Further reading: Compassion
Sometimes I believe more than in other places the underground is a spot where one can clearly experience compassion- or not. For example people let strangers ride with their doubleticket, when a ticket controller appears. Or when a controller appears and I recognize somebody gets really nervous because he doesn’t have a ticket it takes me extraordinaryly long (until the next station, where the fare dodger gets out) to find my ticket! Or there sometimes is compassion for people selling the street news paper or beggers, buskers…
“Without those poor fellows that try to make ends meet by selling the street paper “Motz”, Berlin’s public transport would not be the same. They perform poems, sing or simply beg and try to convince us to buy their paper or to donate a smidgen of money that help them to survive another day in the urban jungle. For some of them I’m not quite sure whether they would not just take the money to the next bottle store and drink their pain away.
Nontheless, I think most of us can afford to share some of our income with those who really need help, no matter what they spent it for in the end. I mean 20 cents don’t really hurt, do they? However, only a few bring themselves to feel compassion with those shabby guys. I found a BerlinBlog where the author even passes harsh criticism on the poor beggars. He complains that the “Motz” paperboys disrupt the idyll of the public transport. In my opinion, his post again raises the question of what prevents people from feeling compassionate with others. It may be harder for us to sense such feelings for a person that wears run-down clothes and reeks of pee, because he doesn’t resemble what we perceive as “normal” in our society. Another factor that plays in may be that we are just overwhelmed with misery, we saw too much of it and now our senses are numb to tragedy.”
Source: Vossler, J 2009: Hallo, ick verkoof die Motz! Aloftbottomview blog. Available from: <http://aloftbottomview.wordpress.com/2009/06/28/hallo-ick-verkoof-die-motz/#more-220> [29-06-09].
Hey,
thanks for bringing that up – I think I needed to hear it. I mean, I take the underground for more than an hour on most days and I get so incredibly annoyed whenever there’s someone begging (or even just busking). I always feel like they are taking away my (much more precious?) time. I still think that there are too many beggars and I don’t know if I’ll ever give them any money, but I’ll try by not being so annoyed anymore.
It’s true. I always feel compassion whenever I witness someone being caught without a ticket. My pulse uses to get up to its limits every time I hear a (usually deep and accusing) voice saying “Guten Tag, meine Damen und Herren, die Fahrausweise bitte!” Guess this is just the every-day-life-horror of a BVG-passenger…