Hey, El Gostro,
I was pretty emphatic because my town is one of the most tolerant and giving places I have ever lived, and it has led to travelers flocking here and getting extremely aggressive, running people out of parks and even the downtown, at times, is shake down central, so I was to a certain degree responding in frustration to that situation.
You could say that people are receiving karma points for giving to the poor, however it could also be argued that the need to give back has been hijacked by opportunists, who are using people's compassion against them, and money that could have been given to someone who, say, needs some money to feed their kids, goes instead to an intimidating group of young people blocking the sidewalk instead, and is given more out of fear than anything else, and then rationalized as charity.
Also, like in a place where I live, it is truly a giver's market, and if you walk from one end of town to the other, you will be asked for stuff between five and thirty times, and there are way more people demanding free stuff than there are people with free stuff to spare, and each one of the askers is acting like they are the only person doing it, and can get very irate if they aren't immediately given what they want.
You are right, it is a fascinating social study, and is worth talking about. I once knew a gypsy who was in town and he confirmed a lot of the suspicions people have about them, telling me a lot about the constant moving, changing of identities, and the scams they use. While they do seem to be tough in the survival sense, they are completely separate from the mainstream and do not share values like:
- A man's word is his bond
- It is better to give than receive
- All people deserve respect
You get the idea. They have no sense of fair play concerning other people, and if they can scam someone by pretending to fall in a supermarket or pretending to tell their future, there is no sense of pride or fairness holding them back. You might even say that the gypsy culture is the logical conclusion of the beg packer impulse, a separate clannish group who has no ties to any community or sense of responsibility.
On a practical level, you can only have a few tiny subcultures like this in a greater culture, or everyone is just out looking at each other as mere servants or conveniences, and there is zero trust, zero civic responsibility, zero civilization.
This is why beg packers rub so many people the wrong way, because they have the resources and skills to fund their own trips, and are saying, basically, fuck it, let other people take care of me, even people from poorer cultures.
You don't want to be a twenty year old whose main role model is the old homeless dude, that doesn't lead anywhere good.
As to the distinction between the monk and the traveler, it is all a matter of sincerity and intent. The holy man has sacrificed the normal life to live a higher spiritual truth, and it is out of respect to that sacrifice that people give him alms. There is a lot of hostility and superiority in the manner of the beg packer, and also a strange satisfaction in the use of guilt and charity to get what they want from people, which has nothing in common with spirituality.
I would modify your metaphor, and say just because you have a karate gi, it doesn't make you a black belt.
I agree that there is a long tradition of the youth hitting the road and traveling as a rite of passage, and there have been times when I have been that youth, and also times when I have picked them up hitchhiking, or let them stay at my place, or given them money.
It is just that again, that only works when every now and then, some scruffy person with a back pack comes through your town, and you show them some hospitality out of kindness or out of a wistful appreciation of their freedom.
It doesn't work when the takers far outnumber the givers, and there is a constant stream of demanding strangers coming through your town aggressively demanding things.
Like in my town, there is so much free stuff available, and places to stay or park your van that anyone asking for spare change for food is a joke. There is free food and services everywhere. They just want money. Also, there are a lot of guys flying signs asking for work who just want money, and will turn down work, or food when it is offered. They actually get mad if anyone takes their sign at face value.
So, I am not against people asking for money, or traveling and accepting hospitality on principle, I am against where it leads when too many people do it. You get a town like mine, where the beggers act like customers, and expect the givers to act like businesses being paid for services, which they are obviously not.
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