A couple days ago, I blogged about Pascal Bruckner, a French intellectual who had written a book against the excesses of the environmentalists. I also was reminded that he had written a book complaining about the heavy load of guilt that leftists have laid upon everyone in the West. I looked through my notes for that book, which I read a few years ago, and while I agree with it, I have my own take on this guilt. I say it’s part of Rich People’s Leftism. See here for what I mean by expression.
I claim that rich people generally run leftism, and while they may have good reason to feel guilty about past sins of the West, that doesn’t mean that the average poor person should. After all, the average poor person – and I’m using “poor” rather broadly here to mean anyone in the bottom half economically – shouldn’t be made to feel guilty since (1) their ancestors are not likely to have been involved in sins against the Third World, (2) even if they were involved, it is not likely that they were the instigators of the sins but were merely foot soldiers (either literally or figuratively) in someone else’s enterprise, or (3) in the rare cases that they were instigators, they did it merely because there were no or few other opportunities for them.
Let me illustrate all this using myself and some others I know as examples. My ancestors were poor people in various European countries who migrated to the New World as a way of escaping dire poverty. They just had no part in any imperialist schemes or the slave trade or owning slaves or exploiting anyone. They were just plain poor. Most of my ancestors came to America after the Civil War, so they had no part in Southern slavery, and the ones who came before then lived in the North (near Rochester, NY) and were poor farmers, so again they had no part in slavery. Nor did any of my ancestors have anything to do with pushing Native Americans off their land because that had already been done. My wife’s ancestors also came after the Civil War, and as Jews they were mostly engaged in avoiding pogroms back in Russia than involved in any imperialism. A friend of ours had parents who came from Poland after WWII. His father (a Catholic) had been in some kind of Nazi prison camp beginning at age thirteen, and he came from a poor family. His mother also came from a poor family. I don’t see what there is to feel guilty about in connection with anything our ancestors did. The sins were committed by others.
Some have argued that we all benefitted because of things these others did and that therefore we ought to feel guilty even if our ancestors did nothing. Let me note that this sort of thing wasn’t said by leftists when the plight of the exploited worker was their main focus. It would have been unthinkable. It only began to be said when their focus turned to race, after which it became clear that even if a white were poor, he or she was still advantaged compared with blacks. Yet, obviously, such a person was still disadvantaged compared with plenty of other whites, and that should have been the point made instead of imposing some bogus guilt onto poor people. Finally, let me note that the people who benefitted the most were generally the instigators of these sins and not those who came later. They were the ones who held slaves or ran the slave trade or conquered other lands and captured as much booty as possible. Trying to determine how much I benefitted based on what other Westerners did to make the West successful is a difficult counter-factual to determine, and naturally those who think the West was successful not because of various inventions, the dynamic nature of Western society, and other such things, but because of imperialism over the Third World will disagree with others on how this should be determined. All I say is that those who want to talk about imperialism have skewed things a lot against people who haven’t done anything and whose ancestors didn’t do anything.
But let me point out that rich leftists do have something to feel guilty about. They are the ones whose ancestors owned slaves or traded in them or financed the trading or decided to conquer Third-World peoples or owned factories that exploited workers or owned mines in Africa or did something along these lines that hurt people in the Third World. If anyone should feel guilty about sins perpetrated in the past, it is them.
But why should the rest of us feel guilty?
Not only do rich leftists want the rest of us to feel guilty, they also make poorer people in the West suffer for their ancestors’ sins. What I mean is that in places like Britain or France, they invite immigrants in from former colonies and that they do this out of guilt. And where do those immigrants live? Why, they live among the poor in Britain or France, thus driving up housing prices for them and making jobs harder to get, not to mention the rise in crimes that are likely to be committed in their neighborhoods. Thus, although it was the rich who are likely to deserve to feel guilty, it is not they but the poor who feel the brunt of their actions in assuaging their feelings of guilt.
This is typical of Rich People’s Leftism, and it should be resisted as much as possible
I claim that rich people generally run leftism, and while they may have good reason to feel guilty about past sins of the West, that doesn’t mean that the average poor person should. After all, the average poor person – and I’m using “poor” rather broadly here to mean anyone in the bottom half economically – shouldn’t be made to feel guilty since (1) their ancestors are not likely to have been involved in sins against the Third World, (2) even if they were involved, it is not likely that they were the instigators of the sins but were merely foot soldiers (either literally or figuratively) in someone else’s enterprise, or (3) in the rare cases that they were instigators, they did it merely because there were no or few other opportunities for them.
Let me illustrate all this using myself and some others I know as examples. My ancestors were poor people in various European countries who migrated to the New World as a way of escaping dire poverty. They just had no part in any imperialist schemes or the slave trade or owning slaves or exploiting anyone. They were just plain poor. Most of my ancestors came to America after the Civil War, so they had no part in Southern slavery, and the ones who came before then lived in the North (near Rochester, NY) and were poor farmers, so again they had no part in slavery. Nor did any of my ancestors have anything to do with pushing Native Americans off their land because that had already been done. My wife’s ancestors also came after the Civil War, and as Jews they were mostly engaged in avoiding pogroms back in Russia than involved in any imperialism. A friend of ours had parents who came from Poland after WWII. His father (a Catholic) had been in some kind of Nazi prison camp beginning at age thirteen, and he came from a poor family. His mother also came from a poor family. I don’t see what there is to feel guilty about in connection with anything our ancestors did. The sins were committed by others.
Some have argued that we all benefitted because of things these others did and that therefore we ought to feel guilty even if our ancestors did nothing. Let me note that this sort of thing wasn’t said by leftists when the plight of the exploited worker was their main focus. It would have been unthinkable. It only began to be said when their focus turned to race, after which it became clear that even if a white were poor, he or she was still advantaged compared with blacks. Yet, obviously, such a person was still disadvantaged compared with plenty of other whites, and that should have been the point made instead of imposing some bogus guilt onto poor people. Finally, let me note that the people who benefitted the most were generally the instigators of these sins and not those who came later. They were the ones who held slaves or ran the slave trade or conquered other lands and captured as much booty as possible. Trying to determine how much I benefitted based on what other Westerners did to make the West successful is a difficult counter-factual to determine, and naturally those who think the West was successful not because of various inventions, the dynamic nature of Western society, and other such things, but because of imperialism over the Third World will disagree with others on how this should be determined. All I say is that those who want to talk about imperialism have skewed things a lot against people who haven’t done anything and whose ancestors didn’t do anything.
But let me point out that rich leftists do have something to feel guilty about. They are the ones whose ancestors owned slaves or traded in them or financed the trading or decided to conquer Third-World peoples or owned factories that exploited workers or owned mines in Africa or did something along these lines that hurt people in the Third World. If anyone should feel guilty about sins perpetrated in the past, it is them.
But why should the rest of us feel guilty?
Not only do rich leftists want the rest of us to feel guilty, they also make poorer people in the West suffer for their ancestors’ sins. What I mean is that in places like Britain or France, they invite immigrants in from former colonies and that they do this out of guilt. And where do those immigrants live? Why, they live among the poor in Britain or France, thus driving up housing prices for them and making jobs harder to get, not to mention the rise in crimes that are likely to be committed in their neighborhoods. Thus, although it was the rich who are likely to deserve to feel guilty, it is not they but the poor who feel the brunt of their actions in assuaging their feelings of guilt.
This is typical of Rich People’s Leftism, and it should be resisted as much as possible
Comments