Do not hold your breath.

Editor,

I recently read "Slavery: A World History" by Milton Meltzer, which dovetails nicely with "Debt: The First 5,000 Years" by David Graeber, which I am reading now.

The bottom line is that our masters of the universe today do not seem to be thinking at all differently than the masters of the universe did in ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, Middle Ages and Renaissance Europe, and 18th Century America -- to name a few -- in that our poverty, our imprisonment, our enslavement, and that of our family, friends, and neighbors does not upset the rich and powerful who benefit from it in the least.

What I am trying to say is: it really is true that the ruling class does not give up its power voluntarily, and my own personal corollary: that the ruling class makes money on everyone else's misery until everyone else puts a stop to it. Do not hold your breath waiting for people who are happy to enslave you or let you starve to care about you, your prosperity, or what you think about it.

Re: "The Wrong Idea" (8/19/2011)