Exactly. It is not enough to rely just on the state as society's exclusive dispenser of compassion/solidarity/charity. Besides the issue of awareness and initiative that you allude to here, there is the issue of wisdom. It is not at all obvious that better policies emerge from the institutional decision-making of quasi-monolithic government than from the aggregate of activities engaged upon by diverse individuals, organizations and communities in the society at large. Relying on private initiatives/activities exclusively is no better than relying on government programs exclusively. But the state on its own is not enough. The two, private activism and public policy, are complementary necessities. Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.
It might be better to focus on creating homes for the homeless, but right now most of the developed world spends fair amount of time making sure they can't sleep on benches... Oxford, for example, has spent dozens of thousands of pounds on benches with such an anti-homeless design, they can't even be used for sitting... Near my home, they was a small space in front of a door, just large enough for a man who was regularly sleeping there (he left in the day) ; now there's a metal rod built specifically to prevent him staying there.
The public's feelings aren't only to help the homeless, and the state machine answers to that. Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
Living on a boat, this is a common problem: when you anchor off, if you anchor off in front of an expensive housing area or ritzy beach "community", the cops will be there in an hour- even though the law says you can anchor off anywhere as long as you don't obstruct navigation. Oick a poorer place, and --no pproblems will occur. Or, --a poorer country.
The key, for me, is to understand the multifaceted nature of man--and how each aspect emerges.
The inherent bureaucratic inertia effect---once set in motion, a good idea has as much (or more) life as a bad idea.
Keeps us alive, this. "There is mysterious music in democracy, when people decide to believe in themselves." ---Bill Greider, The Nation.
