Monday's Rant

Americans are living in a fantasy world created by filtering reality that would pose a moral dilemma to those with conscious or religion. We live in a nation where people are economically, socially and psychologically interdependent. Whatever we are and whatever status or rank we obtain it is greatly influenced by the existence, contact and juxtaposition with other humans. Having status and feeling good about oneself in this culture is largely relative, with resulting in a hyper competition for rank. However, competition is relative, which creates a zero sum game for competitors. Thus, winners create the equal and opposite effect of losers, the creation of success creates failure and the rich means there is the poor. Competition is a normal part of all life, however, ethics and morality is thus the only thing that can constrain humans from sabotaging the competition. As the great Carthaginian General Hannibal once noted “ It is not that I must succeed, it’s that others must fail”.

Say for instance that you are in a classroom with 50 other students and you all are getting the results back from an exam that was scaled from 0 to 100. You learn that you answered 65% of the questions correctly. At that instant, your first thought is likely to be that you have failed and, consequently, not likely feeling very good about yourself. However, you later learn that your 65% was the highest score of the class and miraculously…. you know feel better, even though your absolute performance is the same. Why? The reason being is that much of the way we feel about ourselves is due to our relative rank when juxtaposed with others. Had you scored 100 on the exam, your initial reaction would be a good feeling. However, if you then learned that everyone scored 100, and then your good feeling would likely be reduced. This is all due to the nature of seeing other humans as competition.

Americans benefit from the misery of others in many ways, even if they are not complicit in the creation of the misery. The act of seeing other people struggle often makes us feel sympathy, but also fortunate or better about our lives in comparison. Americans love to think of our nation as the greatest nation in the world. The reasoning being is that since we are Americans, than what is true of the whole is thus true of its parts. Therefore, we can then see ourselves as being superior to humans outside America. Within America you have this same phenomenon between social classes and races. The existence of the lower class and the disproportionate representation of non-whites in the lower class reinforce traditional notions of class and racial superiority. Implicit in the social and economic hierarchy is the assumption that higher order and rank is due to superiority in effort and or intellect, in other words, working harder and smarter. It is a conflict of interest for those in higher rank to acknowledge any benefit they received from past or present immoral acts that put others at a competitive disadvantage. In a relative system, every action produces an equal and opposite reaction. Thus, the creation of disadvantage produces advantage. Thus, if one is not a member of the disadvantaged group, they are by default, a member of the advantaged and thus benefit.

Americans in superior condition and hence social status and rank want to feel that their or their groups rank is purely the result of merit, for that allows them to feel truly superior in effort and or intellect and worthy of what they have earned and accumulated. They also like to feel, by the same token, that, as a general rule, people are poor due to merit as well, in other words, working less hard and less smart. Such a mindset is self-serving because the cognition are biased toward finding a rational to maintain a sense of superiority, as well as, providing a pretext to not be their brother’s keepers, despite many considering themselves practicing Christians. In reality, rank in the secular competition takes precedent over any religious doctrine or blue print. However, religious people cannot see themselves to be of such a mindset. Therefore they convince themselves that those in relative deprivation are there via laziness, irresponsibility, inferiority or some other condition that will allow them to be written off from assistance. The result, not coincidentally, is the conserving of relative and absolute status and rank or the status quo.

Consequently, many Americans of status have taken a vow to see no evil, here no evil or speak no evil that in any way presents a moral due to the correlation between past or present unrighteousness and their current status. This is partly why there can never be true healing and reconciliation between the races in America, because it is a conflict to the nature of competition to help people who will then use that assistance to compete against you and possibly alter your relative status and rank. Thus, we are lead to believe that 300 years of racial oppression produced no reaction of racial disadvantage upon the present and thus, no racial advantage to the present as well. People therefore can hold to the fallacy of meritocracy and fair competition, in order to preserve a sense of superiority and to hold onto all assets accrued from years of advantage. Thus, the current problems of African Americans are purposely placed in a vacuum unrelated to the prior 300-year history in this nation, as if to say the present is not related to the past and that black problems today are the creation of blacks today.


It has become taboo to mention the negative historical facts of this nation, which helped to produce its current status and wealth, most profoundly being the story of Native Americans and African slavery and apartheid. Many Americans will not come to reconcile the truth about how their European ancestors benefited from happened to the Natives and Africans. Without those events, the history and lives of many Americans of European descent would be radically altered, given that most immigrated to America for a better life. That better life was greatly influenced by immoral acts against the Natives and African people, as well as others. However, despite this fact, somehow the story is that African Americans should be glad that they are not in Africa, meaning that they should feel fortunate that there ancestors were enslaved for centuries here. Such a twisting of history is done by those who simply seek to continue feeling good about themselves and maintain their relative status, which could be challenged if the truth was told and accepted.


In conclusion, competition is a nature part of the existence of life. However, balance is a goal of the universe and when balance Is not maintained, disharmony results. American culture has become to competitive and greedy, which is eroding moral and ethics to fuel victory and status.