The Human Flaw

The title of this piece was carefully chosen. I could have used “A Human Flaw” but this, I think, is the Mother of All Flaws, the one that will possibly lead to our downfall.

The idea sprung from me watching TV. I have spent way too many hours watching TV. It is entertaining but rarely instructive. In this case, I was look for something to view and I saw “Downton Abbey” a long-running BBC series that drew rave reviews. I like BBC productions, and I had never seen even a single episode of this blockbuster series. So, to Episode 1 I went.

Fifteen minutes later I was looking for something else to watch. That fifteen minutes didn’t get into the meat of the storylines, it basically established that the staff of a stately English manor home were, well, typical human beings. Each person on staff had a position on their hierarchy. And every damned one of them was obsequious to those considered their “better,” that is those of higher social status, and borderline vicious to those even one rung down the ladder. The third scullery maid had better not piss off the second scullery maid because she would then go about making the miscreant rue the day.

I like shows, like Star Trek, where even aliens are treated with dignity and social climbing is not the main competitive sport.

So, doing my best Red Queen imitation, it was “off with their ‘eads!” and I switched over to a documentary series on the history of the Roman Empire. We had reached somewhat late in the Republic of Rome period and it became noticed that while many land owners were off fighting for Rome, the rich, often Senators, were confiscating their farms due to lack of payment of taxes. Having no one to work the land, there was no produce to sell, and no money to pay the taxes on the land. The rich swooped in bought up the plots cheaply and then worked the land with slaves, captured by the very people whose land they had just stolen. Roman warriors, who survived, often came home to find themselves evicted, their families in the wind, and themselves homeless. Fucking elites!

Of course there was a law forbidding just that from happening. What the rich were doing was clearly illegal. But the people responsible for enforcing those laws were the selfsame Senators, etc. in charge. It was also obvious to many that with all of the land being worked by slaves, the next time soldiers would be needed, there wouldn’t be any to be drafted. All of the citizen-soldiers were driven off.

Can you see what the “Human Flaw” above all other flaws is? Being a social species, we tend to establish social hierarchies, but we don’t soft peddle it. We look down our noses at “lessers.” We thieve their wages. We call them shiftless and lazy and say “people don’t want to work anymore.” And there is no limit to this distain. In WW2 the Nazi’s had no trouble finding local volunteers to help them round up Jews and Gypsies and other “enemies of the state” and riddle them with bullets. These were the killer’s neighbors, merchants, teachers of their children, doctors, etc. Bang, bang, we shot them down.

About 400,000 non-Germans volunteered to serve Germany in the Waffen/SS later in the war, when Germany recognized their were not enough pure-blooded Germans available.

And today, we call ourselves civilized and participate in class wars. Why poor people keep voting for the scams of rich people is beyond me. How on Earth would there be any trust there after the record the rich have laid down?

I often refer to this phenomenon as the Totem Pole Principle. This principle states that the only way to know you aren’t on the bottom of the pole is to be standing on the neck of someone else. But why aren’t we content with being a rung on the social ladder, content with our “lot in life” (as if we actually drew lots)? Well, I suggest it is because the higher ups, rung by rung are trying to make their social station seem grander than it is and they only way they know how is to denigrate those on lower rungs.

Consider the overbearing arrogance of some Christians who consider themselves “saved,” and atheists like me are doomed. They could meekly and mildly try to share the good news of how to get saved, but no, that is not enough, they need to denigrate the filthy godless atheists for being the subhumans we are. In the past, this included execution by stoning or even burning at the stake. Such arrogance. As if their all-powerful god couldn’t run things without their help. I am not painting all Christians with a broad brush, as the aphorism goes, please note I said some Christians. You can include those who sneer at people coming to their church who aren’t dressed up to the standards thought “proper,” and on up from there.

And is there any more obvious examples of ass licking than the toadies in Donald Trump’s circle? They should all be wearing signs around their necks saying “Please accept me Donald, as part of your inner circle.”