I have made interesting friends in Malaysia. Some are rich, and some are poor. Some are rich or poor, by accident; others work hard, to stay rich or poor. I am happy for all of them, as long as they are each individually happy.
But all live in a poor society. A poor society means that, power is unequally skewed towards the few. A rich society means that, power is distributed rather equally among everyone.
It is a very specific strategy, to aim to be among the few powerful people in a poor society. Choosing this strategy means that you must work hard to maintain and increase inequality. An obvious tactic, is persuading the powerless many, either (a) to be ignorant of their disempowerment, or (b) to believe that their disempowerment is good for them.
- A variety of (a, b) is spreading the belief that disempowered people should gamble on their improbable chance of joining the powerful few.
- A variety of (b) is spreading slave morality, a more complicated subject.
Where do you see yourself in Malaysian society? Do you think it's better if most of us are poor, and a few are powerful? Or if power is available to everyone?
After all, however, it doesn't matter, as long as you are happy.
No comments :
Post a Comment