Assumptions of authority…<\/p>\n
This is the 21st century.\u00a0 How many more centuries is it going to take before people rise up and say “No!” to social inequity?\u00a0 How far must the disparity in wealth become before the man in the street says, “Enough!” to the outrageous privilege assumed by the wealthy?<\/p>\n
Have you ever considered the expression, “Outrageous Privilege<\/em><\/strong>“?\u00a0 I have. It is the state in which a miniscule minority are treated with such outrageous privilege that it literally becomes an outrage.\u00a0 What is a miniscule minority? It isn’t the 20% of the so widely touted and so often repeated 80\/20 rule. I am a reasonable person, if I lived in a society where twenty out of every hundred people were wealthier than the other eighty I’d be willing to accept that, regardless of which category I fell into. However in regard to the disparity of wealth a miniscule minority means a tiny percent of a single percentage point.\u00a0\u00a0 A very very very tiny percent.<\/p>\n No matter how clever or eloquent the justifications for social inequity are, they remain nothing but justifications for something that is inherently wrong.<\/p>\n What kind of language am I referring to, and what prompted this post?<\/p>\n Statements like, “The poor will always be with us.<\/em><\/strong>”\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Why is there a need for anyone to be poor?\u00a0 Because they’re lazy and thus don’t deserve to be wealthy?\u00a0 Before you subscribe to such virulent nonsense try living in a poor man’s shoes.\u00a0 Not only are they a bad fit, they are extremely uncomfortable, and you will have to work harder that you have ever worked in order to barely survive.\u00a0 The poor are not lazy. Nothing could be further from the truth. The poor are desperate.\u00a0 The poor often work multiple minimum wage jobs in order to make ends meet.<\/p>\n Statements like, “Minimum wage is just a starting point.<\/em><\/strong>”\u00a0 Hogwash.\u00a0 Minimum wage is an ending point.\u00a0 Once an adult starts working in a minimum wage position it becomes increasingly difficult to escape working for minimum wage. The receipt of every paycheck sees your situation worse.\u00a0 Minimum wage paychecks are not a blessing, they are a curse.\u00a0 An adult earning minimum wage cannot save enough for a buffer to tide them over for the time taken to find a better paying job. If they lose the minimum wage job they hold today, they had better get another by tomorrow or their circumstances will get even worse than they are.\u00a0 Assuming there actually is something worse than living hand to mouth, day in and day out.\u00a0 Sadly, there is…<\/p>\n Statements like, “The homeless are homeless by choice.<\/em><\/strong>” Where do you go when you have nowhere to go?\u00a0 Where do you stay when you have nowhere to stay?\u00a0 What do you eat when you have nothing to eat?\u00a0 What mental hospital will treat the chronically mentally ill when all the mental hospitals that did so closed years ago?\u00a0 Are any of those choices, by choice?<\/p>\n Statements like, “We should not strive to make the rich poor, but to make the poor rich.<\/em><\/strong>”\u00a0 Did you entirely miss that mysterious subject known as “Mathematics<\/em>” while attending school?\u00a0 Statistically speaking it is impossible for everyone to be in the top one percent.\u00a0 Statistically speaking if there are one hundred people, everyone cannot be materially richer than the other ninety-nine.\u00a0 Simple math folks.\u00a0 But apparently beyond the ability of many to grasp.<\/p>\n Statements like, “Be humble, work hard, and a<\/em>ccept your lot in life.<\/em><\/strong>”\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Why should the poor accept being poor?\u00a0 Why do the rich deserve to be rich?\u00a0 Why should people work hard if they can never aspire to improving their circumstances?\u00a0 Why?<\/p>\n Statements like, “It has always been this way.<\/em><\/strong>”\u00a0 So what!!??\u00a0 If something is unjust, then I don’t give a single solitary damn how long it has, “always been this way<\/em><\/strong>“, I will fight to have it fixed.\u00a0 Slavery existed for thousands of years.\u00a0 Does the longevity of abhorrent behavior somehow render it tolerable?\u00a0 Absolutely not.<\/p>\n And hundreds of other acceptably false statements we are constantly trained to ignore in the interests of the status-quo.\u00a0 Those little lies so slight they aren’t worth the bother of refuting.\u00a0 Those deliberate misdirections that take our attention elsewhere from the things that really matter.\u00a0 Here is a heads-up.\u00a0 The status-quo does not serve the interests of the poor, it serves the interests of the rich.<\/p>\n And now, finally, to the matter that prompted this post.\u00a0 Examine the screenshot below and read through the dialog captured within it.\u00a0 But before you do, please note this is not an attack on the person who tweeted the quote.\u00a0 It isn’t even an attack on the quote itself, which holds a lot of truth.\u00a0 After all, if we are not willing to contribute something, then what right do we have to expect anyone else to contribute?\u00a0 None.\u00a0 I think that was the frame of mind in which the tweet originated.\u00a0 However,\u00a0if I am anything I am contrary.\u00a0 The nuance of words is exceptionally important to me.\u00a0 That is what this post is really about.<\/p>\n Nuance.<\/p>\n It reflects on how thinking about words in a different way opens entirely different ways to understand what is being said.\u00a0 There are other truths beneath all words, we only need to seek them to see.<\/p>\n “In order to be able to give, we must first have<\/em>.” Literally the only thing I can afford to give are my words.\u00a0 Although words are something I treasure, I have them in abundance and can thus afford to give them freely. I strive to do that, both here on my blog, and on Twitter.\u00a0 But cash?\u00a0 That filthy thing known as lucre? That thing most people think of when thinking of “giving”?\u00a0 According to my income I am neatly positioned in the middle class.\u00a0 However the truth is that I can barely afford to service my debt.\u00a0 On paper, I own my own home.\u00a0 If only paper were reality., for in reality I don’t.\u00a0 The bank owns the home within which we live, and the bank will get the home if I am unable to pay the mortgage.\u00a0 Who, precisely, is “the bank”?\u00a0 I don’t know, but I do know that they are the ones who got and get to keep the homes when the real estate market crashes. What did the people who could not pay their mortgages get to keep?\u00a0 A devastating dip in their credit-worthiness?\u00a0 So, although I am allegedly middle class, the only material things I own are my debts and I’m pretty sure nobody, not even the poorest of the poor, wants me to give them those.<\/p>\n “I walk past my own reflection every day.<\/em>”\u00a0 And what I see, when I can bear to look, is an apparently wealthy man who in reality is so poor he does not even own the dirt upon which his home is built.\u00a0 Every day I pass myself and I know how poor I am.\u00a0 What choice do I have, but to walk on past?\u00a0 I wonder what you see when you pass your reflection?\u00a0 Sadly, I think it is likely to be the very same thing I see.\u00a0 A slave, who thinks they are free.<\/p>\n The best slaves, are those who think they're free. #thought<\/a><\/p>\n — C.G.Ayling (@CGAyling) January 8, 2013<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"the](\"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/the-rights-of-the-rich.jpg\")
<\/a>Seem clear?\u00a0 Now let me explain what I meant in my reply.\u00a0 It seemed obvious to me, however what is obvious to the author is often obscure to another.<\/p>\n\n