“The poor develop bad morals, and the longer a person is marginalized, the more they become like an animal—caring only about food, drink, and sexual instinct. They produce neither knowledge, nor art.” Ibn Khaldun , a Berber genius of Andalusian origin , father of modern sociology .
He had a point. We’ve seen this happen in countless societies through history. That’s one of the reason why the first social programa started in Britain. They found out that, if they invested more in keeping people well-feed and educated, they had to spend waaay less on policing an unhappy and uneducated population with no morals and nothing to loose.
addgro_ove on
I thought for a sec this was gonna be some thoughtful a.f. quote, but as it turns out, it’s wrong, dumb and classist as shit (at least, imo).
For starters, poor people can (and have) absolutely produce(d) knowledge and art – that much should need no explanation. It is true that living under a constant struggle makes some people behave selfishly as a defense/survival mechanism, but that’s not universal and can also happen among the wealthiest.
As for rich people… is it too wild a statement to say that wealth begets privilege and, in turn, a self-absorbed mind + a false sense of merit in a lot of people? I could go ahead and tell first-hand stories that can illustrate as much, but why even do that when modern-day elites worldwide are infested with examples of this? One has only so many fingers in their hands to count imbeciles with.
I do not know that Ibn Khaldun was aware of the correlation between positions of power and sociopathy back then.
Fantastic-Speech-438 on
He’s attacking the symptom (the poor) rather than critiquing the cause (inequality).
SweatyChard7919 on
I don’t know about that. The greatest Spanish Art pertains to a ppl that has been consistently marginalized. The romaní ppl.
The rich develop good morals? C’mon. The Epstein class is actually the group of ppl with the most horrific and absolutely disgusting morals in the entire world. The rich, no more and no less.
And I think that guy would have called himself Amazigh (free men), not berber (barbaric).
Is ppl actually buying this? I mean, it smells like (rotten) right-wing spirit.
4 Comments
He had a point. We’ve seen this happen in countless societies through history. That’s one of the reason why the first social programa started in Britain. They found out that, if they invested more in keeping people well-feed and educated, they had to spend waaay less on policing an unhappy and uneducated population with no morals and nothing to loose.
I thought for a sec this was gonna be some thoughtful a.f. quote, but as it turns out, it’s wrong, dumb and classist as shit (at least, imo).
For starters, poor people can (and have) absolutely produce(d) knowledge and art – that much should need no explanation. It is true that living under a constant struggle makes some people behave selfishly as a defense/survival mechanism, but that’s not universal and can also happen among the wealthiest.
As for rich people… is it too wild a statement to say that wealth begets privilege and, in turn, a self-absorbed mind + a false sense of merit in a lot of people? I could go ahead and tell first-hand stories that can illustrate as much, but why even do that when modern-day elites worldwide are infested with examples of this? One has only so many fingers in their hands to count imbeciles with.
I do not know that Ibn Khaldun was aware of the correlation between positions of power and sociopathy back then.
He’s attacking the symptom (the poor) rather than critiquing the cause (inequality).
I don’t know about that. The greatest Spanish Art pertains to a ppl that has been consistently marginalized. The romaní ppl.
The rich develop good morals? C’mon. The Epstein class is actually the group of ppl with the most horrific and absolutely disgusting morals in the entire world. The rich, no more and no less.
And I think that guy would have called himself Amazigh (free men), not berber (barbaric).
Is ppl actually buying this? I mean, it smells like (rotten) right-wing spirit.