Think about what assisted living might mean to someone forced to enter it, especially if they need to pay for it with the federal program of Medicaid. They must give over all of their income, being allowed to only keep for themselves sixty dollars a month. For a Vet, someone who was trained, lived and self-identifies as a warrior, their pension is provided by the federal government. When they become in need of more caregiving, they are told they must give up this image and resign themselves to living in a box at best or a bed at worse, and return all of their pension for this need of care. The state forces them into this position and those who help implement such programs do not think about the damage such a program does to a community. They remove individuals in need from the public commons and create a loss of humanity through enclosure. Yet clearly, we are as a society encouraging enclosure in exchange for material need. We are cutting off open exchange and with this we lose the richness of a diverse community.
We enclose as a means to punish as in prisons or in Native American reservations, most often disregarding the facts which lead to these forms of forced isolation. We are taught that enclosure and isolation is necessary. And then we use those enclosed as a means to generate profit. There is something very wrong with this, and it is destroying much that is good and human.
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