Irreligion: Inequalities 

The world is made up of fundamental inequalities. These inequalities create movement and motion. Air flows from high pressure to low pressure. The denser a planetary object, the greater its gravitational pull on smaller objects. Everywhere, everything is moving. We are sitting on a planet spinning through the solar system that is in turn racing through the galaxy. But you already know this.  

My students and liberal friends keep telling me that all we need is “balance.” But what if we are just like the rest of nature — in constant change and motion? I mean this mentally as well as physically. In the “Samkhya-Karika” and “Yoga Sutras,” this constant movement is described in terms of the physical world (prakriti) as well as the mental world (citta). Vicissitudes make up both.   

Even the simple motion of a pendulum is part of this constant motion. Back and forth. To and fro, right and left. Like American politics. Always in motion but with simple parameters — Republican or Democrat, right or wrong. We have just finished the “quarter term” elections where Democrats made a clean sweep against a now seemingly fractured MAGA mandate. So the pendulum swings left again. 

We can’t get away from that binary thinking, can we? It’s easy. Republican vs. Democrat, right vs. left, conservative vs. liberal, patriot vs. traitor. In philosophy, this argument has always been couched in terms of things-that-are vs. things-that-are-not, identity vs. difference, same vs. other. Look at it this way: Bleeding-heart liberals want to give difference a big hug, whereas fire-breathing patriots want to deport difference.  

If inequalities make up the fundamental algorithm of the physical and mental worlds, then you are not going to get rid of them by declaration, legislation, or insipid cliches like, “Everybody needs balance.” Take for example that famous declaration, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal …” What? Really? Since when? Exactly what truths are ever “self-evident?” Hooey pooey on that! But “created equal?” In his “Nicomachean Ethics,” Aristotle — the same guy who came up with that “pursuit of happiness” nonsense — went through a list of things that make people fundamentally unequal. We can begin with the nature of your genetics, then your looks, athletic abilities, the nurture you received from family, society, and, yes, economic class. Nobody is created equal. Oh, and by the way, why weren’t women mentioned in that “created equal” sound bite? Hmm.  

Societal inequalities are everywhere. New York City, which will soon be run by a “jihadist communist” (according to our President), has over eight million citizens. Aspen/Snowmass has less than 8,000. New York City has around 123 billionaires according to a recent Forbes article. Regarding Aspen’s number of billionaires, Google AI says, “… estimates suggest the number is likely between 100 and 125.” We have one thousandth the population of New York City and nearly that same number of billionaires. And do you think ICE is ever coming to Aspen? Our current President (like every President) gets a great deal of financial support from the billionaire class. Can you imagine if windows were no longer washed, houses no longer cleaned, and all the leaf blowers went silent? (Please, Lord, make the leaf blowers go silent!) What would happen if those perpetually empty mausoleums on Red Mountain weren’t pampered according to the owner’s expectations?  

ICE won’t dare step foot in Aspen/Snowmass because of a fundamental inequality between the haves and the have-nots. When all of those immigrants began pouring across the border during the Biden Administration, the alarm bells started going off. They were ringing inequality. So many of those people had/have nothing. Wealthy Aspenites need workers willing to suffer the vicissitudes of lots of motion (long, frenetic commutes) — a “perfect” match of two inequalities.  

Now we hear that Trump wants to give $40 billion to Argentina to prop up their soy bean exports while cutting off American soy bean farmers from their biggest market: China. (Fox News on Nov. 5, “When did MAGA become Make Argentina Great Again?”) All the while buying more Argentinian beef? How is that looking for the Western Slope cattle industry? What happened to America First? Equality? Phooey again!  

Where is the equality when the President of the richest country on the planet is turning his back on American farmers and cattlemen and giving away billions to foreign competitors while declaring there isn’t enough SNAP money to feed our poorest of the poor (a measly $5 billion)? And what about the hundreds of millions being thrown at the tacky White House ballroom or the newly-marbled presidential bathroom? (Not Cambria quartzite? Oh my!)  

Now that the pendulum is starting to swing left, what now? Maybe no more cuts to health care and SNAP benefits in order to pay for fiscally irresponsible tax breaks on capital gains? Or maybe more focus on things that are really important: like who gets to use a bathroom, or if men can get pregnant, or how many rounds should be allowed in a clip?  

David Hale earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy, Religion, and Cultural Theory from the University of Denver and Iliff School of Theology. He is a lecturer in Philosophy at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction and is a full time contractor in Snowmass. Find him at davidhalesirreligion.com.