I came across this interesting quote from Barack Obama:
“I’ve never believed there are a bunch of people out there who are pulling all the strings and pressing all the buttons. And the reason is that the older I get, the more time I spend meeting people in government or in the corporate arena, the more human everybody becomes. What I do believe is that those with money, those with influence, those with control over how resources are allocated in our society, are very protective of their interests, and they can rationalize infinitely the reasons why they should have more money and power than anyone else, why that’s somehow good for the society as a whole.”
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/05/07/070507fa_fact_macfarquhar#ixzz1U0tuCJYn
“I’ve never believed there are a bunch of people out there who are pulling all the strings and pressing all the buttons. And the reason is that the older I get, the more time I spend meeting people in government or in the corporate arena, the more human everybody becomes. What I do believe is that those with money, those with influence, those with control over how resources are allocated in our society, are very protective of their interests, and they can rationalize infinitely the reasons why they should have more money and power than anyone else, why that’s somehow good for the society as a whole.”
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/05/07/070507fa_fact_macfarquhar#ixzz1U0tuCJYn
Perhaps I am less understanding than Obama; I fret about the extreme protectiveness of their short-term interests the very rich demonstrate around the world, their willingness to risk revolution, epidemics, even environmental catastrophe, through their unwillingness to invest in public goods such as sanitation, public infrastructure, social housing, decent food, drinkable water, clean air... the list goes on and on in places like Brazil, Pakistan, First Nations reserves in Canada (oh yes, even in the Great White North).
But what's even more dispiriting is the enduring false consciousness that makes possible the sanctimonious and self-righteous attitude the very rich in the Third World take towards beggars in the streets; perhaps not all that different than the glowering disregard in affluent countries for 'welfare queens', refugees, gypsies, the homeless. Maybe Marx and Gramsci were right and we really are imprisoned in our class consciousness, incapable of seeing people who don't go to the same country club as having the same rights as us, deserving of our precious tax dollars.
A friend who was caught up in the tsunami in Thailand a few years ago tells the story of a crowd waiting to be evacuated from the disaster zone, most bereft of passport, money, clothing, yet sharing sips of scarce water with each other. The locals, he says, were especially generous. And then there were a few Westerners who wouldn't share the shirt off their back for someone with acute sunburn.
A rather scary metaphor as we burn together on this afflicted planet.
