The Fierce Urgency of Now

Gradualism burns the wooden tracks that carry us to progress. Languidly chugging up a manufactured hill of disparity, the gears of forward motion are greased with the souls and bodies of the sacrificial Now.

As more fall under the weight of future expectation, their suffering and loss are heralded divine. To suffer is to be like Jesus: the expectation of living as a saint, of striving for the perfection of loss and suffering for the good of the many has been placed upon the shoulders of those least deserving of sorrow, those who already bear the brunt of suffering and degradation.

An inconvenience of time or petty cash is all it takes to tip Poverty from scraping the bottom to being crushed under the barrel that holds those scraps of insecurity, crushed because so many dip into the barrel furiously, clamoring over one another and crowding, yet their ladles come up empty. Now is all there is; for those with no future to speak of, to drink excessively, to eat badly, or to buy impulsively is the only true pleasure they can afford.

The immediacy and ease of procuring the unhealthy–because affordable consumables in the US don't even considered food in other countries–further impedes the impoverished person’s ability to contribute to the economy. And their taxable income seems to be the only determiner of society’s estimation of their intrinsic value.

Those whose incomes and housing and healthcare are secured are allowed to simply be. Their human value isn’t determined by their immediate productivity; leisure is allowed. Leisure has been earned, whether by birth, luck, work, or a combination of the three.

Their value being established by the tax dollars they unwillingly contribute, they are free to overindulge without excessive consequence. Paid sick leave can be used for hangovers; gap coverage and car rental coverage can be used for irresponsible driving and endangerment of others; retirement funds and house equity can be used for overspending and financial irresponsibility. And all this is aboveboard, protected, acknowledged as appropriate citizenship. And nothing more is required; no accusations are made against their humanity.

The most precise weapon of oppression is abject poverty. Poverty looks different now than it did decades ago. Poverty has a flatscreen TV and a cell phone. Poverty has internet access, soap, and a used car. But, Poverty has little else. And everything, for Poverty, is the urgent now.