5,000/4,000 years ago). I am an anarchist socialist politically. Reasons for or Types of Atheism
My Website, My Blog, & Short-writing or Quotes, My YouTube, Twitter: @AthopeMarie, and My Email: damien.marie.athope@gmail.com