About Rich White People, Camels, Needles and History
Read Time:4 Minute, 25 Second
I’ve been calling myself a reluctant Democrat for years now, not because I feel some attraction to the Trumpy Horror Picture Show, but because of the rising tide of old-time Marxist class warfare that sees, like the first Christians did, the kingdom of God at hand long after the possibility fades. Of course to both doctrines, rich people are the enemy. Those are defined as those we envy. After all, I would be rich if that guy with the Mercedes were punished, right?
To Jesus of Nazareth, the rich around him would have been the Greco-Roman feudal landowners and the corrupt priesthood owned by the Roman Empire who ran the temple to impoverish the people. One can understand it in that context. Marxism was and always will be a failure, because there are no historical mandates in evolution or economics or anything else, and to make unpopular policies work, one needs ruthless authoritarianism. No religious doctrine can survive freedom or democracy. OK, that’s an oversimplification, but oversimplification is the stuff of politics and journalism.
I read a newspaper article yesterday morning alleging that “rich white people” are, as usual, and always, out to steal from the chosen of God by showing up in low-income areas to get vaccines intended for minorities. Rich? Well, they have cars, and to make the article relevant we will assume wealth. Never mind that “the poor” who also have them are within walking distance yet absent. I experienced that in Indiantown Florida last February. In a town that’s 90% Hispanic, I saw none waiting but elderly white people, many with younger relatives to help them stand for hours. None. I went out there before dawn because there was no other source of vaccinations within 100 miles. I was too late by 5:00 AM but no one told us or the others. Are we going to blame the “rich” for heading for the exits when they smell smoke and see flames? I saw no signs saying “please line up by net worth.” It was first come first served.
Now I’ve been to Pahokee, Florida too. It’s the basis of this story. It’s another poor town on the Eastern shore of Lake Okeechobee where the population seems to be the residue of those who once cut cane and picked fruit when those commodities could support workers long since replaced by machines.
If you know about the sugarcane business, the fields are routinely burned over before planting and that produces dense, black, and sticky smoke. The article begins with the misleading observations that the burning occurs mainly when the wind is from the East and the smoke blows out over the enormous lake and is curtailed when it blows from the West where nearly all the population of Palm Beach County lives. It blows, as the wind does, as the rain falls – over the rich and poor, high rise and trailer park, houses and apartments, high rises and hovels of all sorts, and gated communities of all stripes. Of course, we’re told only about gated communities where “rich white people” live. You know, the people who control the banking system and all the money and oppress the workers about to cast off their chains by ceding all power to the government.
From there we are lead to the observation that on the vaccine lines there were more non-locals than locals – yes, they must all be “rich” elderly white people out to steal from the poor. That’s what they do. There are obviously other factors, mistrust of medicine, fear of immigration enforcement, anti-Vaxxer lies, a need to be at work, and other things, but politics being politics, we only ever discuss one source, one hypothesis, one explanation. It’s about Rich White People – off with their heads.
From experience I know it’s been nearly impossible until quite recently to get an appointment no matter how rich or old or white or mobile or handy with a computer, and of course, no one thinks it’s fair for him to die because of someone else’s political status. Should those who escaped the Nazis feel guilty because others were caught or turned away by the Roosevelt administration? Few I’ve talked to did.
Refugees rarely stay behind because they have a better opportunity to escape, but Democrats or “progressives” who think they are liberal may disagree. History cannot be separated from the historical and moral inevitability of the worker’s revolt. Like the Rapture, it will be here any day. The last shall be first if we have to hang all the rich white people to do it.
It’s not necessary to add the “workers of the world arise” to identify this long and bushy-bearded rhetoric. It should be necessary to explain how this massively discredited tangle of hyperbolic hypotheses we call progressive politics today relates to today’s world, but people still believe, still integrate it into their egos. Hobbes would smile to see us all at war with facts, at war with ourselves; breathing in the incense of hate and denunciation and the ritual running of the scapegoats – calling it Progressive.
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[…] an eye of a needle. Glenn responded that Jesus would never have voiced that socialist malarkey had he taken a walk through today’s America. Glenn is my brother-in-Christ, a self confessed Christian, as am I. One day, perhaps, he […]
This is far from pointless. On the contrary it is right in the mark and speaks to what’s happening in America today.
This isn’t pointless, but I almost deemed it so. This is a capitalist system. The rich go to the head of the line. The allusion that Trump got special treatment [as some Liberals claim] because of wealth is spurious, he got special treatment because he is the President. Biden will get the same special treatment. This article is so sprinkled with a logical fallacy that I’m shocked it got published. It’s not scientific. If you don’t like that wealthy people get special treatment you can go somewhere else…in China, you get special treatment for being part of the Communist Party. And likely you are rich from leveraged political connections. Humans are just like that. They are like that in every time and in every place. Sorry, no insult was intended.
None taken, but we commonly use Capitalism only to mean a society with no restraint, no regulation and every man for himself. That really isn’t the case. When I saw how quickly local and national businesses arose and changed and hired employees in response to the changed needs of food distribution, I gave a cheer to capitalism. The nature of human beings is to take advantage of every opportunity – hence the ubiquitous rise of Capitalism. Capitalism needs other factors to temper it, like a nuclear reactor needs those beryllium rods to keep it stable. Socialism and other factors legal and moral serve that way and are hardly antithetical as commonly seen.
Very eloquent piece Glenn but I think that both you and the MSM have it wrong, not by much. While the cause in the delay in minorities rushing to the vaccination location likely has many causes the one most likely to be at the head of the pack is actually the ” Round Tuit”. They will do it when they get around to it, that is if they get around to it. It is a little bit of fear, a tad bit of laziness, some inconvenience, and some work-related, and a lot of procrastination. Now, this is not just minorities, it is about the poor in general, and in many cases, it is the reason that they are still poor. It is difficult for them to measure the ratio of poor whites not yet vaccinated because they really don’t check the economic status of those receiving vaccinations. But, I would wager that the percentages of those not receiving vaccinations closely follow the economic status of those failing to be vaccinations. Will that change eventually, maybe, maybe not.
Bill, that ’round tuit’ is a perfect descriptor. I have a few friends who are in that position and they tell me it is widespread in their community. As to the assumption that minorities, blacks, in particular, are afraid to get the vaccine because of the Tuskegee Experiment is a lot of crap. The folks living in this neighborhood had never heard of it, and as you point out, they just haven’t got round to it…
I’m the guy who put the PRO in procrastination, but death speaks loudly doncha know.
I used every opportunity to get an appointment and it took forever. It took high speed internet and the desire to get up at 5:30 AM and sit there for hours without having about losing a job and it took the idea of asking the people at Publix if there was a waiting list in case of missed appointments. There was. Not everyone has broadband and not everyone is motivated. Not everyone really follows the news.
The less educated may not be aware of the danger, more likely to believe the fake news – and perhaps that goes double for people with limited English. In the case of Indiantown I mentioned, a high percentage of locals may be farm workers and those tend to be younger than 65 and thus are not eligible anyway and those who are still working need to get to work by dawn and just can’t stand on line until noon. There’s hard times at the mill as Pete Seeger used to sing (and Volvo still does)
Corrupt line-jumping is to be expected: with vaccine distribution splintered over so many state and local distribution authorities who all have “friends”, abuse will be rampant. “Public shaming” is a naive notion. Omitted in this article is the equally predictable mafia-style forcing of decisions (“make him an offer he can not refuse”. Capice?)
Sad to say, you’re right. Corruption can be seen everywhere and it’s always been that way. There’s a furor here in Florida over just that. Our Republican governor gave sole rights to distribute vaccines to a grocery chain who financed Trump’s Jan 6 insurrection and he’s giving more of it to wealthy right wing retirement communities who vote Republicans. A cynic would compare it to Genocide lite. Unfortunately our moral instincts don’t often prevail nor does Democracy. Look at the trouble we have getting legislation to pass even with a large favorable majority. . He will be re-elected. What can be corrupted will be corrupted, said Adam to Eve.
Shame? Is that still around? It doesn’t seem to apply any more.