You know that part in Disney movies where the villain gets their comeuppance and they are rightly destroyed, embarrassed, or accordingly punished? As we get older, reality sets in and the happy endings start to disappear or become more subjective to ones perception. Soon we get to the place were we are watching The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones and boom the best people are decimated and it just seems like evil is winning and there is no hope. The glimmers of hope that do remain are often the young characters who represent not only innocence, but also a changing tide. A new generation that will be different, will be better, because they are not to the cynical point in their lives yet where they see truth, justice and hard work being slayed as if it were a dangerous dragon, or zombie. If they do, they still believe the righteous will hold. It has to and it is that implanted seed in our young that keep people going, fighting. Of course all these stories are just fiction so what does it ultimately matter?
I think in this world, this day and age it really matters. It matters because people have been struggling and fighting to make it each day, week and month. You look from Syria, to Ukraine, to our very own soil in the United States. Struggling and fighting to maintain control of their destiny in a world that is increasingly cold, depressing, and unrewarding. I think there is no greater evidence of that than the statements coming from the recent Davos conference, the Pope, and some in our own government. In finally bringing up the elephant in the room, income equality, world leaders have started to incur the wrath of some of the 1%'s truly most power-hungry, sociopath, paranoid jokes for human beings. And there will be no greater happy ending for me at this moment than seeing Mr. Tom Perkins get his comeuppance.
If you have no idea what I am talking about, I am referring to his recent editorial in the Wall Street Journal comparing the plight of the worlds wealthiest 1% to that of the Jewish population in Nazi Germany. An abhorrent sentiment even to the most cold hearted, this man has single handedly and simultaneously I might add, become a symbol of all that is wrong in this world and rallied more people against his argument. If you want to argue that being wealthy is awesome, and it is, try not to sound like a paranoid delusional scrooge. By comparing himself and the rest of the 1% to the millions of Jewish people slaughtered in WWII, POWERLESS people controlled by a madman, to their plight is incomprehensible. How out of touch does one have to be where that even sounds remotely OK?
Not to mention, the obvious fact of getting up going to work every day, one job or two, barely enough to make ends meat, unable to spend time with family because of jobs, or the inability to get a job you so desperately need and want in order to survive, the argument should provoke such a sense of anger and resentment. And it does! How dare Mr. Perkins talk down to people like you and me, and that is exactly what he is doing. I work every day, pay my bills and try my damnedness to control my little sphere of influence in this world. Yet I feel like I have no voice, no control, no power. Why, because the opportunity is not there for me, just like millions of you out there. The only thing his argument makes me want to do, is throw a rotten egg at his head and hope it knocks him and his kind of their high horses. You can rich, but you do not get to be an asshole.
What Mr. Perkins fails to realize is that income inequality is more than just about money. It is about equality of opportunity, making the world a better place, because here is my one warning to Mr. Perkins and those who defend his train of thought. There are true threats to this world that will effect us all and the sooner we realize this the safer and more prepared we will be. Like the Lannister's in Game of Thrones, do you want to be the among the last to understand where the true danger lies? With all the problems our ONE world is facing a crazy old Ebenezer, who probably sleeps with a wad of his money, can do more damage than good. In his warped mind he fails to realize the that when hard working people are denied the opportunities to advance, or just make enough to survive that is what causes the "divide". It also causes resentment towards people like him, who have a foolishly hard time even just pretending to be grateful, empathic or understanding. The only danger being presented to Mr. Perkins is himself. The only person making me despise Mr. Perkins his himself. The only one diving the people of "different incomes" is Mr. Perkins himself.
I am the kind of person who wants to fight the White Walkers united. One humanity against a group of monsters. I am the kind of person who wants to rally and include everyone possible in a new community to focus on the greatest threat to our existence and kill zombies, damn it. Get what I am doing :) People like Mr. Perkins and those who do not get it, should be dropped right into the middle of Homs and then come back and tell me you are being persecuted like Jewish people on WWII or the innocent women and children who have been trapped in that city for years now. Send him to Kiev to experience the anger of thousands of youths being denied the one thing humans have been fighting for since all of time, the ability to control their own destiny. I dare Mr. Perkins to walk into the Boeing factory in Washington and discuss with the workers what it means to have your pension gone right before your eye, despite all your hard work.
No, being rich is not a bad thing, but being an vile person who obviously can't tell ass from mouth is. Every time someone like this is defended a little party of humanity dies. This is why I have a hard tim with fiction, is that sometimes it seems to real. Here is the irony of it all, if he just sat in his mansion with his mouth shut, I would not think anything of him. In the attention he draws to himself, he reminds me of everyone who struggles, every person whose dream is crushed. He is worse that Randolph and Mortimer Duke combined! Money does NOT make a man. I think Mr. Perkins clearly demonstrated
this, as well as those at the Wall Street Journal editors who stumbled over each
other to rally to his defense.
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