The Lies of Affluence by Wayne Jacobsen— Part II.

Lie #2:  If you work hard enough you can be anything you want to be.  Whenever someone becomes President or wins an award, they claim it’s proof that in America you can be anything you want to be if you dream big and just work hard enough.

On the face of it, this conclusion is absurd.  Only a minuscule percentage of people can make it to the top of any profession, and those usually had some combination of lucky breaks, helpful relationships, or a gift or talent not everyone has.  They want to believe they did it on their own so they can reap the rewards guiltlessly.  But it creates so many false expectations.  Not every child who dreams of being President, a best-selling author, a star athlete, a doctor or even an astronaut will get to be one.  Competition will ensure that only a few will get to live those dreams.

While capitalism gives everyone a shot at success, it tends to reward greed, which is why any industry rewards so few people with exorbitant amounts of money while the average worker makes a pittance in comparison.  I’ve never understood the CEO who works alongside support staff who make a fraction of his salary, or the star athlete who thinks he deserves so much more than his supporting cast.  Capitalism doesn’t reward the hardest workers, but the well-connected.  Whatever tinkering the government does with it should be to mitigate on behalf of those on the lower ends, not sell out to those on the upper ones.

Lie #3:  Every human is equally valued.  By God, yes!  By human societies, or even among societies, far from it!  Even if we confess that all are created equal, in practical terms a culture weights its priorities to those in power.  Some of us grew up with tremendous support systems, parents that championed us, a community that shared a common value of hard work and self-discipline.  Others grow up in communities where it takes every ounce of energy just to survive the influences that pull them into a darker world and every day face biases in society that give them a steeper hill to climb.  The cry of ‘Black Lives Matter’ was not to say that others didn’t, but to get the culture to recognize that in many places people of color are less valued by those in power and put at greater risk by them.

Lie #4:  Inalienable rights apply only to American citizens.  Our forebears fought a Revolution on the premise that all of us are created equal and that our inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are not bestowed by government, but the gift of Providence.  When we think American citizens deserve more than others in the world, we undermine our own revolution.  When you can hold others in contempt for simply wanting the same things you want, you make the world a poorer place.  We would be better served with a more holistic view of the world: knowing that none of us are truly free until we all are.  Nelson Mandela said it best, “To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”

Hooooaaahh ...and amen.

{Editing and Italics Mine}  To be continued....

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
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