People and Perspectives

I started reading Dispossessed today. The introduction was really on target. It describes the book's purpose in terms of getting to know the people in squatter settlements. The author is wary of both objectifying residents of these communities and over-romanticizing them. He really brings home the reality that these are people — people who laugh and cry, people who work hard and struggle to support their families, people who have friends and give generously. He also reminds us that while we who are rich have much to offer them, they have much to offer us too in things like ideas and faith. The heart of this book seems to be well aligned with my reason for going on the trek that I explained in my support letter, so I'm glad to be reading it.

One interesting proposition the author makes is that the viewpoint of people living in this sort of poverty is actually a better representative of reality than is our own. He backs up what he says with a quote from Robert McAfee Brown, who says rich people are limited in their understanding of the world because they "see the world from the vantage point of privileges they want to retain." To me this seems possible, yet weighty; I don't think it wise to accept it unreservedly, yet I am eager to learn more of what he has to say on the subject and see examples. This reminds me of something that was mentioned in one of the other books, I think New Friars, where it said that the urban poor feel the effects of things like pollution and global warming long before the wealthy do.

I'm looking forward to getting to know some slum residents and their perspectives through the stories recorded in this book. I think I will learn a lot from it.