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| Upton Sinclair |
“It
is difficult
to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his
not understanding it.”
That statement is used a lot these
days, particularly in the context of people of privilege not being
decent with people who have nothing.
The statement is often quoted as if it
were an indubitable truth and yet it is always unsatisfying to me
when I hear it. Various people whom I respect highly use it as if it
were self-evident, but I don't believe it for a second.
What I see wrong with it is that
assumes that the privileged man does not understand something.
Perhaps that false assumption is easily accepted because it is
flattering to the self to feel smarter than someone else. It allows a
feeling of ascendancy or superiority above others, something like
that.
I know I've have written and said this
many times, but people are far sharper than that, they pick up things
far better than even the animals.
They pick up the ascendency-superiority
thing immediately, of course, even from a flick of the eyebrow or the
incline of the nose or the tone of voice or the corners of the mouth.
But not understand that one is standing
on someone else's neck? Not pick up that one is exploiting another
person? Not know? Privileged people not understand the realities?
The problem is not knowledge. The
problem is kindness.
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