A hand-up, not a hand-out

Written By: Guest post - Date published: - 37 comments
Categories: activism - Tags:

Last night, while walking the tiles, I came across a group of young people.

These were ambitious young people, and their ambition was this: find a supermarket trolley, take said trolley, put one of their party in the trolley, then drive the trolley to the nearest Star Mart and into that Star Mart, wherein to cause mischief and buy pies.

Being entrepreneurial and aspirational young people, they had succeeded with the first elements of their ambition: they had the supermarket trolley and securely ensconced in it was one of their party. Now, to get into the Star Mart (wherein to cause mischief and buy pies).

But a problem presented itself: the lip of the pavement into the the Star Mart’s sliding door was too high. The young woman steering the supermarket trolley tried repeatedly to push it up and over that lip with her companion inside but the lip was too high for her to achieve success alone.

I watched this. And I realised I could do one of three things

a) nothing, and let these hard working young kiwis fail,

b) go and cause the mischief and buy the pies on their behalf and give them the pies, but that would rob them of the sense of achievement and personal success

c) I could give them a handup, not a handout. And this I did: as the young woman pushed with all her might I gave but a little lift to the front of the trolley and, suddenly, they were inside. Their ambition was achieved, and it didn’t need a nanny to do it for them, it just needed a little handup.

There’s a lesson in this for us all.

37 comments on “A hand-up, not a hand-out”

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  3. 3

    “Would have” Brett!

    I would have maed my help conditional upon directing them to a local dairy, so their ambition didn’t lead to profit for a petroleum company.

  4. 4

    That was my first thought too Brett Dale. I call it Malleable Morality, and it seems to afflict the left – examples: this, the golfball and the sickle thread last week, Chris Trotter’s not uncommon calls for the means to justify the end and going on about the location of explosives.

    Highly selective approach to when the rule of law should apply.

    But putting that aside, nothing wrong with a hand-up. Problem is that it so easily morphs into a permament hand-out,.

  5. 5

    Brett, would change your opinion if they had bought the trolley with their own money that they had worked for?

    Would you then encourage and aid them in doing whatever they choose with their private property?

  7. 7

    See I read this post and identified with the trolley wheeler and their difficulty navigating around the world when pavements and the like are simply not set up for the wheeled 😉

  8. 8

    If the greens get their way they soon won’t be able to by pies.
    Public disorder will be encouraged though…

  12. 12

    “Your boss isn’t paying you to surf blogs!”

    I think I’m the lone ranger here on that point RS

  13. 13

    Whether or not I would have helped them would have depended on what flavour pies they were getting and whether they would give me a bite. Think of it as tax to pay for my public handup services.

  14. 14

    oh god, my automatic picture thingie is like a swastika

    [lprent: doesn’t now – I guess you changed it]

  18. 18

    heh – Sam Dixon is Bob Clarkson. And randal is from Gladiators?

    So where’s mine! grr.

    [it’ll be your browser, I can’t see mine either, except when I view comments in the backs ection. SP]

  20. 20

    Cheers SP, was wondering if it was there.

    Billy, you mustn’t (is that even a word?) have seen Tool’s Ænima in vinyl. I can’t comment on yours, Computer Says No. Well Browser does anyway.

  22. 22

    Brett: If they had‘ve. Of is a preposition that implies ownership. ‘ve is an abbrevriation appended to words that means “have”. Granted, it looks ludicrous in full because you really were going for “had” on its own. I try not to grammar-nazi online, but you were already corrected once 😉

    As for the more serious discussion- if they intended to cause harmless mischief without any property damage or harassment, and return the trolley, I don’t see anything wrong. Besides, it’s possibly just in jest. 😉

  23. 23

    So i take it if you had seen them breaking into a van/truck that was marked as being owned by the supermarket you woudl have gladly helped them along as well?

  24. 24

    If I’d caught my kids doing this they would’ve received a short sharp kick in the arse

  26. 26

    A lot of you folks sound like you’ve never engaged in a bout of youthful mischief. What boring lives you must lead.

  28. 28

    Tane

    Yep was the kind of thing I would’ve got up to as a youth – I would also have been called into the principals office on Monday after an adult had pinged me and would have learnt the error of my ways.

    I may be showing my age but I don’t believe the general public tell today’s youth to pull their head in and they’ve learnt that they can get away with almost anything

  29. 29

    For God’s sake Brett, get the stick out of your arse. I generally favour the view that it is the left who have no ability to laugh. I have never been wrong on this blog before. Do not make me so now.

  31. 31

    Yes, ‘sod, but you do it in the manner of a deranged lunatic, so that doesn’t qualify as a sense of humour.

  32. 32

    “In the manner of”? This would logically imply that I am not a deranged lunatic. Thank you, I didn’t know you thought so much of me.

  34. 34

    Ok, Billy got a laugh out of me at 5:57, almost perfect. Made me violate my humourless rule.

  35. 35

    maybe I should have put this post in the humour catagory as well to give people the clue that it’s a humourous comment on the right’s ‘hand up, not a hand out’ mantra, appearently based on real events.

    So many people took it so seriously, I’m just surprised is all.

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