Nick French, a philosophy
instructor at the University of California-Berkeley, is teaching a summer
course titled “Individual Morality and Social Justice,” in which he argues that
wealthy people are inherently immoral, no matter what they do with their
money. They are evil even if they donate much of their wealth to worthy causes.
French, in a recent Jacobin Magazine op-ed,
argued that people should “dispossess the benevolent rich of their ill-gotten gains.”
You can’t make this up. Jacobins were
members of a “democratic” club established in Paris in 1789. They were the most
radical and ruthless of the political groups formed in the aftermath of the
French Revolution, carrying out the Terror of 1793-1794. They “dispossessed”
France’s rich of their money…and their heads. Now some academic clown named French
wants to see history repeated in today’s America. The Jacobin also
states that French is a member of the East Bay Democratic Socialists of
America. Well blow me down.
The first half of French’s course
is dedicated to addressing “how individuals ought to live,” a topic near and
dear to leftist’s hearts. Then students will be expected to analyze “the
justice of social arrangements.” They will also face questions such as “What
makes an action right or wrong, good or bad?” Duh. An action is “right” or
“good” when it is in keeping with how French thinks one “ought to live.” It is
“wrong” or “bad” when it isn’t.
In his Jacobin op-ed,
called: “Even Nice, ‘Generous’ Rich People Are Not Your Friends,” Frenchy
McFrenchface states: “Rich people love to give away money for charitable causes
to convince you that they’re not so bad after all. Don’t be fooled: we need to
dispossess the benevolent rich of their ill-gotten gains, too.” So, simply
having money makes you, by default—no questions asked, no dissent brooked—a
“bad” person? That’s an intolerant, bigoted, money-shaming generalization, is
it not?
The Jacobin wannabe philosophy
professor purports to believe that capitalists are predisposed to be “socially
destructive” due to their exalted “position in the economic structure.” French
flatly states: “Bernie Sanders is right. We need to build a mass movement
powerful enough to take on the millionaires and billionaires, so we can take
control of socially created wealth and subject it to public, democratic
control. Then we can start to solve the problems that the rich can’t.”
Historically, this has been a recipe for complete disaster, and is so yet
today. Socialist nations like Venezuela, North Korea and Cuba can’t even feed
their own citizens. They are tragically short on medicines. Even potable water
is in short supply. And the only millionaires are at the head of the
governments. Governments assuredly not of, by, and for the people, despite what
the regimes’ nomenclature might imply.
Mr. French avers that “the very
existence of capitalists” creates the problems of poverty, disease, and “other
social ills.” Actually, the existence and rise of capitalism lifted untold
millions—if not billions—out of poverty and disease, leading the world
as a whole to take a 5,000
Year Leap forward.
French wrote, “We don’t need the
wealthy, just their wealth.” Say again? How does French suggest we
confiscate the wealth of the wealthy…if there are no wealthy?
It is ironic that he doesn’t care for
those whom he claims care only about money and not people-- and surpassingly hypocritical
that he wants to take their money.
To paraphrase an old pop/rock song
by Ten Years After: Tax the rich, feed the poor, ‘til there are no rich
no more? Tell me, where is the sanity?
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