Money is not the root of all evil... Envy is.

It's interesting to watch through the years how the progressive collectivists in manipulating the relatively uninformed middle class and the 'no idea' lower class have utilized the founder's words to bring about increases of envy and jealousy to the levels of hate and a simmering rage at the better performers of society. 'All men are created equal' has been pounded into those susceptible minds to mean that all men ARE equal. And since all are equal, then all should have an equal piece of the pie, with no thought or gratitude for who made that pie, who got the ingredients, who had the oven, who paid for the gas, even who had the pan. And if they won't share their pie voluntarily with a smile on their faces, well we'll take it for you and won't even let them have a slice.

And now, in the last several years, it's even been pounded into those low information classes that there's no longer a ladder out of their situations now, because those 'betters' have taken it all unto themselves. It just goes on and on. I personally wonder with increasing doubt if there's anyway out of this quagmire of rising hate, other than a huge set back of all the marvelous progress made by humanity overall in the last 150 years or so.

Great essay Robert!

That reminds me of the Rush song "Half the World" on the album Test for Echo. I would post the lyrics but I encourage listening to the song because the music is awesome, as is usual for Rush. (Well that is just my humble opinion)

"the hatred of those who are better—who have more of any positive human attribute or character trait—for being better"
In our highly specialized world, this idea of hating people who are better at something leads to a lot of hate b/c so many people are very good in their area of specialization or their favorite hobby.

"Perpetrators consign themselves to a hell of their own creation." If my deceased mother-in-law had learned that lesson, my wife's whole extended family would have been much better off. The worst part of that hell of their own creation is that the perpetrators think it is their life goal to drag the rest of us into their personal hell.