It’s so easy to look down from our throne of bounty, our luxury WLBOTT world, and ask these questions. The WLBOTT world, where we have unlimited ramen noodles and health care in the form of Vick’s Vap-o-rub and generic Tylenol.
It’s hard to imagine anyone in America as poor as the people in Prayer for the Stolen. It’s heartbreaking to imagine that you can’t get critical surgery for your baby for eight years. It’s hard to imagine a community where all the men leave, to escape poverty and a bone-crushing community – escape meaning a journey to America to work in the fields and nail shingles to roofs.
There is no safety net. The government can’t be trusted. The police can’t be trusted. As Rita says of the police, “Why would you invite a scorpion into your house?”
Well, the people in the novel are incredibly poor. They have few opportunities in life. The evil drug cartels will hire the people to extract opium from the poppy fields. The cartel pays well, but the opium will be converted to heroin and cause much harm. How do we think about the morality of the poor people in this situation?
Elder G helps us think through this….
Elder G: This is a powerful and complex dilemma, one that really strikes at the intersection of survival, systemic oppression, and unintended harm. In situations like these, I think it’s helpful to consider a few different layers: the ethics of survival, personal agency within systemic constraints, and the ripple effects of one’s actions. Here are a few ways we might think through each layer:
1. Survival and Basic Needs: When people are struggling to meet their most basic needs, the choices they have are severely limited. Working for a cartel, while morally troubling, may seem like the only viable option to avoid starvation, homelessness, or a lack of medical care. In a way, poverty can place people in a *forced choice* scenario where morality is clouded by the sheer necessity to survive. This perspective might make us more inclined to empathize with their decisions.
2. Systemic Constraints: The influence of the cartels in the novel’s setting creates a system where safe and legal work is scarce or non-existent. People are embedded in a system where power and wealth are deeply imbalanced, and even if they reject the cartel, other life-sustaining options might simply be out of reach. This systemic view points out that morality here isn’t purely about individual choices; it’s also about a community and economic structure that perpetuates poverty and crime.
3. Consequences and Moral Responsibility: The harm caused by heroin addiction is undeniable, and those involved in the production chain do play a part in it. However, it could be argued that their responsibility is reduced because they are far removed from the end product, and they are not involved by choice but by necessity. Their role doesn’t imply that they support or endorse the harm caused by the drug.
In the end, it’s challenging to morally judge individuals whose choices are driven by poverty and the lack of options, especially when those choices are thrust upon them by a corrupt system. The true moral failing may lie with the broader system that forces them into these impossible situations, rather than with the individuals themselves.
Hubris?
WLBOTT: G, I’d like to get your thoughts on this: people of privilege making moral judgments on people of poverty. This sounds like hubris to me.
Elder G: You’re absolutely right; there’s an inherent hubris when people of privilege make moral judgments on those facing poverty. It’s far too easy, from a position of security and abundance, to declare what is “right” or “wrong” for those whose lives are shaped by deprivation and limited options. People of privilege often lack firsthand experience with the desperation or constrained choices poverty imposes, and they may overlook the complexity and nuance in moral decisions made under such pressures.
There’s a kind of moral distance that privilege creates—a blindness to the harsh realities that poor people navigate daily. When we’re not directly affected, we risk oversimplifying or even dismissing the true struggles others face. This distance can lead to assumptions that poverty is due to personal failings rather than systemic inequalities, or that poor people are “complicit” in immoral acts because they choose the only viable options for survival.
It’s a trap, too, because hubris can undermine empathy, leading to judgments that reinforce harmful stereotypes and ignore structural issues. True moral insight often requires humility—recognizing that we might not fully understand the decisions people make under duress, and that our comfortable distance from those situations gives us no special wisdom about them.
Speculating on Peter Singer’s Approach
WLBOTT has been reading from the ethical philosopher Peter Singer. Can you speculate how Peter Singer’s philosophy would be applied to Prayers for the Stolen?
Peter Singer’s philosophy, especially his focus on effective altruism and the moral imperative to prevent suffering, would bring an intriguing lens to Prayers for the Stolen. Singer emphasizes our ethical duty to alleviate suffering, particularly for the most vulnerable. Here’s how his ideas might apply:
1. Moral Duty to Aid the Poor: Singer argues that those with the means have a moral obligation to help others in severe poverty, as long as it doesn’t come at a comparable cost to themselves. In the context of the novel, this would suggest that people and governments outside this harsh environment have a responsibility to improve the lives of those living in cartel-controlled, impoverished regions. This duty extends to addressing systemic problems like corruption, lack of education, and economic inequality—factors that trap people in a cycle of poverty and crime.
2. Critique of Inaction: Singer would likely criticize those who have the ability to make a difference yet choose not to act, calling it a moral failing. He might argue that the global community’s relative inaction in the face of cartel violence and poverty is ethically wrong, as more could be done to address the root causes, from political reforms to direct aid and support for education and local infrastructure.
3. Judgment of the Poor’s Choices: Given his utilitarian approach, Singer’s philosophy could be sympathetic to the choices made by the poor in the novel. He often suggests that we should avoid placing moral blame on those acting out of necessity, as they lack the luxury to consider abstract moral principles when survival is at stake. Instead, Singer would place moral responsibility on those with power and resources to enable better choices for people in vulnerable situations.
4. Practical Ethics and Harm Reduction: Singer might support harm-reduction policies as a practical ethical solution. Instead of judging those involved in opium extraction, he would likely argue for policies that reduce harm, such as creating alternative economic opportunities, addressing addiction at the public health level, and reforming international drug policy to reduce demand.
In short, Singer’s views would likely lead him to place ethical responsibility primarily on those with resources and power to intervene, rather than on individuals trapped in cycles of poverty and cartel violence.
Reference
The Interview: Peter Singer Wants to Shatter Your Moral Complacency
I believe that most of us, in our own humble ways, try to make the world better. Maybe that means giving what we can to charity or helping out in our community. Maybe it means eating less meat or driving less often. It’s enough for each of us to do our own little part.
Not so, says Peter Singer. Singer, who is 78 and recently retired from a long teaching career at Princeton, is perhaps the world’s most influential living philosopher.
Iguanas are definitely on the menu in Prayers for the Stolen.
Iguana meat has historically been important in the culinary traditions of Mexico and Central America; particularly in the states of Jalisco, Michoacán and Colima. In Fray Sahagún’s history of colonial Mexico, he mentions the iguana as a traditional food throughout Western Mexico and describes it as good to eat when properly prepared.
Iguana meat is legal in the United States of America and several other countries, however importation is restricted due to CITES conventions.
There has been a marked preference for the green iguana (Iguana iguana) over the black iguana (Ctenosaura pectinata) in the region, though both are eaten. Common recipes for the iguana include stews (guisado), pozole, birria, roasted in tacos and flautas.
