Still reading Portmann's "When Bad Things Happen to Other People" - it's very rich, so I read a bit and then think about it for a while. Just read an observation by Nietzche that no society can be effective or even have a tolerable social climate if it does not employ a belief that will allow the underprivileged to see the effect of blind chance on his condition. Otherwise, unfortunate people will blame fortunate people for their misfortune, with potentially disastrous social effects. (P. 108)
It made me think of the differences between the Bush and Gore campaigns. I think, to the extent that I've been able to keep up with Gore's rhetoric, and from what I remember of Clinton's rhetoric, they play into that emotion, that poor people in our society blame their poverty on rich people. I think the thought process goes, "Those greedy rich people! If they were not so greedy, I would not be poor." As if it were a zero sum game.
Huey Long was a master at that rhetoric - if you are poor, it must be because the rich man treated you unfairly, so take back from the rich man what is rightfully yours.
I think this is the greatest scourge we face as a nation today. Which, as scourges go, isn't as bad as bubonic plague or Attila the Hun.
Ralph Nader was on Hardball last night. He is, of course, a European-style lefty, but even he was preaching the virtues of self-reliance. All the third party candidates that I am aware of do, too, and of course the Republicans do. So maybe there's hope, maybe people are getting fed up with whining and the blame game. |
