Naomi Klein’s new book starts on a mountaintop with two “faithful men gathering an audience to share their vision”. It’s a vision of a paradise city, gated at every entrance, no need for weapons there, everyone in it rich. One of the men has tears in his eyes as he describes its beauty. The opening scene of End Times Fascism, co-written with Astra Taylor, is not a metaphor, however. The men are Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff. The year is 2026, the mountain is Davos. The paradise city will be called New Gaza.
The only way to rationalize having that much wealth is to believe you deserve it.
“money corrupts” has been a truism since the invention of wealth
or our system works such that deranged individuals get to the top. Like me. There is an amount of money where Im sure I would stop trying to make any more. Once I had enough to live a comfortable life and could sustain it even if my money earned no interest relative to inflation until I was like 100. I would stop trying. Its kinda hard to fall into that exact amount so there should be some excess that I could use to help people.
This “paradise” could never exist because human psychology and social behavior tell us that some need to feel authority over others (and the benefits that come with that) and some need to feel someone has authority over them. Even among the rich they’d never be equals.
I feel no need for an authority over someone or someone over me but I do feel a need for a society of laws that do not allow bad behavior like killing, rape, theft, etc. that psychological need maybe for some X% of the the populace but there are certainly folks who don’t need that as a thing unto itself.
I agree but I wasn’t thinking of basic rules enforcement, more social status seeking. “If my neighbors are millionaires I have to be a billionaire.”
My thing is I would like to be the lowest person on the planet where that is not a bad life. Like I would seriously like that more than being the richest man today. I mean think about it. If you had all that money could you influence the world enough where everyone had a decent life. Still seems unachievable.
The utopia is called: Omelas
That’s because people start treating you like a supreme being – so they can siphon the wealth.
Financial obesity is neurotoxic, an existential threat to any society that tolerates it, and needs to cease being celebrated, rewarded, and positioned as an aspirational goal.
Corporations are the only ‘persons’ which should be subjected to capital punishment, but trillionaires should be forced to transition into billionaires, and billionaires should be euthanised through taxation.