The Philosophy of Keeping the People Poor and Ignorant

The Philosophy of Keeping the People Poor and Ignorant

The Philosophy of Keeping the People Poor and Ignorant

Let it be known around the world that the conditions of your life are not the natural results of living in a society on Earth. You work all your life and have but a small fraction of the available things, services, and pleasures. The people toil endlessly for very little. In too many places on Earth today there is starvation and depravity beyond horror. In the US the stress endured in the quest to acquire the money to pay the bills, buy the things needed to live some level of comfort is so intense that many are driven over the limits of their ability to cope. Crime comes from such stress; family troubles come from such stress; deep psychological problems come from such stress. It could easily be reasoned that most of the problems people face are the results of the stress to survive in a world so obviously overflowing with abundance and so easily acquired by so few.

The many examples of people living opulent lives of leisure provokes feelings in some of the people that cannot be identified nor understood. They work at a subconscious level to undermine the peace and happiness that is every person’s due. Envy and resentment abound. Some are joyful for the fortunate. For many, though, other feelings that are undefined and/or misunderstood occur that are denied or unnoticed. They swim around in their beings like deep water fish that churn the sediment at the bottom clouding the water but can’t be seen from the surface.

When you are hungry and when your children are hungry, it is not easy to witness the vast amounts of food that sit on display all around that you cannot have because you don’t have the money to buy them. This basic need is but one of the things that society has made available which cannot be obtained by almost all the people. There are countless others. Above all is peace and happiness.

Some people do not want a world of happy and satisfied people. They work to make certain that the people are never fully satiated and that they never have much free time. They know that the people are aware of the abundance they enjoy. It is important to them that the opulence they enjoy is visible. It makes them feel superior. It helps them enjoy their abundance.

The things I have written above are obvious to me. In retrospect, I am not sure how I came to this understanding. I am certain that Love made me what I have been for the past 45 years and that it somehow enhanced my abilities. Things became obvious to me. When I tried to discuss them with my friends, it became clear that what was obvious to me could not be discerned nor comprehended by many others.   I had to come to the fact that there was no way even to reveal them to some. It is a very sad situation, but sadness is good when it is in its right place. Now I have discovered that someone else, maybe many, discovered or was taught some of the things that appear obvious to me while being indiscernible to others. His name is Thomas Jefferson. He wrote the Deceleration of Independence for the colonies that became the United States of America and was a vital contributor to the Constitution that established the experimental form of government that surprised the world.

I have been reading about Thomas Jefferson. I have a beautiful book that was published in 2002 but is a new printing of an older assemblage of Jefferson’s writings. The original book was put together and published in 1939. My heart is soaring with glee as I read his words. Jefferson wrote many letters to many people. They have been preserved and it is possible to read the man’s words today. To say he was remarkable is to understate the facts. Again and again I read passages that are very beautifully worded and which elegantly demonstrate many of the concepts that I have discovered in my quest.

Mixed feeling swirl from some of the things he wrote so long ago. I want to quote far more of his words than is practical. However, there is one paragraph I am compelled to quote in this post because it says what I have endeavored to say many times but never with the eloquence Jefferson achieved. It was written to Supreme Court Judge William Johnson in 1823, many years after the establishment of the constitutional government of the United States. He died three years later. During his presidency, he appointed Judge Johnson to the Supreme Court and by the time of the writing of the letter quoted here, he had reflected on his life and his work for many years. The quote below may represent something he learned later in life, but I doubt it. It seems it was something he knew as a young man and was set against during the convention of men who debated and finally assembled the Constitution. You can see the entire letter at this website: http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/98-01-02-3562

Now the quote:

the fact is that, at the formation of our government, many had formed their political opinions on European writings and practices, believing the experience of old countries, and especially of England, abusive as it was, to be a safer guide than mere theory. the doctrines of Europe were that men in numerous associations cannot be restrained within the limits of order and justice but by forces physical and moral wielded over them by authorities independant of their will. hence their organisation of kings, hereditary nobles, and priests. still further to constrain the brute force of the people, they deem it necessary to keep them down by hard labor, poverty and ignorance, and to take from them, as from bees, so much of their earnings as that unremitting labour shall be necessary to obtain a sufficient surplus barely to sustain a scanty and miserable life. and these earnings they apply to maintain their priviledged orders in splendor and idleness, to fascinate the eyes of the people, and excite in them an humble adoration and submission as to an order of superior beings.

Punctuation has changed since Jefferson’s time, but the things said in this quote have remained far too true. Even as I wrote and said as well as I can that we need not live as we do and made the case so many times that we are being held down by those who have the power to do so, these words of Thomas Jefferson awaited my discovery of them. I rest my case. Thank you.

 

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