“If we're all led to believe that poverty is just a matter of laziness or stupidity or whatever other justifications we can come up with, then we're not likely to be in a real position to do much about it when it comes to attacking the root cause of the problem. Instead of demanding a more equitable system for the distribution of social and economic goods, we blame the victim. This is insidious, because ideology is something we carry around with us in our heads; it forms the basis of our day-to-day understanding of the world.” IfsWorldBelieveRealMatterProblemFormSocialCausesUnderstandingPovertyEconomicPositionRootsBasesVictimBlameCome UpStupidityIdeologyGoodsLazinessJustificationDay To DayDistributionAttackingInsidiousEquitableRoot Cause Book:Making a Killing: The Political Economy of Animal Rights Source: Making a Killing: The Political Economy of Animal Rights
“I am convinced that imprisonment is a way of pretending to solve the problem of crime. It does nothing for the victims of crime, but perpetuates the idea of retribution, thus maintaining the endless cycle of violence in our culture. It is a cruel and useless substitute for the elimination of those conditions--poverty, unemployment, homelessness, desperation, racism, greed--which are at the root of most punished crime. The crimes of the rich and powerful go mostly unpunished.” WayDoeIdeasProblemCulturePowerfulPovertyRichViolenceConditionsCrimeRacismRootsVictimGreedSolveConvincedEndlessUselessCyclesSubstitutesPretendingUnemploymentDesperationMaintainingHomelessnessRetributionImprisonmentEliminationCycle Of Violence Author:Howard Zinn
“Poverty is a strange and elusive thing. ... I condemn poverty and I advocate it; poverty is simple and complex at once; it is a social phenomenon and a personal matter. Poverty is an elusive thing, and a paradoxical one. We need always to be thinking and writing about it, for if we are not among its victims its reality fades from us. We must talk about poverty because people insulated by their own comfort lose sight of it.” PeopleIfsThinkingNeedsWritingMatterRealitySocialLosesSimplePovertyStrangeComfortSightVictimComplexesPhenomenonFadesElusiveParadoxicalPersonal MatterSimple And Complex Author:Dorothy Day
“One-third of the world, it has been said, may be free- -but one-third is the victim of cruel repression--and the other one- third is rocked by the pangs of poverty, hunger and envy. More energy is released by the awakening of these new nations than by the fission of the atom itself.” WorldMayHas BeensSaidEnergyNationsPovertyPolicyThirdsVictimHungerEnvyAwakeningAtomsForeign PolicyRepressionFission Author:John F. Kennedy
“The Democrat Party makes as many people victims as possible because it freezes them right where they are. And that's usually in lower middle class or abject poverty. It makes them resentful.” PeoplePartyClassPovertyMiddleVictimDemocratMiddle ClassFreezeResentful Author:Rush Limbaugh
“The key phrase used by the synod, which I'll take up again, is 'integrate' in the life of the Church the wounded families, remarried families, etc. But of this one mustn't forget the children in the middle. They are the first victims, both in the wounds, and in the conditions of poverty, of work.” FirstsChildrenUsedChurchForgetPovertyMiddleConditionsKeysVictimWoundsPhrasesEtcWoundedIntegrating Author:Pope Francis