ArtBizNews: The Crab Pot Theory of Community Dynamics

Dear Mr. Trump,

There is something really important that hinders the poor and disabled for being successful sometimes. Its something that they can overcome with a bit of help. My dad called it the "Crab Pot Theory" of Community Dynamics.

 The Crab Pot Theory is based on several false statements:

 1. Rich people never have to work a day in their lives.

2. Rich people got that way because they used poor people.

3. You cant leave us because we need you.

4. When we get money we have to spend it on what we want to because thats the American Dream.
5. We don't have to pay our own way because someone else will take care of us
6. Any money you make belongs to us
7. No one in our family ever made anything of themselves so you cant either.


I would call these false statements curses. There is a verse in the Bible that says: "faith comes by hearing"When people hear these statements over and over again they begin to believe them and it becomes a physiological disability. Like calling a child stupid and dumb and telling them they will never amount to anything. Soon they believe it and act accordingly.

My dad illustrated the "Crab Pot Theory" this way. We visited Tidewater where he grew up and one day all the adults decided to have crabs for dinner. So they went out and caught the crabs and brought them home. Dad invited me into the kitchen to show me. The way you cook crabs is to put them alive into cold water then slowly heat the pot. The gradual heating slows the crabs and they don't realize they are being cooked. Well most dont. Some sense something is not right and want to get out of the heat. So they start climbing out of the pot. But just as they get to the top the crabs below them use their pincers and grab their legs. The lower crabs then pull the ones trying to climb out back into the pot. Thus none are able to escape.

The Crab Pot Theory of  Community Dynamics is not insurmountable. People do over come it. Usually its when they wake up one morning and figure out that everyone around them is happy except them. When they take stock of their lives they discover its because all the enabling they have done has pretty much sucked them dry. No one is looking out for them. No one is helping them. No one is even listening to them.

What happens when someone stands up against this sort of  community dynamic:Guilt trips and derogatory statements to hold them down make them fail. The real reason the community does this is because the community has become so dependent that they are fearful to loose the bread winner. Some of these bread winners are 13 and 14 years old. By the time they are 25 they have nothing but three jobs a day that keep them poor, keep them from spending time doing what they love and keep them from being with their own children.  Their poverty has nothing to do with who is rich and how they got there. It has to do with the unhealthy dependency of their family and sometimes their community that holds them back.

Why I think this is important to understand is because those people are a growing number of our population. Those are potential work force. And that is a whole sub-strata of creative ability that is being squandered by a culture of forced economic failure. I realize we cant help everyone of them out of the pot; however, maybe we can lift the ones at the top out of the pot and release them back into the sea of possibilities.

Have a wonderful weekend,
~L