let me tell you a story:
once upon a time, there was a man……
but as with any story, it really doesn’t begin once you are a man,
it really begins, individually, once you are born…
a man is born… into a certain set of assumptions, and ism’s
and ideologies, prejudices and superstitions… to name a few
things this man, this child was born into…to believe in a certain god… this god was
name Elohim or perhaps it was Johovah or perhaps it Allah… it is so hard to
keep track of the one god’s name when he had so many different and diverse
names… anyway, this family indoctrinated this child into their family religion…
and they indoctrinated this child into the state ism for political understanding
and they indoctrinated this child into an economic understanding…
they indoctrinated this child/man into a political ideology called
Unum hominem democractiam…and the economic ideology was
called Unum hominem capitalismus…
the family believed very fervently in these state religion/political ideology/
economic ideology…and so they taught this young child/man all about
these political and economic wonders that so dominated the world…
the young man grew up as young men do, and he was a feverent
believer in this political and economic belief systems…
we might ask ourselves, why did the man believe so strongly in these
systems? because no other system was taught to him… it was all he
knew… and when all you know is one thing, you believe fervorently
in that one thing…for not to believe in the only system offered to you,
is nihilism…
as this fine young man grew into adulthood, he soon became aware of
small failures in the systems he was taught, both in the economic
and in the political system, these small gliches shouldn’t have happened
if, if the system was a good as everyone had said it was…
if the economic system was as good as everyone said it was,
why was there people starving on the streets and why were there
children being homeless on the streets…
he asked the wise elders and they said, these people who were
starving and homeless… it is their own fault they are in poverty…
they don’t work hard enough to support their families…
the young man thought about it…… how is it possible that all these
people, millions of people didn’t work hard enough… I have seen them
working, they seem to work very hard… they suffer from having the lowest
jobs in their society and by doing so, they are paid very low wages……
it seemed to the young man, that the problem laid with the wages offered
to these people, not that they worked hard…
when he asked the elders about this, to a person, they denied this
was true… each one swore, swore upon their very gods, that the reason
people were homeless was because they were lazy, good for nothing bums…
they starved because they were far too lazy to work…
but the young man had seen these so called lazy people work very hard,
very hard for pennies… while these elders seem to have no wants…
he asked all the wise people he knew and they said, the elders were special
people who because they were special, they were privileged and had no wants…
this young one asked, so these elders worked hard for their money? why, yes,
all the wise people said… but when this young man sought to confirm the
fact that the village elders were hard workers, he found out that every single one
of them had in fact inherited their wealth…
they were wealthy from birth… they didn’t have to work… but this young man
was confused… these people had wealth handed to them, and yet, millions of
people were not handed wealth and suffered from it…how was this fair?
and so he asked the wise people, how was it fair that some inherited wealth
and other go without and all from being born into the right family or wrong family?
Life isn’t fair… that is what he was told… so, if life isn’t fair, then
perhaps those homeless people were handed an unfair sentence of suffering
in the streets because they weren’t born into wealth… it had nothing to do
with the amount of work they did, they simply weren’t born into the right
families? “oh, no, they didn’t work hard enough was the answer about the
homeless in the street”… but you said, life was unfair… how is it fair not
to be born into the right family? and the final answer came as final answers
always come, you are too young to understand… you are too naïve… childish…
you are unable to comprehend the complexities of civilization…….
so said the elders to this young man……….
but this young man understood…….
so the young man being determined to understand why, relentlessly
began a search into why this society lacked charity and compassion for
the people and children living in the streets……
as the years passed, the young man became as young men do,
an adult…… so this man was told he must contribute to society,
he must get a job, he must pay for his own way…….
but why? I am searching for understanding of why society
cares so little for the disadvantaged living in that society…
and the young man was berated about how he owed society for
his excellent childhood… owed society… but society apparently
doesn’t own anything to these homeless people or to any disadvantaged
people living in that society…individuals owed to society but
society didn’t owe to people… how exactly did that work, he wonder?
and so he began to ask people…of why we owe to society but society doesn’t owe to us…
and a few, ok, none wanted to answer his question…….
why won’t people engage in some understanding of the society they live in?
why do we owe to society but society doesn’t owe to us?
a simple enough question, but one no one wants to answer……
so to understand your story… ask yourself, why do we owe society
but society doesn’t owe us?
thus ends some of the young man’s questions…for now
Kropotkin