Call me cynnial, or maybe I've just watched too many reruns of certain Twilight Zone episodes, but it's been my experience that most folks in a community nowadays cannot be trusted to serve the common good. When I look at the sort of people I have living in and around me, and I've lived in several different neighborhoods across the country in the past 6 years, there's no way I am going to ever rely on them to cover my back in a crisis. At best, I consider them to be opportunists, who will waste no time in pilfering my stocks without permission if they think there's little enough chance I might do something about it.

It may be true that no man is an island, but as far as I am concerned, my little chunk of real estate will be scorched earth before I let anyone else infiltrate, no matter how distressed they may appear. The less they know of what I have and am capable of, the better it will be for everyone.

It may be a cold, self defeating mindset I have, but at least I know what to expect this way, and I can better plan accordingly. Leaving any portion of my welfare up to the goodwill of others is just asking to be sorely disappointed. This is not to say I won't extend a helping hand if I truly feel it is warranted, and the recipient deserving, but it will be on my terms and conditions that I do so, to the extent I am allowed by law.

This whole idea of baling other folks out of their most often self-imposed misery using coerced collection from those who've made the effort to take care of themselves galls me, as it did our forefathers. Charity needs to be voluntary, or it isn't charity, but social redistribution of wealth.