Life at the Bottom

I recently read a fascinating, but sobering book called LIFE AT THE BOTTOM: The Worldview That Makes The Underclass by Theodore Dalrymple.

It’s the searing account of life in the underclass written by a British psychiatrist who treated the poor in a British slum hospital and prison. Mr. Dalrymple believes that poverty is not caused by economics, but by a dysfunctional set of values, and he proceeds to lay out the evidence to back it up. We’re not talking about a few dozen examples either. Over the course of his employment, the author interviewed some 10,000 people who have tried to commit suicide never mind the thousands of others he has counseled. So he knows what he’s talking about.

Of course, Great Britain is more socialistic than we are here in America, but we’re rapidly heading in that direction and it can only get worse under Obama’s policies, particularly his ‘spread the wealth’ mantra.

The underclass in Britain is not poor as poverty has been traditionally defined. These people have a place to live thanks to the government as well as food, TV, and cell phones. They’re not politically repressed. And yet their lives are dominated by violence, crime, and degradation.

The author shows how these patterns of behavior come not from being poor, not from race or genetics, and not from the welfare state (at least not directly). Their situation comes from ideas which have trickled down from the intelligentsia (i.e. bleeding heart liberals) who want to blame everything but the kitchen sink for this sad state of affairs rather than holding anyone responsible for their actions thus giving people a victim mentality.

Sound familiar? People have happily bought into the same victim mentality in this country. With no moral compass to guide them because of course, religion is a crutch, people can only continue in a downward spiral. With sex freed of any contractual or social obligations, you end up with women having multiple children by multiple partners and a 70% rate of illegitimate births (and rising). Abortion is rampant with one common method involving the incensed boyfriend/father kicking the woman in the stomach to cause a miscarriage.

Mr. Dalrymple tells of endless streams of women who come to him having been abused by the most recent father of her latest child only to watch her take up with another man just as abusive.

One such woman in that situation sought his advice on what to do.

When the author asked about the boyfriend in question, she explained that the guy had been living with one woman, but the woman left him when she found out he was seeing somebody else. Now there’s a prime candidate for a loving, long term relationship. The author then asked what the boyfriend was interested in. “Nothing, really” was her reply. He asked about her own interests and got a similar answer -- “I don’t really have any.”

The author then proceeded to warn her in no uncertain terms. He told her her new boyfriend would completely take over her life, would most assuredly become violent, and would use and abuse her for several years until he eventually left her. He also pointed out that when this occurred, she absolutely could not consider herself a victim because he was telling her right up front what to expect, as he imagined her friends and her parents would also do.

Her answer? “But I love him!”

No one feels to blame for anything. As one man explained to the author after he’d committed murder... ‘the knife just went in’. Never mind that his was the hand wielding the knife or the fact that he was the one carrying a weapon around in the first place. And yet the police hardly ever arrest anyone because, after all, the powers-that-be insist punishment isn’t the answer, but that psychiatric treatment is needed for these poor, oppressed masses.

The Bible had it right all along. As it says throughout the book of Judges and elsewhere... everyone did what was right in his own eyes. This attitude can only lead to social chaos and personal misery. The Bible also says the heart of man is incurably wicked. Being left to ourselves without guidance from God’s word is a sure recipe for disaster as this book shows in vivid detail.