I don’t think we’re real close to a “French revolution”, but an executed CEO today could be a symptom of the situation. (Of course, we don’t know the motive yet. But just the online discourse around it is telling).
To follow-up on my comment of “online discourse” about this: the Facebook post from the company (…deeply saddened…) has 20.6K laugh emojis vs ~4k in sympathy related)
I didn't go to Johannesburg because my friend had gotten car jacked the week before. In my 4 months in cape town I was the only member of my friend group that didn't get mugged (most with guns).
But Clifton and Camps Bay were super nice. One late night I made a sandwich for the security guard my friend's neighborhood had to hire to stand outside with a kalashankof at night, he was grateful.
Compare that to other more poor African nations, there isn't 1/1000 the tension in the air as there is in SA. The reason for that is the extreme difference in wealth tied to racial tensions.
Because money is power. If you believe in democracy, then extreme inequality is extremely un-democratic. (Note, there is, IMHO, a happy middle-ground: some amount of tolerable inequality, resulting in some amount of tolerable un-democratic-ness)
Money isn't power. Power is power. Money can sometimes be used like power, but not knowing the difference is a recipe for the situation we find ourselves in now.
Money is only powerful as long as it's useful. When the pitchforks come out, dollar bills won't stop them.
Not trying to make assumptions, but it appears he is trying to lean into the "greed is good" line of thinking where vices are actually spun to be virtues. Not only does it allow you to avoid empathy for your fellow man, it allows you to excuse your own excesses as necessary (or even good)
