Welcome to the New Dark Age
America today is under renewed assault by Dark Age ideas that elevate humankind’s worst tendencies while discouraging the better angels of our nature. I want to look at three such ideas in this post.
Let’s call the first Dark Age idea wealth=goodness. If you’re rich, you must be good. You deserve your riches, no matter what, because you earned them, end of discussion. This is true even if, as Donald Trump puts it, you’re a member of the “lucky sperm club.” (It’s also helpful if you’re a Bernie Madoff or Benny Judah type.) Conversely, if you are poor it indicates a moral failing.
This conflation of good finances with good morality is definitely an American phenomenon, but it’s also as old as civilization. Along the way, pretty much every major world religion has arrived at the opposite conclusion: excessive wealth is a sign of moral weakness. Some American religions have missed that memo, however. To get more insight into the very real way the wealth=goodness worldview is used in America today, check out Jeff Sharlet’s excellent book The Family. It does a fine job of illustrating the history of certain American fundamentalist Christians who curry favor with the world’s wealthy and powerful with some variation of “Hey, mister rich and powerful man… did you know that God loves you just the way you are?”
During the health care reform debate, a related Dark Age belief that I never expected to encounter slithered to the surface: “If you are healthy, it is a sign of moral goodness; if you are ill, it is a sign of moral weakness.” (our second Dark Age idea: health=goodness) I think such a disgusting belief was tolerated in our marketplace of ideas precisely because 1) the wealth=goodness belief was already out there in a very real way, and 2) the quality of health care you receive in the USA depends greatly on your personal wealth. Connect the Dark Age dots and you get the worldview that good people can take care of their health while bad people can’t.
Another Dark Age idea related to wealth=goodness is that old playground taunt that some folks never grow out of: “If you’re so smart, how come you’re not rich?” (The correct playground retort, of course, is: “If you’re so rich, how come you’re not happy?”) This is another Dark Age idea with an American twist that we’ll call success=wealth. The essence of this idea is that if you’re wealthy, you have succeeded. Moreover, wealth is the only measure of success. And, as with the above ideas, the opposite relation is implied: if you’re not wealthy then you are a failure.
When folks ask me why I am a Democrat, my answer usually includes the antidote to the success=wealth Dark Age idea. The Democratic Party is the Party that celebrates the success of working families and protects them from those who would step on them while climbing the ladder to “success” (wealth). We need to celebrate the success that is raising a family, belonging to a real neighborhood community, taking pride in your work, serving your country, or any number of other beautiful, non-material achievements.
What do you think? Are we witnessing the dawn of a New Dark Age? I think we are in danger of a New Dark Age if we let ideas like wealth=goodness, health=goodness, and success=wealth prevail in our society. I also think we can avoid this danger if we identify and confront Dark Age ideas when they rear appear in our lives. And believe me, they will appear.
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July 18th, 2010 at 8:41 am
In my opinion, this article have portrayed the political and cultural situation the United States finds itself in for at least the past fifty years. Morality has been downplayed in favor of ethics, which means that knowing right from wrong does not necessarily mean you have to choose the right course of action. A moral man would though. Too often everything seems to be a means to an end, and that end is success=wealth. It doesn’t seem to matter how you got there, just as long as you have arrived. You are in the money.
As individuals, we have become extremely selfish and egocentric, much like our corporations. On the one hand, we give generously, and on the other, we take as generously as well, whether it is to bolster our image in the media or to donate to charity, only to write that charity off on taxes, which is about the same as telling the Federal government how to spend our tax dollar. This is not sacrifice. This is not real charity. But for the charitable institutions, it is better than nothing. False benevolence in the face of pain is better solace than nothing at all.
After reading this article, I believe we have been living in a new Dark Ages for a long time. The kingdoms are corporations, the CEOs reign supreme as monarchs, and the people of this great land have become serfs to a global take-over. All of this can be stopped. It takes the people to rise up and vote the zealots out of office who have sold their souls and the lives of their constituents to the big glass and steel palaces. It takes a change of thinking back to a more conscientious time of “We, the people” and not “We, the corporations.” It takes striking a line from the 14th amendment to the Constitution that empowered corporations as individuals, giving them the same rights as people, if not more. They already have the money that monarchs are made of.
July 19th, 2010 at 11:12 am
Well Darian, you might be right. Maybe these are more timeless problems, and they just come more into fashion at different times.
I agree very strongly about the view of corporations as modern feudalism. The clues are there in history as well — everything from corporations beginning as royal appendages, to “new money” corporations marrying into “old money” royalty. The barons and dukes of the world now live in globalized glass and steel palaces, as you say.
July 20th, 2010 at 10:33 am
So you suggest that we should use legislation and force the removal of wealth from people and redistribute it to the poorer among us? If not then why are you posting this on a political blog? Seems like more progressivism, of take from the rich and give to the poor. Because the rich stole it from the poor… ? or what? Are you poor ? Have you earned your success? Let’s say since your doing moderately well in life, and we need to take part of your profits and redistribute them to the person who decided to work at McDonalds because they didn’t want to go to class during high school. They also decided to not ever brush their teeth and now has bad infections in their gums. We need to take your money and pay for dental work on this person in order to raise their quality of life. Your life is a result of your choices and because of free markets, will, and people we are allowed to choose our path in life and our destination is a result of these choices. Let’s not have government decide how we redistribute wealth to people who wont appreciate it anyway and just be good honest people who help others who need it. Minus the legislation. BIG GOVERNMENT = BIG CORPORATION If I’m totally off base with your post then please define your solution to the problem.