I’ve grown very, very tired of the whole “billionaires are intrinsically evil” idiocy over the past couple of years. As I’ve said many times over the past several decades, wealth and power do not create evil; they merely enable the evil that is already inherent in the human brain. Oppression is enabled by wealth and/or power, but not created by them; poor and powerless people are not morally superior to the rich and powerful. In general, they are just as shitty; they merely lack the means to inflict their evil on others by any means other than direct interpersonal violence. That’s why it’s impossible to “fix” authoritarian systems by giving more power to historically disenfranchised groups; given money and/or power they soon become indistinguishable from the other pigs. The only way to “fix” systems in which people abuse power over others is to elimate abusable power. In short, St. Augustine’s observation about children is also true (if you substitute socioeconomic weakness for physical) of the poor: “The weakness of little children’s limbs is innocent, not their souls.”
Blessed are the Poor
April 24, 2020 by Maggie McNeill
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[…] via Blessed are the Poor — The Honest Courtesan […]
Well said, and kudos for the Animal Farm reference. (Still my favorite Orwell book, and the Halas and Bachelor animated adaptation is still great years later.)
Well said! Hear, hear! Reading Suetonius and other Roman historians’ accounts of some of the more, shall we say, “excessive” Roman Emperors, I have commented that it is not poverty and misfortune that are the true tests of character, but prosperity and power.
So true. Nor is poverty necessarily a bad thing. The two sweetest people I know are a brother and sister who grew up in a family that was so poor they had to sleep in the same sofa bed in their living room. But as a result they’ve always been very close, which has contributed a lot to both of their lives. In contrast, as a teacher I’ve met rich brothers and sisters who not only have their own beds but their own rooms, and they basically can’t stand each other.
That’s the most insightful thing I’ve read in a while. Very astute!