“I’ll say it again—it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”
-Matthew 19:24
I wonder how that will play out with toilet paper hoarders. Yes, I have not let go of that yet. You have to let go of that stockpile of toilet paper you have stored in your second bedroom and share it with those in need! This is symbolic of course. I am really talking about accumulating wealth, power, and using it to assist people in need rather than amassing more of it. This Pandemic is an excellent time for us to consider how we live our lives and also how others live theirs. The economic collapse we are in has cost so many people their jobs, even livelihoods, and reduced the retirement assets so many relied on. The economy we have built in the US is a house of cards that disproportionately benefits the very rich and every so often it collapses. We are in a collapse at the moment. Who knows how long it will last. But rest assured it will be you and I, the taxpayers, who bail out the institutions that have created the vulnerabilities inherent in our present form of capitalism.
We, the general public, are always making a select few rich by our labor and our purchasing power. Our present form of capitalism favors the very rich, including many of our elected representatives, and our taxes subsidize them. Some are starting to wake up. When the government decided to offer stimulus checks some said, “Well, it is our money…you are not giving us anything, we earned it.” This is a key realization. Our elected Congress, our public servants, for the most part are quite rich and they are getting much richer. Half of them are millionaires. As reported in CNN Business on January 12, 2015, “the median net worth of lawmakers was just over $1 million in 2013, or 18 times the wealth of the typical American household, according to new research released Monday by the Center for Responsive Politics. And while Americans’ median wealth is down 43% since 2007, Congress members’ net worth has jumped 28%.” So are they public servants or self-servants? Take a look at their benefit packages, what don’t we have the same ones?
A lot of their money came from inheritance. If not direct cash, then the power and privilege that was afforded them by their families. Was it a random event, being born into such wealth and privilege, or was it divine intervention? There is some sarcasm underlying that last question…I’m still not cured (see prior podcasts). Guess who gets into Harvard? Estimates suggest at least 30% come from the top 5 percent of household incomes in the US, earning more than $150,000 a year. Some estimates suggest a higher percentage especially if you are in the top 1%, the super-rich. It’s easy to manipulate statistics. This group owns 35% of the nation’s wealth. The wealthiest 10% own 77% of the nation’s wealth. Those graduates make great Alumni as they give back generously. And then there is status. If I were from Haaavaaard you would take me more seriously deservedly or not. You should know I am from the Harvard of the SUNY system. It is true. There was once an article published titled “SUNY Campus in Cornfields Cultivates Ivy Reputation”. It was about Geneseo. I spent four of my five years there fumbling around. Then I found my calling. Unfortunately it was by fumbling about not by divine intervention. Impressed yet? Not bad for a blue collar kid…oh nuts, I just outed myself as coming from the wrong side of the tracks. So much for socializing with the top 1%. I guess I won’t be getting invited to any Bush, Clinton or even Cuomo soirees. And I am only an hour away from the NYS Governor’s Mansion. I could make it there in 45 minutes if need be. Money finds money. That’s a perk to going Ivy League.
If your parents were politicians, especially in the U.S. Congress, you have a clear advantage due to your social location. Do you think Yale was going to deny G.W. Bush admission? I sometimes wonder if he had been failing a class in high school or college, and I was the teacher, would I have given him the F he deserved? I think I would have but you don’t know unless you have been there. Would I have been spoken to about it by the school administration? There would likely be repercussions. G.W. Bush is said to have a net worth of 40,000,000 dollars, the Bush Family about 400,000,000 dollars. Mitt Romney is estimated to have a net worth of 250,000,000 dollars. Nancy Pelosi comes in at 140,000,000 dollars, Bill Clinton at 120,000,000 dollars, the Clinton Family at 240,000,000 dollars. All of course state they are religious practitioners, particularly Bush and Romney. They all must be adherents of the prosperity gospel. I’ll tell you one thing, that is going to have to be one freaking giant needle if any of them are going to fit through the eye.
So where does all this fit in when it comes to the practice of peace? In their book: “An Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies” David Barash and Charles Weber do an excellent job of defining peace. They delineate two perspectives. The first is the most common definition called negative peace. This is defined as an absence of war. The second, positive peace, is defined as “a social condition in which exploitation is minimized or eliminated and in which there is neither overt violence nor the more subtle phenomenon of underlying structural violence. It includes an equitable and just social order, as well as ecological harmony. Structural violence is built into our social, cultural and economic institutions. It usually has the effect of denying people important rights such as economic well-being: social, political, and sexual equality; a sense of personal fulfillment and self-worth; food, clean water, and medical care; environmental rights.” This is an incredibly insightful and progressive definition. This focus on human rights is an important shift as it is provides us with specific components of peace. This changes our understanding of peace and challenges the stereotypes. Peace is a science that needs to be understood and practiced for it to become the norm. Structural violence, a major source of it being economic inequality, is at the root of many of our problems.
So who are we and what do we aspire to become? What do we want in our leaders? How do we communicate our needs to them? With a global pandemic causing tremendous suffering on so many levels and revealing the types of structural violence institutionalized in our political and economic structures it is time we examine our values and ethics. Are we indeed our brothers/sisters keepers? Or are some brothers/sisters more equal and deserving than others? While contemplating this you may want to consider directing some of your attention to the eye on that needle. It is going to be a real tight fit for many.