This clip of Michaelangelo Signorele‘s radio show (via Balloon Juice) is an interesting one and confirms a thought I’ve had a long time:
Basically my thought goes like this:
Unless they are manipulated ala “What’s The Matter With Kansas” (or perhaps something even more nefarious), generally speaking the oppressed, the minorities, the poor, the victims of prejudice – “the last” as it were get it. They feel compassion, empathy, sympathy. They understand and promote ideas like “social justice“, of sharing, of “common good“, of looking out for the “little guy”.
But take away their oppression, remove the prejudice, make them wealthy and suddenly they forget. They go from the oppressed to the oppressors. Remove their chains and they are willing to chain others.
So unfortunately “the last shall be first, and the first last” is not only true in a spiritual sense, but also in the sense of their compassion or lack thereof. The victims become the victimizers, or at least at a minimum find common cause.
This also explains why it took so little time for Christians from being the martyrs to martyring others. Or why increasingly we see minorities work against their own causes.
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