The solutions to so many of the world’s problems are not only right in front of our faces, but have been in front of our faces for centuries. By now we know how wealth is created: free trade, the rule of law, the protection of property rights and a stable monetary system. Wealth creation gives us everything we value: hospitals, museums, schools, food, transportation; virtually everything. Yet, despite the knowledge that wealth creation is good and knowing the most efficacious manner to produce this good, we stumble. Why? There is a dark force in the world that wants us to stumble. It whispers into the ears of the ignorant. It lies. It knows what it is doing, and it manipulates. Our fallen human nature creates an opening, and this clever son of a bitch knows how to exploit our weaknesses. The worst of these is our predisposition to want what others have. This jealousy eventually leads to hatred, and all the great catastrophes inflicted upon humanity are a result of this evil manipulator cleverly steering us to our own demise.
From a rational economic view, it makes no sense to hate or be jealous of others who have more “stuff” than we do. It is their capital at work in the world driving productivity and enhancing opportunity and ultimately creating wealth for all of us. Don’t hate a rich person, give him a hug. If philanthropic forces led a concentrated effort to explain the beauty of wealth creation and supply-side economics to the masses, there likely would be less hatred of others. Hey, Bill Gates, are you listening? But even if all 8 billion people on earth understood these things, there would still be hatred and jealousy of the ”haves” by the “don’t have as much.” Why? I’m telling you folks, it’s spiritual. We are rational creatures, but our defective qualities often override our rationality.
For hundreds of years, European nations warred against each other. All of the territorial aspirations of Napoleon did nothing to make France any richer than if it had a giant free market with the other great European nations. And how much richer would France, England and the other great powers have been in 1815 had they not been at war? These were great Christian nations fighting, killing and destroying each other. Perhaps they understood Christianity but were woefully ignorant of the miracles of capitalism and free markets? Perhaps, they didn’t really understand either. They felt that they had to “take from others” to secure wealth. But taking is but a temporary dopamine hit. It may assuage covetous lust, but it does not produce wealth.
During the 2020 “Summer of George Floyd Love,” I remember watching the mob march through Windsor Farms, a bucolic Richmond neighborhood laid out as an English village with homes worth millions. The mob was filled with hate, no doubt because none of these folks would ever live in such a house. If a member of the mob just “took” any of these $ 2 million Tudor homes, within a month, all the windows would be broken and the grass in the yards would be 2 feet high. Taking does not create wealth. Smart industrious people using their capital to produce what others buy voluntarily through no government coercion creates wealth and this wealth transforms society upwards. The same argument is true for nations. Yet, the same spiritual forces that cause our rational senses to succumb to jealousy and hatred drive nations to destroy themselves and each other.
I remember being 23 years old and watching Chariots of Fire when Lord Cadagan stated “In my day it was King first and God after.” I kind of agreed with him. Rah, rah, Rule Britannia! Miracle of miracles, I have gotten wiser, and I now realize the truth in the Duke of Southerland’s retort: “Yes, and the War To End Wars bitterly proved your point!” World War I was a stupid ass war. England, a great force for good in the world began to lose its trading empire which had brought civilization, wealth and order to much of the world. The Germans, perhaps the most cultured people in the world slowly descended into barbarism as Hitler later became Chancellor. Nearly 900,000 Brits died, 2,000,000 Germans died. For what? Their wealth, the source that creates all things good, and likely the reason they fought their war to begin with, was decimated. Each country wasted their national treasures creating “spheres of influence” and then trying to hold these regions via military might. But true spheres of influence are created via voluntary transactions among people. What could England and Germany possibly have achieved when deciding to go to war that they could not have gotten in much more plentiful form through free and robust trade with one another? It made no sense, but yet it makes perfect sense if you understand the historical context and supporting tenets of Judeo-Christian heritage. If you have never read the bible or studied theology, remember this one rule. The Dark Prince will always try to divide us and have us hate one another.
You may be a secular humanist, a Druid, a Buddhist or Socratic philosopher, but whatever you are this hatred of what other people have is the most destructive force in history and the root cause of all the great human catastrophes. Capital investment generated from wealth creating endeavors has produced unimaginable living standards and opportunities that not only has the world never seen, but no one 100 years ago could even contemplate how good we all have it today. There’s just one problem. Ourselves. If everybody is dirt poor, no one covets what others have. However, when everyone is rich, our fallen human nature kicks in and we begin to covet, and then we are led to hate those who have what we want, but don’t have. This, my friends, is the vexing conundrum that has caused all the problems in the world, and is the devilish force that ultimately ends up destroying us and our wealth.
We know how to produce wealth, but do we know how to keep from destroying ourselves? As a nation we make preparations to fight many perceived enemies: covid, so called climate change, the Russians, and most illogically our own trading partners by erecting tariffs and barriers to trade. But our biggest enemy is the one within, and there is no national debate on defeating this enemy. Since I am a pettifogging scoundrel and a thoroughly bad apple, I am not the best spokesman to give a sermon on this issue. It would be akin to Whoopi Goldberg giving diet and exercise advice. However, if I wasn’t such a rotten egg, this is what I would say:
The Left hates, and it wants to destroy. Like the Dark Prince, it is clever on how it disguises its hatred and desire for our ruin. Our nation’s venerable institutions that have served us so well and created the miraculous times we inhabit are under attack for no other reason but for this religion of destruction.
One can read the Greek Gnostics, Marcus Aurelius or a number of other self-help books to be a better person. In these instances, a person attempts to elevate themselves to be more godlike. My tribe believes this doesn’t really work, we can only shake the chains of our imperfections by allowing God to dwell inside us, and if we allow this to happen, a transformation occurs, and it is actually possible to love those our imperfect human nature tells us to hate. We will never be perfect, but that light within us has a powerful ability to squelch the darkness in others.
Jesus walked on water and raised the dead, and very few believed him when he said there was a way to keep us from hating each other, so why should y’all believe me? Afterall, Jesus never got thrown in jail for violating the curfew at Sweet Briar like I did. He also never got pulled over in the Pi Phi parking lot in Chapel Hill for a DUI. Ooops, I am digressing. All I am saying is we professional pundits do a good job offering solutions to all the world’s problems, but we never seem to talk about the huge elephant in the room crapping all over the oriental rugs. Perhaps we should.
Gee, what’s more important, how do we keep from destroying ourselves or what kind of shoes Harry wore to the coronation?
