This is unfortunate because progress can’t be made until we define the problem, and I’d argue that our first priority is to collectively realize how utterly disadvantaged the uneducated class is compared to those who have high-school and especially college educations ¹.

A recent post by Scott Adams reminded me of something I’ve been wanting to write about for a long time now. He asked whether or not it would be ok to burn poor people for energy if it was based on a volunteer-only system, and if only one out of 20 people were chosen. So basically, if you volunteered you had a 1/20 chance of being chosen for death, which would help power a whole city or state, and the other 19 people would be given a myriad of benefits, such as a car, a home, etc.

He asked two things, 1) whether or not this would be ok morally, and more interestingly, 2) whether or not we were already doing something like this. The answer is that we are, and that thing we’re doing is what I’ve wanted to comment on for years.

It’s called the lottery.

What I See

I get the opportunity to travel often, and I often find myself in small towns throughout the south and other parts of the country. It constantly shocks me to see what happens on a minute to minute, hour to hour, and day to day basis — all day, every day — in these small towns.

I basically walk in, grab a water or diet drink and a bag of beef jerky, and go to wait in line. But sometimes I’ll just hang out for a bit to people-watch. What I see is unwaveringly consistent: a constant stream of the underclass, filing in with crumpled up cash (they tend not to have checking accounts, I’m guessing) and lottery tickets. Many of the towns I go through are in the south, so it’s usually a majority of black folks, followed by white people, then the Mexicans who have recently immigrated. No Asians or Indians, of course.

It’s constant. Every time. Every gas station. Every little town. Always. A constant stream of people who are dressed poorly, have poor dental hygiene, and a less than powerful command of the English language. They’re poor and uneducated, and they buy three things en masse: alcohol, tobacco, and lottery tickets. Over and over. All day, every day.

Society’s Role

When I see this two things happen to me: first I get angry at those who are buying the crap, and then I relax and realize that they’re just trapped in a cycle of failure that they don’t know how to pull out of. Then I ask the inevitable question: what is society doing to help these people?

The answer is nothing. Why are we doing nothing? Two reasons:

1. Liberals don’t do anything because they lack the balls to stand up and say, “These people are not capable of knowing what’s best for themselves; they need help making decisions for themselves, much like children.” They’re politically correct pussies, basically, and their will to be PC is causing harm to the world.
2. Conservatives, on the other hand, don’t do anything because they don’t give a fuck about these people. They’re happy to chant along with the liberals about “equality” just so long as at it keeps the poor, uneducated people funding their childrens’ education. But in fact they know damn well these people aren’t “deciding” anything. They’re programmed to do blue-collar work (or absorb government assistance), reproduce, watch T.V., buy DVDs, and spend any money they have on alcohol, tobacco, and lottery tickets. Conservatives like them this way because as long as there’s an under-class there can be higher ones.

So it continues. The lottery is nothing more than a cleverly disguised tax on the poor. I also call it the stupidity tax. If you’re stupid enough to think you can make money doing this long-term, you must pay your dues. These people load up on drugs (alcohol and tobacco) and dump hundreds of dollars per month into large slush funds that largely don’t benefit them, but instead go towards projects that benefit the upper classes.

It’s sickening.

I’ve resisted the temptation so many times to pull these people aside and try and wake them up. But given the social structure in most of these places it’s likely just futile. Who’s going to believe some random white guy in a BMW who says the lottery is a scam when they know for a fact that it’s real because their friend Shirley just won $500 dollars last week?

I wish there were some way to wake people up in this world. It’s time to stop treating the disadvantaged as equals, and more like children who can become equals. They aren’t naturally inferior, just as children aren’t — they simply haven’t been shown the way. And to pretend that they have been, and choose to live this way, is reprehensible.

To let the underclass try and fend for itself is cowardly and shameful. Liberals allow it to happen due to a lack of testicle and spine. Conservatives do so, ironically enough, due to a lack of morality.:

– ¹ This isn’t to say that wisdom, intelligence, or success is always granted by more education — we know that not to be the case — but in general it’s true that those with more education tend to make better, long-term focused decisions in life.

Conservatives, on the other hand, are rather efficient when it comes to acheiving goals, but they tend to strive for a world that is markedly non-ideal. Necessarily, this entails a fairly homoegeneous population with unified beliefs, usually aligned via religious dogma. While attractive and tidy, this paradigm seeds conflict throughout the world and is ultimately untenable.

I am something of a hybrid. I believe the liberal ideal is best, but that “conservative” policies and approaches must be employed in order to keep society healthy during its youth. Without this, civilization will simply deteriorate into chaos. A good example of such a hybrid policy would be requiring students to wear uniforms in public schools for a predetermined length of time.

On the outside this is conservative and restrictive, i.e. anti-liberal, but ultimately any liberal society requires an educated population. So in reality, not implementing such systems is the easiest path toward extreme conservatism. Why? Because the more uneducated a given population is, the more totalitarian the government must be in order to maintain order.

This “conservative approach to liberalism” is precarious, to be sure, but I think it’s the only answer.: