March 2025

March Thought of the Month

"Comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable."

~ Buckaroo Banzai

The first months of 2025 has been devastating for so many people, and the trends indicate that list is only going to grow. More than ever, we need to find more ways to assist those needing help and encourage those immunized from the problems facing the rest of us by their wealth and power to contribute from their considerable resources for the betterment of the whole.

When I started writing this post, I asked myself: Who are the afflicted and who are the comfortable? For my purposes today, the afflicted of the world are the "have nots" and the "haves" are the comfortable of the world. Many faiths teach their followers that they should share from their excess with those who have less. Healthy societies know that they need the contributions of all of their citizens to thrive, and they set up systems that allow all to create what they need to survive with enough left over to give back to the society that supports them. Sadly, greed throws good intentions out the window.

The collapse begins when those who have plenty begin to think they deserve what they have and those worse off than them not only don't deserve more but owe them what little they do have. They change systems to take more from those with less (through higher taxes, higher prices, and lower wages), then tell those who fall behind that it's their own fault for not working hard enough. When things get so bad that people are forced to turn to the government for help to survive, they are called a burden on society and the push begins to remove that support to force them to "be responsible."

The haves conveniently forget that their systems have made that impossible for the have nots. If they paid their workers fairly, they'd have the disposable income to buy the products and services they are selling. With better wages, more people could save for future needs and large purchases like a home. A society that gives its citizens the ability and opportunity to care for themselves sustains itself. When it chooses to concentrate wealth and power with a select few, it seals its own eventual doom.

Other countries have gone down paths similar to the one before us now. In the 1700s France made choices that sparked the French Revolution (read more). The afflicted rose up and went after the comfortable. It took more than 20 years for that country to recover. If we don't want a similar fate for ourselves, our children, and grandchildren, we must remember that saying about not knowing history dooming us to repeat it and act before it's too late.

So what can we do? Become better informed, take an active part in the political theater and remind our representatives to write and support bills and legislation that benefit the people they actually represent, and most of all work locally to shore up systems that support us all, even if it means making plans to replace them if necessary.

[Thought and image design by Elaine C. Oldham]