Thursday, February 24, 2011

A thought about leveling

How well have our betters manipulated us such that, when we hear that public-sector employees have better benefit packages than do we, our reaction is to take those benefits away from them, rather than to ask why we don't have them ourselves? 
Quite apart from one's views about any sort of labor disputes—manufactured or not—that are currently occurring, when we see what we take to be injustice shouldn't our natural reaction—or our reasoned one—be to raise up those who are lower rather than (just) to lower those who are higher. To bring everyone down to a lower level is the idea of the smallest of men. And it is beyond ironic that those on the right often level this charge at those they call "socialists" but it's the right that's leveling now.