Dear Friends,
It seems to me, what a person can do, is largely determined by where they are on the social hierarchy. Low status people, who’s very existence is met with punches, kicks and ridicule, are not allowed foibles. On the other hand. Those high in status are given carte blanch. Meanwhile, if a low status person is picked to death, no one loses a moments rest over it. While if a high status person is harmed, in any way, we lament it as if it were us who had that misfortune. We identify with our leaders not our subordinates. This is the natural state of affairs in human societies. Not limited to harming individuals, this “norm” becomes truly malevolent, when it is applied to “groups.” Political favor, if you will, decides if you or your “group,” are acceptable or not… and thereby corrodes our humanity.
Someone high in the social hierarchy can do things that would not be tolerated if done by lower status people. Smoking a cigarette in a no smoking area, using an electronic device in an airplane or dressing up in black face. While if a lower status person did any of those things, not only would the outrage be omnipresent, but that low status person would be picked to death. Barak Obama is a well known smoker. While he and his party outlawed smoking on public property, he was not held to that standard. There are numerous stories out there of powerful men abusing waitresses in public, using electronic devices on a plane, and being regularly stopped for DUI, ending with the police bringing them home. Rest assured, if you or I did any of those things, the punishment would be severe and quick.
Extreme cases often sharpen a point. The Hunter Biden laptop for example. In it, there is reported to be proof of several class A felonies, quite a few felonies and numerous misdemeanors. The government is not at all interested in investigating his crimes though. Don’t worry, if you recorded yourself having sex with a teen, the government would move heaven and Earth to prosecute you for it. Hunter Biden… not so much. Because he is a high status individual. Not in and of himself, but because of his group. He has sufficient political favor to get away with nearly anything. Meanwhile, Donald Trump entered office under investigation by a Special Investigator over a hoax, was impeached for a phone call about Biden’s actual crimes, and the FBI created a riot to stop an investigation into his stolen election.
On a smaller scale, if you showed up to a party in blackface, most of the people there would vilify you as a racist. Governor Ralph Northram and Prime minister Justine Trudeau have, and it was a hoot. (When they did it). The pictures haven’t made a dent to their reputations. Because they are too high status to be held to that standard. Which all goes to show, a high status person is praised for doing things, a lower status person would be criminally punished for. While it is an example of injustice, it is more illustrative of a fundamental flaw in human nature. That we have different standards for people, including legal, moral or cultural, depending on their political favor… not what they do. Try deleting a laptop hard drive under indictment then smashing it with a hammer and see how you are treated.
The first step to solving a problem is to address it. That we allow our “leaders,” to do things they would punish us for, shows a weakness in us. Stop allowing it. Violence is perfectly acceptable, for those with political favor, the same holds true of groups. A member of a politically favored group can strike someone of a lower group, and get away with it, and if that lower status person struck back, the consequences would be severe. Speak up, become a leader, and expose our character flaw. We follow our leaders in virtue or vice. When our leaders act out, without punishment, that is an incentive for us to act the same way. Making the malevolent unpunished acts of our social, political and cultural leaders, and our following their examples… destructive to humanity itself. Demand they be punished.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
