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    Occupy Envy

    By Donal on Tue, 11/29/2011 - 9:30pm | Social Justice

     

    Occupy Baltimore plans to "put on a show." 
    We will be having the first meeting of those theatrically minded individuals interested in performing street theater renditions of social justice related works. Our first production will be a half hour rendition of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
    Not sure how you play Dickens in half an hour.
     

    Meanwhile, in What You Don't Often Hear About Those 'Greedy' One Percenters, Forbes Magazine revives Rush Limbaugh's politics of envy trope - a tirade he aimed at anyone that dared suggest the rich were not deservedly different than you and me.

    The rise of the Occupy Wall Street movement has brought with it a renewed emphasis on the impoverishing notion of envy. To the Occupiers, along with much of the political class, society’s economic rules favor the top 1 percent at the certain expense of the other 99.

    Great rhetoric for sure, but also quite a lot of nonsense. People who should know better bemoan the economic means possessed by the 1 percent, but rarely do they consider the gargantuan efforts required by those at the top to get there in the first place.

    I read this and thought about Lisa from Occupy the Highway. I already wrote that Lisa had studied hard and worked hard and only wanted the system to work as advertised so she could get married and raise a family. Was that envy? She also told me that she had been ready to marry a fellow, and he was ready to marry her, but his parents threatened to disown him because her family wasn't rich enough. Who were the envious ones? And her boss laid her off so he could give her job to one of his relatives. Where was the envy there?

    "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."


    Occupy represents the politics of outrage, not envy.

    We admire people that earn money - unless they become twisted by it. We aren't envious of Scrooge. Scrooge has riches, but can't enjoy them. 

    We admire people that work hard and achieve a lot - unless they cheat. We aren't envious of Bernie Madoff. He lost his son, his wealth, his freedom. But Scrooge reformed and Madoff was caught and punished.

    We aren't envious of the banksters. We are outraged that they were rewarded for ruining the economy for the rest of us. We aren't envious of the Kochs. We are outraged that they can buy and sell politicians. 

    Envy, an insatiable desire, is what drives the 1%, not the Occupiers. You can probably throw in Greed, Pride, Gluttony and a bit of Lust, too. Envy drives the 1% to rig the system so they can have a more impressive car, a bigger house and an account at Tiffany's. 
     

    Envy, also a desire to deprive others, is what drives the political agenda of the rich. In What Could a Gingrich Presidency Mean For Your Finances?, Forbes offers bullet points. Notice how many of them represent the insatiety and deprivation typical of Envy. 

    Make the Bush tax cuts permanent. 
    Eliminate the estate tax. 
    End the capital gains tax. 
    Cut the corporate income tax. 
    Create an optional flat tax. 
    Repeal the Community Reinvestment Act and Dodd-Frank. 
    Deregulate the energy sector. 
    Repeal the Obama health care plan. 
    Replace Social Security with personal accounts. 
    Replace Medicare with private health insurance plans. 

    There's your Politics of Envy in a nutshell.

     

    Topics: 
    Social Justice

    Comments

    I had a radio play script for A Christmas Carol a long time ago that ran only about 30-45 min.

    So it can be done but it does leave out a good bit.


    by cmaukonen on Tue, 11/29/2011 - 9:40pm

    Marley - "Tonight, you will be visited by three spirits!"

    Scrooge - "I'll pass."

    <knock on door>

    Marley - "Gotta be somewhere, Eb." <leaves>

    <door opens, three spirits enter>

    Xmas Past - "Hello!" <sung>

    Xmas Present - "Hello!" <sung>

    Xmas Future - "Hello!" <sung>

    All Spirits - "Hello." <in unison, but not sung>

    Scrooge - <sotto voce> Hoo boy!


    by Donal on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 8:15am

    Great post, Donal.

    Steve Forbes' gargantuan effort to acquire his wealth? Like he kept breathing long enough to inherit it.


    by Oxy Mora on Tue, 11/29/2011 - 10:36pm

    Yes, but you don't understand.  He likes it.


    by Michael Maiello on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 12:17pm

    Where economic equality is in dispute, there are two issues: utility and justice.

    Personally, I have long favored an egalitarian economic agenda because I believe something approaching economic equality is a necessary condition for real democracy, and because I believe genuine, full-blooded democracy would be a very good way to organize a society.  Democracy is the system most conducive to long-term stability, civil peace and social solidarity, and most resilient in the face of crises and evolutionary change.  It's also more humane and decent then alternatives.  Differences in wealth will always correspond to differences in political power, and so economic inequality poses an abiding threat to democracy.  So economic equality is useful in promoting the good of society.  Without it, an aspiring democracy devolves into a feudalistic caste system.

    In the matter of justice, some are of a mind to view human beings as something like machines that pump out value.  They think the most appropriate distribution of wealth is one in which people receive back value in proportion to the value they have pumped out.   So on this conception of economic justice, no matter what enables people to pump out the value they do pump out - circumstances of birth, genetic endowments, fortunate encounters with positive mentors - they are entitled to a commensurate reward for what they generate.  Smarter, stronger and more beautiful people should be compensated more than the slow, the weak and the ugly, because their brains, brawn and beauty are more valuable to the world.

    I just don't share that conception of justice.  I think we should all aspire to work in team-oriented ways as members of cooperative societies.  As teammates, we must ask things of one another that are conducive to team success, and that are appropriate and reasonable tasks to assign given the different talents and passions we possess.  People should be compensated according to how well they fulfill the reasonable tasks that have been assigned to them, without regard to the overall value of that task.

    I think a lot of people share this egalitarian team-oriented conception of justice, but that it is crushed out of them by ideological training and ridicule.  They are lectured not to be "afraid of success" and not to be "losers."   They are taught to prefer individual domination  to team achievement.  Eventually the ridicule and training wears down their moral compunctions and has its effect.


    by Dan Kervick on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 12:11am

    Cal Thomas also bangs the envy drum:

    As a young reporter, I interviewed many successful people. "Where did you go to college and what did you study?" I asked them. "What is your philosophy of life and work ethic?" Rather than envy them, I wanted to be like them.

    This is what's missing from the envy culture of the movement known as Occupy Wall Street (OWS). Envy is greed's equally bad brother. Those who lack what they think they deserve lust after the money and property of wealth creators. They seem to know little of what used to be called the "work ethic."

    If Thomas actually listened to Occupy protestors, he would hear that most of them would be happy to work hard for pay, and are in fact protesting hard for no pay. Conservative media pundits know that it's a persistently high unemployment rate that is driving OWS, but it's convenient and comforting to dismiss it as envy—a capital sin they know all too well. 


    by Donal on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 9:18am

    Doing a Christmas Carol through street theater is a positively excellent idea.  Just about everybody knows the basic storyline and agrees basically that Scrooge needed to reform himself (but needed a little help to see the light).  Getting people to look at the 1% issue through this prism I think can be very powerful.

    "God bless us, every one."


    by Elusive Trope on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 9:19am

    Occupy Baltimore denied request to continue outdoor protest

    The city has rejected Occupy Baltimore’s request to continue their outdoor protest downtown until spring time, saying the group’s encampment violates the city’s laws against permanent camping in public parks and green spaces.

    Ryan O’Doherty, a spokesman for Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, said Wednesday the city will enforce the camping prohibition “at a time of its choosing” and won’t share its plans with the news media. ...

    ... O’Doherty noted that “each city’s own circumstances in dealing with encampments is different and a violent confrontation has been avoided here.”

    O'Doherty is now considered a shoo-in for the role of Pawnbroker:

    PAWNBROKER

    We couldn’t have met in a better place to do our nasty deeds.  Come inside.  Shh!  You’re so noisy you could wake the dead!

    MRS. COBBLER

    Just so it ain’t ’em it wakes.

    PAWNBROKER

    No chance of that!  He’s cold as a kipper by now!

    (ALL Laugh)


    by Donal on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 11:10am

    It is not Envy, I only want to be free.

    With a roof over my head and food on the table I will be satisfied.

    Instead we are kept hungry and homeless;  to be enslaved to serve others.

    If it weren't for the taxes on my house and property, I wouldn't need to slave for another.

     

    "They shall build houses and inhabit them;

    they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

    They shall not build and another inhabit;

    they shall not plant and another eat;

    for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,

     and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands".

    (Isaiah 65:21-22 ESV)

     

    I don't want to slave for riches or the rich.


    by Resistance on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 7:09pm

    Jeeze, seeing those bulletpoints at the end in black and white scared the hell out of me. Frightening, truly.

    Fantastic summation post, Donal.

     


    by Jeni Decker on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 10:05pm

     

     


    by Richard Day on Fri, 12/02/2011 - 3:50pm


    by Verified Atheist on Sat, 12/03/2011 - 8:47am

    Thought you might like my Occupy themed version of A Christmas Carol

     


    by Celestial Elf (not verified) on Sun, 12/04/2011 - 5:46am

    Very surreal, almost like a Christmas Carol mashup at Otakon or ComicCon.


    by Donal on Sun, 12/04/2011 - 10:01am