Indiana politicians are punishing the poor

In response to a recent article in the Indy Star...

Let's hear it for Indiana's amazing legislature! What begins as an argument about "saving taxpayer money" turns into a way to force drug addicts into a treatment program (and to spend quite a bit on drug tests in the process). If you read the article (linked above) closely, you notice that welfare recipients can still get money either way, they just have to commit to treatment or cheat the drug test. And we all know that you can't force an addict into treatment and expect real results. So what is this really about? Who actually benefits?

If you don't believe in welfare for the poor, that's fine, as long as you realize you're a supreme asshole. Poor people and people on welfare are denied their human dignity every single day in a variety of ways. Treating them all like criminals will only continue cycles of poverty and shame. Meanwhile, there's "outrage" in some circles that the government would require background checks in order to purchase a gun, but let's not go down that tunnel to hell today.

When was the last time somebody forced you to pee in a cup so that your children could eat? When was the last time you worked two jobs to pay your rent but still couldn't afford to get by? I'm glad I've never been in those situations, but that doesn't mean I look down on those whose lives have been harder than mine. And I certainly don't blame them for problems with the state budget. In fact, poor people are rarely the ones guiding policies these days. That seems to be the territory of well-paid politicians who have never had to take a drug test to receive their taxpayer-funded salaries. Something wrong with this picture?

This isn't going to save anyone any money. It's just going to continue to ensure that non-Hoosiers think Indiana is dead set on living in the stone age (and maybe, sadly, we are). 

Ah yes, the urine of the poor. The answer to all of our problems!

Our "lawmakers" ought to be fired, and the people who voted for them ought to be ashamed. We can do so much better than this. I realize that this "debate" is happening in lots of other places around the country, alongside some other issues that make me embarrassed to be a human being (debating the definition of rape, arming teachers, cutting funding for public transportation). But the fact remains that everyone is capable of making good decisions, even Indiana. Sadly, a lot of people in our state just don't seem interested in anything but self-protection and blaming others.

I'm not proposing a welfare state. Nobody wants that. But helping people who need help - why wouldn't you want to do that? Why would you prefer to alienate and embarrass them?

I'm reminded of a story that Jesus told, about people being cast into "everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" - can you guess why? It wasn't because they were on drugs or because they accepted government assistance. It was because they refused to feed the hungry, dress the naked, or be kind to strangers. I recall something along the lines of, "Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of one of my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

I'm not much of a God guy at this point in my life, but I definitely think people who believe in God (and that seems to be most of Indiana, if I've got my facts straight) should want to help God's people, without judging them or questioning their situation and motivation. The things you have that make your life great could disappear at any time. Many of us realize capitalism tends to force people into the roles of "winners" and "losers," and most of us can accept that as one of the conditions of our great society (as long as we're "winning"). But what would be wrong with being glad to help the less fortunate instead of blaming them for our current financial situation?

Now Wait for Last Year

I was about 18 when Philip K Dick became one of my favorite authors, and my enthusiasm for his novels was fervent but rather short-lived. I bought a bunch of his paperbacks, whichever ones I could find. I read them quickly. I told my friends about them.

But as time went by, I got a little quieter about my love for this brilliant writer. The more his stories and novels got adapted into crappy wannabe blockbuster movies, the more I felt like Philip Dick would always be vastly misunderstood. So I stopped worshipping him, gave up on trying to find all of his novels, and moved on to other authors. About a year ago, I noticed that all his novels had undergone a reprinting with some tasteful, attractive new designs. I picked up a couple that I never found when I was younger, read one that I didn't like too much (The Simulacra) and quickly forgot about the other one.

Recently I was looking for a short, light read and I found the forgotten Dick book, which had the slightly clunky title Now Wait for Last Year. Turns out this is probably one of his best. Or I just really miss the feeling I got when I read my favorites of his, like Valis and Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said and the like, so I'm just imagining that this book is as good as those were when I was younger. In any case, I really enjoyed this one.

Now Wait for Last Year has everything you could want in a work of futuristic fiction: highly addictive drugs that make people time travel, layers of secrecy, robot cab drivers, interplanetary war, insect-like aliens, etc. But here's the catch: something about Dick's writing style makes the most far out sci fi shit seem totally normal. His grasp of human psychology and emotion is what really made his writing work. As I read this novel, I realized that this adherence to reality even in completely bizarre  situations is the reason Dick's novels register on a much deeper than most science fiction does for me. I'm usually not much of a sci fi fan when it comes to literature, but I also think Dick is way more than just a sci fi writer.

True to the gnostic themes in a lot of his later work, Philip K Dick seemed to use the sci fi genre as an illusion to disguise the depth that was really contained in his novels. He would have been a genius at any time in history, writing in any genre. His stories often deal with layers of reality and illusion. He embeds philosophical puzzles into his work while still anchoring the plots in real human emotion that makes the characters relatable. Even though he includes tons of futuristic elements like robots and aliens and stuff like that in his books, at their core the stories are still about human cruelty or kindness. They're about our ability to remain human even as technology and bureaucracy threaten to erase our identities. They're about what it means to be alive, and why the thoughts in our heads can actually matter.

Ok, so that's about enough of all that. The important thing to know is that I still like Philip K Dick. I still think his books are worth reading, and I think more people should give him a chance. Hollywood will always be great at ruining just about any book it gets its hands on, so we shouldn't be surprised if the Now Wait for Last Year movie sucks. And yes, apparently it's being made right at this moment, probably ready to swiftly flop and further tarnish the name of this widely underrated author.