Some people get to experience life differently to the rest of us.
We go out of our way to make sure things are better for them. These people tend to be super wealthy and privileged so they probably don’t need the extra curation. I wondered why we do this. I wondered what life must be like when it’s made slightly better than everyone else’s experience. When you belong to those eight seats at the front of the plane with champagne and clean toilets while the rest of us wait patiently for tea and water. Behind the velvet rope.
I think about equity a lot, and why only a few have so much and so many have so little. I wonder why we are okay about that. I remember walking through the poorest areas of Honolulu before the US election when Trump won the presidency (please don’t let this happen again) and seeing stickers and signs for him everywhere. Trump Towers sparkled with resplendent and decadent wealth just a ten-minute drive away. Here in the shadows people lived in dire poverty. What ever happened to ‘eat the rich’?
Before the rich start squirming, relax. It’s not a new challenge on MasterChef, it’s a metaphor for class conflict popularised during the French revolution. Although we are in a cost-of- living crisis… The longer quote by Jean-Jacques Rousseau should be repeated for context: ‘When the people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich.’
Personally I’m not a fan of eating the rich, but redistributing wealth is actually a very good idea. But we don’t dare ask. We’re too busy begging for approval.
I wonder why it’s so ingrained in us, (we who have little), to make sure those who have so much have such a gold star ride.
The other day I dropped into one of my favourite stores and bought some beautiful raw wrapping paper for a gift for my daughter. The person serving me told me she’d had someone come to buy the exact same paper because Elle McPherson had turned up and they couldn’t wrap her purchases in their regular paper. I wondered why. Is she allergic? Does she have a texture phobia? Can she only tolerate beauty?
Why do the rest of us get the regular and she gets the upgrade? It’s not the shop’s fault. It’s what we do. It’s not even Elle’s fault. She probably doesn’t even know. She probably thinks everyone gets the good paper. But they don’t. We curate the experience of people like Elle. People who already have a pretty sweet ride are given an even sweeter one.
When you think about it, she doesn’t need it. Life is sweet enough. Why don’t we curate the experience of the poor? The woman scratching though her coin purse to afford the bread? The poor don’t get upgrades or experience curation. They get the blame and a plastic bag.
We don’t have to eat the rich, but we could at least stop sucking up.
I really can’t work out what this one’s about? That redistributing wealth is actually a very good idea”? “ I think about equity a lot”? Good on you Mandy but I don’t think you don’t have the patent or a monopoly on this – strangely enough. The rest of us are not so vacuous that we don’t “dare ask. That, “we’re too busy begging for approval.”
Staying with the French Revolution, Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, kind of highlights that the concept has been around for a while.
You wonder “why only a few have so much and so many have so little” – but clearly enough to trip around Hawaii and Florida. Despite having to wait patiently for tea and water on your flight to do so. You drop into dinky little stores to buy beautiful wrapping paper while some of us gave up buying wrapping paper yonks ago and give presents in recyclable shopping bags. The lament: “ Why do the rest of us get the regular and she gets the upgrade?” sounds a bit like a first world problem to me.
You seem to have the Echo pulling out all stops to get you elected Mandy, but despite this can I suggest a PR consultant might be an asset if you feel the urge to write such entitled stuff as this. Maybe you’ll even get to the other side of that velvet rope.
Classic response Lizardbreath (does that inidicate having breath akin to lizard, or a breath that comes from eating lizards ?)
We can file this one under: The Great Poverty-off
“You don’t know poverty, I’m so poor my kids only have a bag of gravel and a piece of string for toys, and I have to get up for work before I go to bed. Imagine being able to afford wrapping paper for your daughter’s gift! Oh, the luxury of it all”
The point of the piece (I think) is to ponder equity, wealth distribution and how these interplay with social norms.
It takes a certain cynical perspective to turn that into ‘entitlement’, and it signals to contributors to our social discourse – don’t bother, everything is political and therefore represents a target for attack.
It also says “If you present anything not at the most extreme you will be outflanked and invalidated by a more extreme position.”
Next week…Imagine being able to afford a PR consultant. Oh, the luxury of it all.
I don’t know where you got a “poverty-off” from jimbo, I’m not at all suggesting I’m among the “we who have so little” and I don’t know how you would infer anything of the sort. A bit of a straw man argument here?
I didn’t say I can’t afford wrapping paper – you don’t get the reduce, reuse recycle idea?
“The point of the piece (I think) is to ponder equity, wealth distribution …” Mmmm – I can’t find any mind blowing new insights here into these concepts nor how they “interplay with social norms”. Just a condescending suggestion that they rest of us don’t dare to do anything but play along.
Sorry but I think whinging about not being up the pointy end can’t be seen as anything but a sense of first world entitlement. As for the PR consultant – I’m sure the Greens would pay for it.
There’s a hint of an accusation here of trolling. It’s nothing personal, I just feel like I’m constantly being politically trolled by the Echo and the Greens agenda. This week’s edition has just been a bit too full on.
Good old Socialism…what did Churchill suggest !
“The equal sharing of misery ” now those that are less fortunate due to being addicted to one of the best social systems on earth ..compliments
Of the Taxpayer’s…those that are ever so envious
Of those who have worked for decades.. the daily
Grind ..raised the kids ..put them through uni
Have a couple of houses..how dare they ! On the
Flip side ..you have others who for reasons unknown ..not worked a day in their lives..but want
The lifestyle of a individual who has ..those
Capitalised it’s just not fair .. do feel for those genuine families ..and especially single mum’s
Doing it tough ..have helped as many as possible..
But those who expect to have what people have worked for forever ! Is entitled absurdity !
Wikipedia tells us Churchill “was born on 30 November 1874 at his family’s ancestral home, Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire. On his father’s side, he was a member of the British aristocracy as a descendant of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. His father, Lord Randolph Churchill, representing the Conservative Party, had been elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Woodstock in 1874. His mother, Jennie, was a daughter of Leonard Jerome, a wealthy American businessman”.
I’m not surprised if he wasn’t a huge fan of socialism or keen on sharing any misery.
So many things right about this article, but the devil is in the detail.
Economy toilets are only dirty because people don’t take the time to clean up after themselves.The poor also get coffee. Poverty has its standards, and cannibalism is not one of them. With the rich you can’t be sure. Redistribution is a great idea, but the lottery promises entry into the ranks of the rich (notwithstanding that these days anything under a billion is chump change). As for the deference of the poor, the term ‘wage slaves’ explains all. Selling your labour comes with terms and conditions. Of course then there is envy. How come the woman at the end of this piece only had to pay for the bread and not the plastic bag?
Notwithstanding these petty gripes, a good article about life as art and the importance of the curator.
It is very easy to fall into the trap of poor me. You have and had the same opportunities as most in front of the velvet rope. The green lefty’s talk about equality, give everyone the same resources, make everyone the same, that is simply communism. I suggest you stop bothering about everyone else and concentrate on your own lot, get motivated to change your life, you have what you need to suceed, only you can achieve that. There will always be greater and lesser persons than yourself so get over it and have a go… .. .