Sipmpson Shirley Changed My Mind
Plans can and (sometimes) should change…
I was going to write an article called Slave Mentality. I had it all planned out. It was going to be about how the word slave comes from the Latin word sclavus meaning captive.
(footnote: this came after the Slavonic peoples were conquered in the 9th C and many were enslaved. I’m one of those peoples, in fact, most languages of Eastern Europe are still very similar, ex. the word for pigeon is Golub whether written in Latin or Cyrillic alphabet)
How many of us feel captive today? We’re made to think we have choices, and perhaps we do, but at what cost? I was going to write (or rant) about employers who think that fairies do the work that makes them profit, or it gets done magically by itself, and they can just pick up the cash. Come on! If the work is being done, SOMEONE is doing it! It is NOT being done by itself. So who is doing the work compared to who is being paid?
I was going to write about the captives and the captors. What is each side thinking?
And then Sipmpson shirley wrote a comment on my comment on this article. Which led me to this article. That article alone made me want to read more about MacKenzie Scott So I read this article, and then to top it all off I read this article. It said a lot of good stuff, but my favourite was right there in the first paragraph:
“There’s no question in my mind that anyone’s personal wealth is the product of a collective effort, and of social structures which present opportunities to some people, and obstacles to countless others.”
One person being aware of this made me change my mind about the article I was working on. I no longer want to write about the problem. I want to write about this one person who is aware of reality. Why isn’t this in the main media?
I cannot explain how good it made me feel to read this. It was like seeing light at the end of the tunnel — excuse the cliché.
That article is the truth. If it wasn’t, thank you speeches at the Oscars would be very different. In fact, they might not even exist.
Why can’t more people see this, see that they did not ‘earn’ their wealth all on their own, with one hand, no thumb? Why is it okay to take what you know belongs to another person, especially if the other person is suffering?
I thought it was the slave mentality; some insane mix of if you have a chance to hold someone captive, take it and if you are being held captive, look on the bright side, it could be worse. Two extremes that need to find a balance if our society is to have hope, and those articles are the hope, as far as I’m concerned.
While I do not believe America is all that great, in fact, I think it might be in freefall (this is not surprising, all societies go up and down), there are virtues and the best one is their idea of liberty. Even if it isn’t real, pushing for it and having it on the agenda as one of the priorities is great. Freedom is worth the fight.
I feel like I should end this article by quoting Mel Gibson in Braveheart before I write about Mackenzie.