Posted February 14, 2014
by Jerry Alatalo
“But to be at once exceedingly wealthy and good is impossible, if we mean by the wealthy those who are accounted so by the vulgar, that is, the exceptional few who own property of great pecuniary value – the very thing a bad man would be likely to own. Now since this is so I can never concede to them that a rich man is truly happy unless he is also a good man, but that one who is exceptionally good should be exceptionally wealthy too is a mere impossibility.”
– Plato (428-348 B.C.)
Many have heard about the report from Oxfam which pointed out that 85 people own as much wealth as the poorest 3.5 billion people on Earth. This report, published days before the recently completed 2014 World Economic Forum, has made an enormous noise on the internet among alternative news and citizen blog sites, although (in America) the mainstream media (MSM) has acted like they know nothing about it – evidently the MSM never received any notice, or tips.
Out of the set of reactions to hearing this report, men and women have had a variety of them ranging from cynicism to sadness to outrage to righteous indignation. The Oxfam report has unveiled an obscene condition on Earth. Obscene means “adj. offensive to decency”, and this is equal to immoral. Perhaps people have little awareness of those who own ultra-wealth because the ultra-wealthy like to stay totally out of the news; out of the public spotlight. Gore Vidal once talked about how admiring of the ultra-wealthy he was because of their ability to remain essentially invisible to the people; how very few people even have an awareness that they exist.
For example, does anyone know the exact amount of wealth owned by the “royal” (adj. of Kings or Queens) families of the world, like Queen Elizabeth and her “people”, or any of a number of “royal” families on Earth? Seriously, does anybody know? And what about these Rothschild people? Or these Rockefeller people? And, is there a real group of ultra-wealthy families that includes the House of Hanover (Germany), the House of Hapsburg (Austria), the House of Orange (Netherlands), the House of Lichtenstein (Lichtenstein), and the House of Guelph (Britain)?
If these people/ultra-wealthy families are existent, how is it that we have never heard of them? Perhaps it is because the ultra-wealthy are the owners of the world’s largest media corporations, like the dynasty Rothschild-owned Reuters and Associated press. If one imagined that they were one of the 85 richest individuals on Earth and owned a major media corporation, it wouldn’t be difficult to sense how allowing stories to become reported on wealth inequality and actual assets held is seen as “off the reservation”.
Now, Oxfam seems like an honest organization; their reports don’t rely on any kind of “conspiracy theory” or wild-eyed guesses about the conditions in the world. In effect, the Oxfam report verifies the claims of some men and women who have tried to alert humanity of such a profound difference between the “haves and have-nots”. So, the wacked-out theories about an “Illuminati” are filtered out of reasoned discussions about real economic conditions, and real wealth inequality.
Does the “royal” family in England own a great deal of 54 commonwealth nations, millions of acres of land, thousands of “crown” corporations, Rio Tinto, Royal Dutch Shell, British Petroleum, Archer Daniels Midland, the corporate city-state of London, and the list goes on? Or is the British “royal” family, as well as other nations’ “royal” families, simply a group of people who are figureheads; polite men and women who like to invite the world’s most powerful people over for tea, or touch the shoulders of those they have determined deserve the title of “sirs”, “dukes”, “barons”, “lords” and all the other incomprehensible, so-called noble designations?
In the year 2014 royalty/monarchy seems highly anachronistic, or a way of living on Earth that will only be found in the history books, describing a style of ruling/governing that existed, then ceased, many hundreds of years ago.
Now, besides making public the names of the 85 individuals referred to in the Oxfam report, is it possible to make public the methods, tactics, and strategies that were employed by these 85 to accrue such dazzling wealth? Virtually everyone knows that the Iraq War begun in 2003 was all about oil resources. How much of those oil reserves which were pumped out of the ground under Iraq since 2003 have ended up in the bank accounts of the 85 richest? Perhaps it would be beneficial for humanity to find this out and then ask the persons who gained from the Iraq War how they feel about the methods used to enrich them.
The members of the 85 richest may have some important philosophical knowledge to impart on the rest of humanity, especially if enlargement of their bank accounts required that millions of men, women, and children died. Would their comments include the feelings exhibited by Ms. Madeleine Albright when asked if the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children through sanctions was too high a price to pay, and she answered that “it is worth it”?
Really?
Are those in the very, very rarefied world of the 85 OK with wars that kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people, if that allows them to “keep up with the 85 Jones” with the yachts, Rolls Royces, racehorses, sports teams, castles/mansions, large jewel collections, art masterpieces, and billions of dollars worth of Class A blue-chip stocks and bonds?
Has anyone heard a member of the 85 come forward with great ideas for ending starvation, war, greed, severe poverty, homelessness and all the problems humanity has faced for hundreds of years? The Oxfam report represents the next great unveiling of secrecy on Earth, making Edward Snowden’s (although important as well) revelations pale in comparison. Oxfam is a more important whistleblower than Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, and others because Oxfam has revealed the greatest secret: a small number of people on this Earth have been the source of humanity’s greatest problems and suffering.
Those 85 people need to become named – for all the world to know – then asked some very, very difficult, extremely important questions.
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(Thank you to Rubin Report @ YouTube)
THE ONENESS of HUMANITY 