Beggary
Classic Gin
Tuesday, 2006-01-03 | Classic Gin
There are many weak-willed individuals who, upon engaging a bum in conversation, will find that they have allowed the bum to afflict their conscience; they give the bum serious audition and, lo!, find that the only salve for the burning affliction with which he has afflicted them has to do with greasing his filthy palm.
Considered thus, we see that those who hand change to bums (unlike those who make actual, meaningful donations to charitable organizations) are not totally unlike those who find themselves the victims of conmen. Lacking the intellectual fortitude to see what Mamet calls "the shot," they will engage these salesmen of affliction and confidence in conversation and find themselves, often to their chagrin, having bought hook, line and sinker into the shtick of these itinerant hucksters.
There really is no meaningful difference between giving money to a conman or a bum except for amount. Both sell an idea and both leave their buyers with empty hands and feelings of conflictedness and frustration.