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I have a PhD in Physics from Berkeley. Still, in the strictest real estate sense, my best and highest use is as a dishwasher. I was managing a small optics fac
by aj7 2y ago
I have a PhD in Physics from Berkeley. Still, in the strictest real estate sense, my best and highest use is as a dishwasher.
I was managing a small optics factory in Livermore. We made laser mirrors to order there — any wavelength, any reflectivity, any angle, any polarization, you name it. I was working my ass off and was unmarried at the time. Thanksgiving came around and I had nowhere to go. But I hooked up with a church in San Jose that had a dinner for poor people and went as a volunteer. After serving the dinner, I wandered back into the dish room. I immediately went over to the sink and kicked out the lady who was pretending to work. I then washed all the dishes and left.
Comes one year later. I’m in the exact same situation. I call up that church. The lady says, “Oh, that’s very nice of you. But we don’t need any more volunteers, we have enough.” Oh shit. What to do. I found my old replica army parka I had bought in a Cambridge surplus store 20 years earlier. I went as a poor person. I didn’t want to be alone.
The first thing I found out is that poor people are herded, controlled, treated like children. We had to wait outside the church in the mild cold until permitted to enter, in a kind of line. So I sit down. I will never forget the beatific smiles of the volunteers that served us. This was performance art, and they were the stars. Everyone on the supplicant end noticed this, I’m sure. So the meal ends. I walk back into the dish room, survey the situation, once again kick out whoever was pretending to do the dishes, do the dishes, and leave.
- jackyinger 2y agoLoved reading this. I admire your courage and ingenuity to dress as a poor person. If you haven’t already read it you might enjoy Orwell’s autobiographical Down and Out in Paris and London, your story tangentially reminded me of it.
- dt_rsp 2y agoSimilarly, Jack London's /People of the Abyss/
- JPVincent 2y agoGreat book!
- NoboruWataya 2y agoCoincidentally I have just finished this book, and the article and the comment you're replying to definitely reminded me of it. Great book - I was expecting the incisive social commentary and humanity that Orwell is known for (and it delivered) but it's also just a very entertaining read.
- NotCamelCase 2y agoThis book is so unexpectedly funny! Once I was reading it on the train and couldn't help but laugh loudly a couple of times. People in the compartment were perplexed.
- aj7 2y agoTook zero courage. Was in character. Now as an “upper-class” retiree— now there’s a tiny bit of imposter syndrome.
- kvakerok 2y agoHungry people tend to not care at all who smiles for show and who actually cares, as long as the food is served. Just my 2 cents, but I get where you're coming from.
- JPVincent 2y agoAs a person whose been on both sides, it makes a difference if you truly interact with someone.
- havefunbesafe 2y agoWhen going to foodbanks as a kid, I could 100% tell.
- maximus-decimus 2y agoyou could tell, but did you care?
- faeriechangling 2y ago> Everyone on the supplicant end noticed this I’ve downright gotten philosophical about it. The way my and other people’s suffering is used as a prop in other people’s stories. The way I see it, if some people get personal satisfaction and a good reputation from being the stars, and their stardom leads to them helping people, I shrug. If you’re in a desperate situation you use the resources you have in front of you, and even say whatever it takes for them to help you more. I just don’t trust their motivations as people who “help the disadvantaged” can have INSANE saviour complexes and hurt those around them so they can heal them. Because they don’t actually care about you - they care about saving and being seen saving. You’re perceptive to have caught on to the game so quickly. It took me years.
- imp0cat 2y agoAt least you caught on eventually. I was completely unaware until now.
- generic92034 2y agoOn the other hand there is almost always a somewhat selfish motivation behind any extensive action. I would rather prefer someone being seen helping the poor rather than being paid to do the same. Besides, in some regard the helpers might also be in need, even though not in a material sense.
- imp0cat 2y agoThere's actually a name for this - stunt philantropy. https://restofworld.org/2024/nigeria-philanthropy-asherkine/ https://restofworld.org/2024/nigeria-philanthropy-asherkine/
- circlefavshape 2y ago> my and other people’s suffering is used as a prop in other people’s stories I'm gathering material for a possible book (or series of blog posts) on the role of stories in people's identities and sense of meaning in their lives, and I'd be interested in hearing more about your perspective on this if you fancy talking about it? fromhn at demersal dot net
- egh 2y ago[flagged]
- istjohn 2y agoFor several years, I lived next to a small church that operated a soup kitchen. The thinly veiled disgust many neighbors had for the kitchen's clientelle was unfortunate, but I was bewildered to learn that the Eastern Orthodox bishop of that church had no more respect for his diners than my calloused neighbors.
- huhkerrf 2y ago> I immediately went over to the sink and kicked out the lady who was pretending to work. I then washed all the dishes and left. OT, but I'm very jealous of people with this mindset and work ethic. I'm much too lazy to have done something like this, but have always looked up to people who see things this way.
- reedf1 2y agoThis story has it all, even from the first sentence - you should start a cult.
- GaryNumanVevo 2y agoSo if you were just able to walk into the dish room and start washing dishes, why dress up like a poor person? Just walk up to the church and say you're the guy who volunteered to wash dishes that day. Of course the people who volunteer get something out of it, something you should have noticed when you were volunteering!
- aj7 2y agoI’m not as smooth as you.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]