Opus 2022-199: Gilded Guilt

I had recently read Live Not by Lies by Rod Dreher so when I saw him in a discussion with Jordan Peterson, I decided to listen.  At the end of the first snippet I had time to digest, Peterson presented the problem that there is a grain of truth in the privilege we enjoy.  Much of our prosperity was generated over the years from exploiting weaker people and we need to concede that.  Now, I don’t know where he will go with this, I ran out of time, but it got me thinking.

People who hate the benefits that capitalism delivers to the common people have a way of lifting out the abuses of any situation and comparing it to a socialist Utopia.  It is a battle no one can win since socialists don’t need to deal with facts and reality when they set up their perfect world.  Have there been times when the western world has taken advantages of other groups?  Of course.  The unvarnished and ignored truth is that you would do the same thing.  You probably have.  My wife has been known to purchase items at yard sales that still have their price tags on them and return them to the store for the full value.  Was she exploiting the capitalists or the yard birds?  Of course, but she was playing by their rules.  It was a win/win.  

Much of the so-called exploitation was a case of one group giving the producers of a raw material what the seller considered a fair value and then transporting, transforming into useful materials, manufacturing useful products and selling them at the price the consumers feel is fair value.  If you compare the purchase price of raw materials to the sales price of the finished merchandise then there will obviously glaring differences.  Keep in mind that the raw sugar, iron ore, hardwood and coffee beans would just be so much junk if the “exploiters” had not seen a way to use them.

I am willing to acknowledge that as an American I live in an world of affluence and privilege.  It is obvious if you know anything about the rest of the world.  The Progressives*, who want to destroy America try to put me on a guilt trip.  I take a different approach, thanksgiving.  By being thankful, I acknowledge how good I have it but I also recognize the source of that bounty.  And my thanksgiving does not start with my food supply and A/C.  It starts with being thankful that God has put in place a plan of salvation through Jesus that delivers me from the greater evil of sin in my life.  I then move on to such things as the benefits provided by a long line of inventors and entrepreneurs who have done such simple things as make a wide variety of coffees available at a reasonable price.

I reject the guilt because it is manipulative.  The conviction God lays on me causes me to respond in a way that benefits me and society.  The victory of Progressive* guilt leads to the destruction of both.  It is not exploitation to leave people better off than they would have been if you had not passed by.

Skip the phoney guilt.  There are plenty of real things to feel guilty about such as not spending enough time with your children.

*(Liberals, educators, the media, socialists, communists, crony capitalists, elites, Rinos, Democrats, leftists, Never Trumpers, Antifa, BLM, MSM, Deep State, etc.  Synonym for swamp dwellers)

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