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Dorothy Day's The Long Loneliness

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In her book the ,The Long Loneliness, Dorothy Day discusses her transition to Catholicism with important life events. She recounts her childhood and her encounters with religion as well as her later life. She has long dedicated her life to helping those who are often overlooked, especially the poor. From her experiences Day comes to believe that a non-individualistic society would make it easier for people to be good. Dorothy Day is certain that this type of society can allow others to be good. I believe she came to this conclusion due to her strong inclination to help the poor. This type of society eliminates the poor since it requires everyone to share belongings and equal amounts of labor. Day mentions “To help the organizers, to give what you have for relief, to pledge yourself to voluntary poverty for life so that you can share with your brothers is not enough. One must live with them, Share with them their suffering too.” (Day, 214) As a result of this we would all be in a similar situation which will then foster empathy. This empathy will then allow others to see their wrong doings and make it easier for people to help their fellow man.The scandal of businesslike priests, of collective wealth [..]—these made me feel often that priests were more like Cain than Abel. ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ they seemed to say …show more content…

One of my main reasons as to why her concept would not work is that this process eliminates room for growth. Since everyone will own the same things people may not feel the need to work as hard as others. People may not feel as fulfilled working at their jobs if there is no incentive. Although you could argue that people will work hard if they truly love what they are doing this can cause people to make substantial contributions to their field however if they receive credit for what they have done this can cause others to feel

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