Hungry People Don't Pretend—Wealthy People Do

After publishing a video about the recent case of around 1000 people, dressed as dogs, barking and howling at a train station in Berlin, I received the following comment:

“Why are the most advanced, richest and industrialised countries in the world (i.e. Germany)..........also at the same time, the most insane ......I come from one of the smallest and poorest countries in Europe....and I have never heard of such things happening there.”

It’s a fascinating phenomenon that the poster identifies and a proper answer seems multi-faceted. Firstly, the freedom to waste time with trying to switch genders and playing at being another species is a luxury. It’s not something that we could entertain if we were struggling to survive. It’s not even something that one could justify if his existence were more laborious, such as with more people working in farms and factories, instead of at, say, computers—in a sheltered and climate-controlled environment, with food delivered to your door on-demand. Jobs that require physical strength prevent the delusion of interchangeable sexes.

Nobody would have girls do the jobs that require strength while the boys do the knitting. Everybody loses in that scenario. It would extravagantly defy reason. An advanced society like ours separates us from these realities. Men and women are roughly the same when working in front of a computer screen or acting as cashiers.

There’s a common lament that, “some people think suffering brings out the best in people.” While it’s an over-simplification, there is undoubtedly some truth in it. The absence of woe can lead to ingratitude. It’s easier for a person who has struggled to find reasons to be grateful for the respite of those difficulties. It comes more naturally for him to appreciate receiving what he knows is not certain—and what he has been without.

So many of those who attempt to switch sexes or engage in degenerate and disruptive dress-up are college students receiving instruction and housing that is paid for by the parents that they have come to resent. Countless parents would do well to stop paying for their children’s tuition in these cases, both because the educational institutions are oft blameworthy, but also because the young adult needs to taste reality. Experiencing reality means experiencing hardship, including the recognition that one’s food, shelter, and goods must come from somewhere.

In highly developed nations with extensive social safety nets, this dynamic is also in play, simply on a larger scale. For most people, there is no fear of going without the essentials, only going with less. Ironically, this is actually one of the goals of building a civilization—that citizens could be free to pursue matters beyond just basic survival. Yet, its accomplishment allows the rise of people who then seek its destruction, failing to comprehend that in succeeding, they would kill the host of their parasitism.

It is also true that hardship causes interdependence, which might be better called community. People bind together in tragedy in ways that they normally don’t. Some of this can be witnessed after weather catastrophes, when people help one another and rely on each other in a way that was hitherto alien to them. Most people in Western nations, especially America, have never known true community. Yet, throughout antiquity and in poorer nations today, these community relationships guide people on standards of acceptability, and shame those who act immorally.

Hardship and suffering drive people toward the transcendent, and thus to see beyond their own self-centeredness. They make us aware of our weaknesses and limitations. It is oft said that there are “no atheists in foxholes”. The recognition of God during times of struggle gives meaning to our difficulties and reminds us of the potential for good—indeed of goodness itself. It calls us to a higher standard of behavior.

Few want to consider that a society that brings too much comfort risks breeding ungrateful and ungodly people, yet we must. The proclamation that we should “be grateful for our sufferings” can be hard to hear, but this is one facet of that edict. If our hardships make us aware of our gifts, our blessings, our family, our community, and our God, then they might be easier to bear.