This post inspired by The Daily Stoic morning email from 12/07/2020
Thomas Jefferson owned slaves and defended this horrible institution by thinking of slaves in America as lower human begins. He had pulled the wool over his own eyes so that he could not see that his actions and decisions, based on the education he had received and the beliefs he had formed, contributed to what he viewed as the problem. Not only was it illegal for slaves to teach, it was illegal for them to learn anything.
What if in our own worlds, where we believe our way of thinking to be sound, our sources of information trustworthy, our life rules virtuous, and our decisions always made in pursuit of the greatest good are like Jefferson’s? What if we are the problem?
It is easy for us to rationalize our anger and frustration with those not as successful as us. What is difficult for us to fully grasp, is that most of these individuals do not want entitlements or special privileges from us. They simply would like us to remove our foot from their necks.
But we refuse to see that we are the problem.
Featured photo by Marco Bianchetti on Unsplash.
The Shaw Show 