©1996-2009 Roedy Green, Canadian Mind Products
A certain freedom and a certain equality passed out of human life when men ceased to wander. Men paid in liberty and paid in toil, for safety, shelter and regular meals. By imperceptibe degrees, the common man found the patch he cultivated was not his own; it belonged to the god, and he had to pay a fraction of his produce to the god. Or the god had given it to the king, who exacted his rent and tax. Or the king had given it to an official, who was the lord of the common man. And sometime the god or the king or the noble had work to be done, and then the common man had to leave his patch and work for his master.Historically, as soon as populations grow to a certain size, they stratify. A elite class forms. The entire society creates a myth to maintain the stability of the elite. The Egyptians created the myth that their Pharaoh was a divine being. The Hindus created the caste system supported by the myth of rebirth merit to justify the extreme privilege of the Brahmins. The European nobility created the myth of their inherent genetic bloodline superiority. The North Americans created the myth that those who had wealth or who were children of those of wealth were superior people, harder working, and more intelligent.
~ H. G. Wells (born: 1866-09-21 died: 1946-08-13 at age: 79) The Outline of History page 228.
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recommend book⇒The Theory of The Leisure Class | ||
| paperback | hardcover | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| ISBN13: | 978-0-14-018795-3 | 978-0-8488-1659-9 | |
| publisher: | Penguin | ||
| published: | 1994-02-01 | ||
| by: | Thorstein Veblen | ||
| This is one of the most amusing books I ever read. It is funny by being so on. He coined the terms conspicuous consumption and conspicuous waste to explain modern status displays. | |||
Oddly, you find the non-elites equally enthusiastically supporting the privilege of the elites. For example, in the USA, the majority of ordinary Americans voted Republican in 2004, thus endorsing a tax holiday for the wealthy. Most Britons are happy to fund the pomp of Queen Elizabeth.
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recommend book⇒Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class — and what we can do about it. | |||
| paperback | hardcover | kindle | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ISBN13: | 978-1-57675-463-4 | 978-1-57675-414-6 | B001AFF25M | |
| publisher: | Berrett-Koehler Publishers | |||
| published: | 2006-09-01 | |||
| by: | Thom Hartmann | |||
| Hartmann argues that historically the wealthy elite have always worked to eliminate the middle class, and hence stomp out democracy. They can then run things for their own ultimate financial benefit. We are going through a period now where the middle class is collapsing as a result of the corporatocracy and wealth of the tiny elite at the top is exploding. Since they control the media, they spread all manner of myths that make people vote against their own self interest in favour of those of the elites. The book also discusses how the war business hijacks government to provide it with endless streams of money for perpetual unnecessary war. | ||||
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recommend book⇒The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger | |
| hardcover | ||
|---|---|---|
| ISBN13: | 978-1-60819-036-2 | |
| publisher: | Bloomsbury Press | |
| published: | 2009-12-22 | |
| by: | Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson Hartmann | |
| The book explains the research that shows that equality, even more than economic growth, determines wellbeing. Equality improves health, lowfulness, civil participation and trust. The wealthieset citizen of the most equal countries are better off than the wealthiest citizens in the unequal countries like Britain and the USA. Further, inequality fosters consumerism and ecological destruction. At the time of writing this book has still not been published. I learned about it from a speech by Ed Broadbent, former leader of the NDP at the NDP convention in Halifax. | ||
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