Poverty Inc.: The Sack of Huntsville

JohnQuincy ^ | 06/19/2011 | WizKid

[wizkid]

In the Spring of 1968 at the Bing Nursery School in Palo Alto California, America came to an end. Within its walls, the elites learned just how cheaply our souls could be had: All it cost was a couple of minutes and one marshmallow per soul on average.

[wizkid]

"If you like you can listen (to the sirens) yourself, for you may get the men to bind you ... to, the mast itself, that you may have the pleasure of listening. If you beg and pray the men to unloose you, then they must bind you faster." - Homer, The Odyssey (circa 900bc)

"For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" -Matthew 16-26, King James Bible

[Wayne07]

[shibumi]

Two obscure semi-coherent sentences, followed by two non-sequiturs.

Do you really expect blog hits for that?

[rmh47]

"If you like you can listen (to the sirens) yourself, for you may get the men to bind you ... to, the mast itself, that you may have the pleasure of listening. If you beg and pray the men to unloose you, then they must bind you faster." - Homer, The Odyssey (circa 900bc)

Actually, modern scholars have determined that The Iliad and The Odyssey were not written by Homer, but rather by another ancient Greek who had the same name.

[higgmeister]

The Sack of Huntsville

which huntsville?

[shibumi]

And - more importantly - How big a sack?

Paper or Plastic?

[shibumi]

"Actually, modern scholars have determined that The Iliad and The Odyssey were not written by Homer, but rather by another ancient Greek who had the same name."

No, no, no.

They were not two poems, but rather one long Russian novel, later developed as a TV series in which Illya Nickovetch Kuryakin searches for the lost city of Odessa on the Black Sea not realizing that it had been moved to Texas.

[wizkid]

What logical fallacy are you referring to? My premise is that decentralizing poverty (dumping project dwellers into middle class suburbs) is resulting in disaster because these people lack the necessary life skill to succeed, self control. Is this wrong? If so, how?

Hope the below outlines helps as it is a complicated subject:

Outline:

Summary:

In 1968 researchers at Stanford University, stumbled upon the most accurate predictor of success/happiness in life, self control, while conducting the acclaimed Marshmallow experiment. Despite the wealth of evidence that supports this finding, the US government via the Department of Housing and Urban Development has embarked on a reckless scheme to relocate thousands of people from the projects (who lack this very skill, self control) to unsuspecting neighborhoods across the United States. Tragically rather than trying to impart any life skills, they seem to believe that dumping people, whom they have raised as dependents, into successful neighborhoods will magically transform them into productive members of society.

Topic Paragraph

This ties the Marshmallow experiment to gospel teachings. The Marshmallow Experiment dramatically demonstrated the link between development of self control and later success/happiness in life. It warns that self control, despite being the most important determinant of success, is often undervalued to tragic consequences.

Zion Train - Reference to the importance of Self Control in the popular music of Bob Marley.

The Wilderness Section - This contains several parts. It references historical teachings regarding self control and contrasts them with the current view of our elites that humans cannot exercise this trait.

The First Temptation - Biblical reference to the exercise of self control in the face of temptation from the Gospel of Matthew.

Lashed to the Mast - Historical reference to the exercise of self control in the face of temptation from the Homer's Odyssey.

Separating the Men From the Apes - Evolutionary reference to the fact that scientists believe that the most important characteristic that separates men from animals is our power of self control. Men from the Apes is an allusion to the famous book, the Third Chimpanzee.

Condoms for Kids - Contrasting the above long standing belief in the importance of exercising self control, with the current attitude of our elites that we are unable to exercise self control to the point where they feel the need to hand out condoms to first graders.

Experimenting with Marshmallows - Summary of what many people believe is the most important behavioral studies of the last 50 years, the Marshmallow experiment. The results of this study and follow up with its participants over time starkly demonstrated the importance of self control to success and happiness in life. A link is given to the best popular article on the subject in recent years in the New Yorker.

…Getting Knocked Up - This contrasts the conclusions of Marshmallow Experiment with efforts by the government to magically transform lives by dumping project dwellers into middle class suburbs without the necessary life skill for success, self control. The title mocks the advice given to a woman by housing officials that she should get pregnant to avoid getting evicted from her luxury apartment to make room for project dwellers.

Racial Star Chamber – References recent attempts by the government to stifle opposition to this decentralization of poverty into suburban neighborhoods via threats of lawsuits/investigations on racial discrimination grounds.

Fair Housing, A Stealth Right – References to attempts to make living in middle class luxury apartment a welfare entitlement.

Blowing the Lid – Contrasts the promises made for this effort to decentralize poverty with the actual results. It references and explosive article in the Atlantic Monthly that links this effort with a skyrocketing violent crime rate in many cities across America. This article also discusses how dumping project dwellers into marginal neighborhoods is tipping many of them into a spiral of poverty.

Howdy Neighbor – This is a joke. How can one write about the Huntsville Projects and not mention the Dodsons.

[wizkid]

Don't drink and blog?

Obviously, you have never perused 40ozMaltLiquor.com.

40 Ounce Crews

[wizkid]

Huntsville, Alabama

Huntsville is the latest victim in the ongoing scheme by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to "Decentralize Poverty."

In Huntsville, this policy resulted in the demolition of the Council Court Projects and the relocation of residents to luxury apartments on the south side of town.

If you like skyrocketing violent crime rates and tipping marginal neighborhoods into poverty, it works great.

[wizkid]

And - more importantly - How big a sack? Paper or Plastic?

Hope this helps:

sack 2 (sk) tr.v. sacked, sack·ing, sacks To rob of goods or valuables, especially after capture. n. 1. The looting or pillaging of a captured city or town. 2. Plunder; loot.

[ARepublicanForAllReasons]

I actually read a good part of your blog, and I get what you are saying, wizkid.

The working assumption of most Federal anti-poverty programs is "Prop 'em up with a stick and eventually they will learn to walk." And of course, sane people protest in vain that they will learn, not to walk, but to hang from a stick, mastering the art of dependency upon the gov't in the process.

I don't know about some of the late night commenters. They read a couple of lines and off they go with their flaming replies. It's always a good idea to completely understand what someone is trying to communicate before rushing into verbal combat.

[ApplegateRanch]

Neither! Only industrial grade gunny sacks are large & strong enough for the job.

[wizkid]

Thank you for your kind comments.

Freepers definitely do not tend to pull their punches but even the harsher ones have a point:

I cannot expect everyone to take the time to make some leaps on their own. Most people demand things to be spelled out in fine detail.

Based on the comments, I have gone through the entire post to better/explicitly tie everything together.

Your summary is spot on.

Unfortunately for our society, the Department of Housing an Urban Development has taken dependency to the next level by attempting to "distribute dependency/poverty" across entire cities with dire consequences for all of us:

Consequences from the Redistribution of Urban Poverty During the 1990's.

[alexander_busek]

Your post #8 makes it clear what your blog article is about. #8 makes it possible to decide whether it is worthwhile to actually go to your blog and read the rest.

In contrast, the two brief, disjointed, out-of-context sentences you posted at the beginning serve only to confuse and frustrate. Were they perhaps intended as a "come-on" (comparable to "Why Is this Man Smiling? Turn to Pg. 16 to Find Out!")? Were you trying to "lure" FReepers to your blog?

Regards,

[shibumi]

"Were they perhaps intended as a "come-on" (comparable to "Why Is this Man Smiling? Turn to Pg. 16 to Find Out!")? Were you trying to "lure" FReepers to your blog?"

By George - I think you've got it!

[grey_whiskers]

Actually, modern scholars have determined that The Iliad and The Odyssey were not written by Homer, but rather by another ancient Greek who had the same name.

Cheers!

[wizkid]

Your post #8 makes it clear what your blog article is about. #8 makes it possible to decide whether it is worthwhile to actually go to your blog and read the rest.

I am glad you liked the outline.

In contrast, the two brief, disjointed, out-of-context sentences you posted at the beginning serve only to confuse and frustrate. Were they perhaps intended as a "come-on" (comparable to "Why Is this Man Smiling? Turn to Pg. 16 to Find Out!")? Were you trying to "lure" FReepers to your blog?

Are you referring to the excerpt or my initial comment? In either case, they appear to have served their purpose admirably. What you call a "Come On" is actually a standard writing technique:

The first sentence of a research paper must lure your audience into reading further. The first sentence may be the thesis of the paper, or it may be a compelling statement to grab a reader's attention. Either way, the sentence needs to command attention from a reader and make them interested enough in the subject to want to continue reading.

How to Develop an Opening Sentence for a research Paper

Both the excerpt and quote were meant to be compelling because that is their main function. A secondary function, is to get the reader to start thinking about the topic at hand by leaving some loose ends (loose ends tend to sound disjointed). The excerpt and comments also appear to have accomplished that feat. Here is an informative snippet from a post on the forex scams website (how to avoid forex scams):


How To: Let the reader fill in the blanks

Forcing your readers to draw their own conclusions will illicit mixed results: you may find that it increases your conversions dramatically, or you may find the opposite. The difference between the two extremes comes down to your use of persuasive language and subtle actions.

Letting the reader fill in the blanks is not an easy task to accomplish. Your goal is to write content that is creative and compelling enough to get the reader thinking about it, yet vague and open-ended enough that your readers will be able to draw their own conclusions successfully.

In university level writing courses, this topic is also covered extensively:

Texas A&M University Writing Center, Teaching Paragraphs.

Sometimes a writer prefers to make a point more subtly, and forcing readers to draw their own conclusions.

My apologies if you feel cheated by my attempt to get people thinking and start a conversation about the nature of success. It is a topic that many people find fascinating so I thought Freepers would enjoy it.

If you feel cheated by my writing skills, it is not due to lack of effort on my part. As mentioned above attempting to let readers draw their own conclusions is not an easy task. There is also the fact that many people prefer being spoon fed information and get upset when they are forced to draw their own conclusions. Unfortunately, the outline that I supplied defeats the purpose any effort to let readers draw their own conclusions. Some people will get it like ARepublicanForAllReasons and other will not that is the difficulty a posting somewhere with such a diverse audience (diverse audience of conservatives).

If there is some scam involved, the only profit that I derive (My post has no advertisements and does not solicit donations) is a comment that further enlightens me on the topic at hand (in this case, the nature of success versus poverty).

[alexander_busek]

Forcing your readers to draw their own conclusions will illicit mixed results [...]

I think that that ought to read "elicit."

Dear wizkid:

I am quite willing to draw my own conclusions, thank you - once I have been presented with the plain, unadorned facts.

In the case of the article you posted, your very brief excerpt contained absolutely no "meat," nothing substantive, nothing on the basis of which any conclusion could possibly have been drawn.

So please don't claim that your readers here at Free Republic were being lazy because they were able to see only two very cryptic, virtually meaningless - but admittedly enticing - sentences, and thus had no choice but to either swallow the bait, or ignore your article.

We here at Free Republic expect by no means to be "spoon fed," as you insinuate. But we do demand intellectual honesty and straightforwardness. The excerpt you posted was totally inadequate as a basis for discussion. It was even inadequate to know what the heck you were talking about. It was adequate only as a "teaser." The word I've heard for posters like that is "blog pimp." An ugly word, I admit, but sometimes apt.

Regards,

[shibumi]

If your "post" (blog) has no ads and does not take donations, then there's no reason you can't post your entire work here - or are you afraid that you might sue yourself for infringement?

As for what you call a "literary device" we are not children that have to be cajoled or conned into deciding what we want to read. And we have our own name for your "device."

We call it pimping.

Maybe you missed it, but the owner of this site has already weighed in on this subject:

"I have no complaint if a good conservative blogger posts his own material to FR, not as an excerpt to drive hits and discussion back to his blog, but rather to impart useful information to OUR readers and to promote and join in on the discussion and conservative activism HERE on FR." - Jim Robinson