Hospitality

Hospitality is not something you do “to” people or even “for” people. Hospitality is only hospitality when you do it “with” people. It's a togetherness thing.

One of the great themes of the Bible is the need for, the call for, hospitality. But how much real hospitality actually happens?

Americans may brag about the amount of charity it gives, but when you measure that against how much Americans take, their charity ends up in a deficit. That's because it's devoid of hospitality.

And when you look at the important issues today, you see that we are suffering from a lack of hospitality. And true hospitality is really the only thing that will save us, our economy, our society.

Actually, it is the very act of people taking more than they need, or deserve, from others that creates the need for charity in the first place. If people providing food would set the price of food at an affordable price – if people providing houses would set the price of the houses at an affordable price, then others would not be forced to ask others for assistance in paying for these and other essential things.

Of course all blame, and all faith, is put in the open and free market. Business owners, big and small, tout the benefits and equality of that system. They say things like, “the market is self correcting” or “a thing is worth what people are willing to pay for it.” And of course the great excuse for all their business activities, “It's not personal, it's just business.” They say this as if commerce, and business, and markets, are all entities separate and autonomous machinery that operates outside of human influence. But nothing could be further from the truth. Every business decision is really a human decision. Every market fluctuation is really the result of human decisions. Actually, markets, business models, capitalism, are just labels for abstract ideas. They are concepts that may be used for measuring and counting – but what they measure and count are the actions of humans.

And so, markets and business dealings, etc, are only fair and honest and self correcting as the people behind them. And just where is the honest businessman? Give me a break. An honest business person will always lose out to a dishonest one. And so it's built into the very framework of our economy, that people will be less than honest in their dealings with each other. Of course there's a lot of denial about that dishonesty as well. Much of what accounts for ego in people, especially people in America, is achieved only through self deception. And of course, people will excuse any immoral act, any selfish act as necessary for the needs of business – to keep the business afloat. Not once will they say to themselves, “perhaps we need to let this business die.” Such a thing is looked on as failure. And business people shun failure. Only perfection and success will do for the business person. And so all others work to make themselves appear perfect at the expense of truth. And this paradigm has filtered throughout our entire society. So much so that it is a given that a person will even lie on a job application to McDonalds. Of course potential employers will work hard to filter out all people who lie on their applications. All the while that employer will be lying it's ass of to its customer base. And this kind of process, this hypocrisy, is bound to have drastic negative consequences.

Being that we live in community, and within a society, that we really do need each other to survive this world, it only stands to reason that we all find ways to work “with” and be supportive of each other in all our dealings. When we lose site of this, our community is denied, our society falls apart. And it is real human beings that suffer.

Our economy is in the toilet, and it is the selfish and inconsiderate who are to blame. It is the fault of people who refuse to accept a role in the social make up of our society, all the while taking as much as they can from society for their own selfish benefit. It is the fault of people who will not give to charities. It is the fault of people who make charities necessary. It is the fault of people who say they cannot afford to give to charities, to give to the less fortunate, and yet squander billions of dollars on bad investments.

And yet this isn't just the fault of the rich billionaires and millionaires, although they do deserve much of the blame. It is also the fault of everyone who agreed with, and supported the wealthy. It's like the football fan, who lives vicariously through the successes and other exploits of his favorite football team. The fan does not really benefit in any way by the success of the team. Actually the fan sends his hard earned money to the team by purchasing all the teams paraphernalia, and yet all he has to show for it is the claim that he supports the team. And so we have so many people, so many poor people, struggling to pay their own bills, giving their support to the big business owners, mostly through their political votes, allowing the businesses of America to grow and become even more influential, and to justify even more selfishness. And all the poor person has to show for it is...nothing really tangible. Just a claim that the team he supports is hopefully the winner. This need of people to attach themselves to others more powerful, more successful than themselves proves just how screwed up people have become through the influence of the current “market.”

Real hospitality is not found in America's economy today. And it is really the only thing that can save it.