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Kristin's avatar

This is the analysis I’ve been hunting for. An answer to the craving feeling of all this. Thank you.

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Mona Mona's avatar

Great piece, enjoyed reading it. Perhaps we should re-evaluate whether the evolutionary story we tell ourselves is correct, or continues to be relevant. In my opinion, Antigone is another story we need to frame this, I'll write it up... In the meantime, I am reminded of Elie Wiesel's lesson in _Night_, that it wasn't the good, kind, and generous who survived - they were among the first to die in the Nazi death camps. When you become wealthy, life comes to be all about keeping that wealth. You become fearful, of loosing it and of others, and you separate yourself, as much as your wealth permits, from others socially and spatially. In my assessment, the very wealthy quite literally live in another reality, one that is designed to shield them from any and all social consequences of their resource hoarding. This is why Luigi's alleged actions are so lauded. If it was him, he used his male and social-economic privilege, and his intelligence, to make a mark, and that is almost unheard of. Martin Luther King Jr. reminded us those in power do not willingly give it up... I speculate that something happened inside Luigi's family, that his family's wealth and situation was not used to protect him and his health. Maybe his parents wanted him to grow up and applied some tough love, after L went off to Japan instead of adulting.... Anyhow, a few crazy philosophers (Wittgenstein, Marx I think?) have voluntarily given up their wealth and lived according to principle, but I don't know of many others. Anyone know any other such stories, of people acting on principle and against what is their socio-political or class interests?

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