5 ms·

Where do you observe the promotion of the absurd narrative that says that the rich are better humans?

AlotOfReading 2y ago
Well, you could look at the examples provided, any of various historical (and modern) class systems, great man theory, do a quick search (e.g. https://www.forbes.com/sites/rainerzitelmann/2019/05/08/new-psychological-studies-how-the-wealthy-really-are-different-from-everyone-else/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/rainerzitelmann/2019/05/08/new-...), read self-help literature (e.g. rich dad, poor dad), and so on. It might be harder to find media where that narrative isn't either present or intentionally absent. And just because something is present doesn't mean it's an intentional or complete narrative being promoted by the author. This is simply an idea that's virtually omnipresent in Western societies, like the acceptance of capitalism or the system of colors. Things that challenge these sorts of deeply assumed ideas often seem like attacks on society itself. If you want an author who intentionally addresses it, Ursula Guin has made it a big focus of her works (e.g. Omelas, the hainish cycle).
JadeNB 2y ago
> Where do you observe the promotion of the absurd narrative that says that the rich are better humans? This is kind of like asking where one observes the promotion of the absurd narrative that white people are better people. It's rare to get an explicit source, but you have to benefit from it or be willfully blind to it not to believe it's there. For one example of a reasonably explicit source, a very loud voice in the US agreed that those who benefits from government services are "the parasite class" (https://www.yahoo.com/news/fact-check-musk-reposted-meme-120000227.html https://www.yahoo.com/news/fact-check-musk-reposted-meme-120...). Leaving, therefore, only the wealthy, who (so the narrative goes) impose no burden on others, to be the virtuous, non-parasitic class.
- torginus 2y ago
  Dunno, to me it's quite obvious the rich (as in the asset generating wealth owning) class are the parasitic ones, almost by definition - after all they get mony for doing nothing. Them being 'better' in any sense of the word is weirdly orthogonal and juvenile statement. It doesn't matter if you are a breatthakingly handsome hardworking genius, or you are an ugly imbecile - it's about what assets you own - the whole notion of being better on benchmarks of what humans consider better is irrelevant.
flocciput 2y ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity_theology https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity_theology
pixl97 2y ago
https://www.christianpost.com/news/prosperity-gospel-on-the-rise-among-us-churchgoers.html https://www.christianpost.com/news/prosperity-gospel-on-the-... https://oxfordre.com/religion/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-429 https://oxfordre.com/religion/display/10.1093/acrefore/97801... The idea of prosperity gospel is strong in the US, it doesn't take much more than looking at US elections and seeing the religious poor voting for Trump and using "because he is rich" as one of the reasons for it. This also ties into Milton Friedman's "everyone runs on greed" idealisms that permeate capitalism. I think some of this is because you don't live in the US and get to see behavior like this daily.
- argentinian 2y ago
  Yes, I guess I'm not seeing it as many of you do because I live in a society with different values. Curiosly, in Argentina a popular belief is that "nobody became rich by working" and variations. Being rich here is seen as either the result of luck (born rich) or corruption.

Well, you could look at the examples provided, any of various historical (and modern) class systems, great man theory, do a quick search (e.g. https://www.forbes.com/sites/rainerzitelmann/2019/05/08/new-psychological-studies-how-the-wealthy-really-are-different-from-everyone-else/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/rainerzitelmann/2019/05/08/new-...), read self-help literature (e.g. rich dad, poor dad), and so on. It might be harder to find media where that narrative isn't either present or intentionally absent. And just because something is present doesn't mean it's an intentional or complete narrative being promoted by the author. This is simply an idea that's virtually omnipresent in Western societies, like the acceptance of capitalism or the system of colors. Things that challenge these sorts of deeply assumed ideas often seem like attacks on society itself. If you want an author who intentionally addresses it, Ursula Guin has made it a big focus of her works (e.g. Omelas, the hainish cycle).

JadeNB 2y ago

> Where do you observe the promotion of the absurd narrative that says that the rich are better humans? This is kind of like asking where one observes the promotion of the absurd narrative that white people are better people. It's rare to get an explicit source, but you have to benefit from it or be willfully blind to it not to believe it's there. For one example of a reasonably explicit source, a very loud voice in the US agreed that those who benefits from government services are "the parasite class" (https://www.yahoo.com/news/fact-check-musk-reposted-meme-120000227.html https://www.yahoo.com/news/fact-check-musk-reposted-meme-120...). Leaving, therefore, only the wealthy, who (so the narrative goes) impose no burden on others, to be the virtuous, non-parasitic class.

torginus 2y ago
Dunno, to me it's quite obvious the rich (as in the asset generating wealth owning) class are the parasitic ones, almost by definition - after all they get mony for doing nothing. Them being 'better' in any sense of the word is weirdly orthogonal and juvenile statement. It doesn't matter if you are a breatthakingly handsome hardworking genius, or you are an ugly imbecile - it's about what assets you own - the whole notion of being better on benchmarks of what humans consider better is irrelevant.

flocciput 2y ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity_theology https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity_theology

pixl97 2y ago

https://www.christianpost.com/news/prosperity-gospel-on-the-rise-among-us-churchgoers.html https://www.christianpost.com/news/prosperity-gospel-on-the-... https://oxfordre.com/religion/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-429 https://oxfordre.com/religion/display/10.1093/acrefore/97801... The idea of prosperity gospel is strong in the US, it doesn't take much more than looking at US elections and seeing the religious poor voting for Trump and using "because he is rich" as one of the reasons for it. This also ties into Milton Friedman's "everyone runs on greed" idealisms that permeate capitalism. I think some of this is because you don't live in the US and get to see behavior like this daily.

argentinian 2y ago
Yes, I guess I'm not seeing it as many of you do because I live in a society with different values. Curiosly, in Argentina a popular belief is that "nobody became rich by working" and variations. Being rich here is seen as either the result of luck (born rich) or corruption.