When the rich man gazes down at the poor, does he realize he is one of the vulnerable ones? Every social hierarchy rests its security on the people that it rules. The stronger the foundation, the greater the security of that hierarchy. So, if you’re going to rule over the poor, at least do it well.
I have no optimistic dreams of a socialist utopia. I’m sure that cynicism is what such dreams are made of. I only ask that we have smarter and more coordinated masters. Ones that realize that all masters are chained to those beneath them.
For example, take health care. Even the Nazis made sure that the Jews weren’t sick in the camps, and it’s not because they loved the Jews – rather, they understood a basic biological fact that sickness spreads. If only we could be better than the Nazis.
all masters are chained to those beneath them
Yet, we struggle to understand why we should provide our own people health care, let alone why we should stop Ebola in Africa. Even if you see the poor as a bunch of rats and parasites, it’s important to remember where the plague came from.
Does it take a genius to know that we should educate our own people? We can’t even think for ourselves anymore. We import the educated, because we aren’t smart enough to work for ourselves.
All the while, we bicker over whether it’s in our interests to pay poor people to educate themselves. We supposedly live in a democracy, and yet we are economically and politically bound to these idiots!
We know that the air is unfit to breathe and that the food is unfit to eat, but we can’t seem to realize this isn’t just a poor man’s problem. We fail to realize that the same companies that feed garbage to the poor are the same ones that lie to us about our “organic” foods.
We import the educated, because we aren’t smart enough to work for ourselves
The rich and the poor have one common struggle, but the difference is the elites are the only ones who can actually do anything about it.
But of course, nobody cares.
The left is too wrapped up with the tribalism of identity politics. Ironically, the one thing that is supposed to unite the left is socialism, but a socialist can’t even make it through the primaries without getting stiff-armed out of the race.
Sooner or later you realize there is no left wing, Clinton and Obama were with Wall Street, not Main Street.
What about the right? Another meaningless term. The right-wing of liberalism was born of the desire to save the people from themselves. Now, these Neo-cons run around preaching the gospel of supply-side Jesus and have completely forsaken the poor, as well as themselves.
The left is too wrapped up with the tribalism of identity politics
The rich think that they are immune from the ills of their employees. Like young adolescents, these masters of the world roam the earth believing in nothing but their own invincibility.
No one is horrified when the poor are violated, not even the poor. It’s practically expected. When they suffer from gang violence, cancer, malnutrition, stupidity, rape, death on the battlefield, etc. no one is really shocked. Anyone who takes a walk through the South Side of Chicago, and sees the barred fortification of every window, knows that the poor expect it.
No, it’s the rich that never see it coming. The troubles of this world swoop in like some terrible bird, a grisly visitor who flies away with a piece of their life. As they gaze down from the tower of their social hierarchy into the abysmal suffering below, they begin to create a false dichotomy between themselves and the less fortunate.
But then they wake up with some illness, cancer, or kid with autism, and their world begins to shatter. Suddenly, they realize that they breathe the same carcinogenic air as those below them.
They begin to realize that the same laws that freed up companies to put poison in food and children’s toys – have poisoned them as well.
Every social hierarchy rests its security on the people that it rules
As the elite attempt to build their governments and companies on the minds of imbeciles, they start to realize that their national security and wealth is under threat. Their world begins to shrink, and they begin to understand that they are the same as those below them.
But do they know this can’t go on forever? The poor will get the worst of it, and the weak will suffer what they must.
But how long will it be before the elites save each other from themselves? And if gold rust, what shall iron do?
Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.
Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.
Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. (James 5:1-8).