UNDERNEWS: Word

January 18, 2016

Word

This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals. Despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown. - Walt Whitman

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: on the one hand he says to despise riches, but then he tells you to give your earnings away to others. he doesn't say figure out how much you contributed by your own work and give away the amount of wealth above that that has come your way - via other avenues not your own work - he doesn't realize he is inadvertently condoning the very thing that causes the despised riches to pile up in the first place! this is why the troubles dangers suffering continue in perpetuity - everyone is unconcerned about knowing how much wealth is rightfully his - people are not even asking the question as basic as it is important: what amount is the maximum self-earnable - at what amount am I getting all that my work contributed, no more and no less - at what amount given away am I making myself poorer so others will have to take care of me instead of my work taking care of me - the whole problem on this planet is that 99% of people are convinced it is good to be devoting their income and their labor to others - whitman here spoke of charity, not justice - charity is fickle - charity can not do the work that belongs to justice - we have not moved away from some people having the power to arbitrarily subject others to their will and whims in that quote - whitman meant well but failed - wisdom is not in allowing riches/superoverfortunes and then despising same - wisdom says prevent the heaps of wealth concentrating in the first place!

is this really so hard to understand? are we humans just completely incapable of asking the right new question?; January 19, 2016 at 9:36 AM

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ABOUT THE EDITOR

The Review is edited by Sam Smith, who covered Washington under nine presidents, has edited the Progressive Review and its predecessors since 1964, wrote four books, been published in five anthologies, helped to start five organizations (including the DC Humanities Council and the DC Statehood Party), was a plaintiff in three successful class action suits, served as a Coast Guard officer, and played in jazz bands for four decades.

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