Prejudiced against the Rich?

Posted on December 2, 2003 in Class Flames Morals & Ethics

I hadn’t intended that my “True Acts of Kindness” turn into a political discussion, but an apparent Randenoid promoting a fringe party has invaded what is essentially a moral and ethical discussion and attempted to turn it to her/his own bizarre purposes. My statements are now called “prejudicial against the rich”. Which I find amusing, because in the context of the broader culture of victimization that the Right has steeped itself, prejudice against other classes is a way of life.

How dare I focus on the rich is the gist of the message. How dare I leap to assumptions NOC says as s/he hurdles along throwing assumptions about the nature of my thinking right and left.

I’ve attempted to be balanced and fair: I do indeed know of generous rich people who keep their donations a secret and even pay their taxes into the commons without complaint. But even making provision for these as an alternative to the rapacious practices of others and the grumbling of yet others seems to invite the accusation of prejudice.

Is NOC fair and balanced? Then where are the cries of outrage when the poor are called dirty? When undocumented residents are called “illegal” and blamed for various problems that stem directly out of our marketed society? Why the focus on my “prejudices” where I have publically submitted myself to the same standards as everyone else? Where are the admissions that the responses s/he has made jump to conclusions? What is it about kindness without reward that bothers NOC so much?

What you see instead are flames and cries such as “I want to control where my charity goes!” Is it charity to pay taxes so that we have paved roads? Is it charity to ensure that we have sewers? Is it charity to have safety nets for those stricken by unemployment largely caused by the financial machinations of the powerful? It is purblind and caluminous selfishness, I counter, to prevent one’s wealth from helping to maintain the common property and serve the greatest good for the greatest possible number, to demand that charity have a name attached to perpertuate an illusion of selflessness.

I’ve had enough of this. NOC has illustrated why the Bible, the Buddha, and other thinkers on the subject of living have focused on greed and attachment to worldly things. It’s a sickness, an addiction, and like the alcoholic, the seekers after and many of the holders of wealth are in denial.

“The rich are not like you and me” F. Scott Fitzgerald says in The Great Gatsby. They have the power and the tax shelters to remain untreated for their illness indefinitely.