Inequality

I’ve been thinking about inequality. I think of Niccolo Machiavelli, William Shakespeare, Abraham Lincoln, Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford, Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, Albert Einstein, Adolf Hitler, Henry Fonda, Pete Rose, Barbara Streisand, Bill Gates, Chris Hadfield, Wayne Gretsky, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and others who have made their mark with some degree of inequality in appearance, skill, smarts, endurance, drive, daring, luck, and other attributes possessed in abundance. Most of these individuals are admired; some are abhorred. Most of the time, we stop short of mutilating the beautiful, breaking the limbs of the physically skilled, rationing the oxygen to those who endure, beating on the ones with drive, and sabotaging the ones with luck. But we do impede, persecute, shame, ridicule, and admire those who excel. We heap admiration, fame, and money on those few who reach pinnacles. Yet, when individuals become financially wealthy, we dream up reasons why they gained unfair advantages. Do we steal from them because we can? Do we have the slightest moral fiber? Why do we condemn rather than admire?

Many of the financially wealthy found ways to manipulate the levers of power. When we assume those levers, we can stop manipulating. Superior individuals will always be amongst us. Let’s learn from them, manage their access to manipulating forces, and be inspired by their achievements. Most villagers don’t want the obligations and burdens involved in gaining and preserving wealth. Yet we succumb to stealing from the wealthy.

Until we embrace individual responsibility, we grant power to cliques. Cliques manipulate.

Fellow villagers; engage, learn, achieve, be happy, and stop stealing.