“And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day.”
(Isaiah 58:10)
It is an inevitable natural phenomenon that so far men live together there must be hierarchies and varying social statuses. I do not refer to hierarchies imposed by man on fellow men, such as the caste system in which the people of society are forcibly distinguished by birth into certain social statuses, but I here refer to a natural phenomenon. The skill, talent, industriousness, wisdom, privileges, opportunities, wealth of men or the lack thereof, as well as the time and chance that happens in society, forges society into an inevitable system of hierarchies. Some must be above the others and that is beyond human control. So it is vain for us to be seeking to talk about equality in society. That is way beyond our power. Where we, by human contrivances, try to make all men equal, by whatever name or justification we try to give such an endeavour, we cannot fail to be wicked. To achieve this we must rob Peter to pay Paul so as to allow Peter and Paul to be equal. That is wickedness to Peter and not a favour to Paul. All men must be treated equally of course, but not be made equal by human contrivances.
One thing strikes me when I read the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. The children of Israel had returned from captivity and we have no reason to believe that they came with any peculiar differing privileges of advantages one above the other. They were just coming to start society on a clean slate, but within a short time, a very short time, of returning from Babylon they already had nobles who wouldn’t work with the rest as it is written, “And next unto them the Tekoites repaired; but their nobles put not their necks to the work of their LORD.” (Nehemiah 3:5). Maybe those were made nobles by the appointment of Cyrus and may have not necessarily risen up to that post by some natural advancement. Granted. However, within that time also they already had servants and masters of servants. One may suppose that these servants may have been brought from Babylon as servants, but that was not the case. The account of the lamentation of those who had within a short time found themselves in the bondage of servanthood goes as follows:
“And there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren the Jews. For there were that said, We, our sons, and our daughters, are many: therefore we take up corn for them, that we may eat, and live. Some also there were that said, We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses, that we might buy corn, because of the dearth. There were also that said, We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute, and that upon our lands and vineyards. Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children: and, lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought unto bondage already: neither is it in our power to redeem them; for other men have our lands and vineyards.”
(Nehemiah 5:1 – 5)
These were not servants at the start. They were owners of lands and vineyards. This means they were people of substance for it is a great deal to own lands and vineyards. But how did they become servants or how did they become so destitute so as to give out their children for servants? The problems they listed, going in reverse order, are, first other men had their lands and vineyards. Why did other men have their lands? Because they had mortgaged their lands to get funds to survive. Why were they in the dire need for funds to survive? They gave one major answer, the dearth. But I won’t go with that. Did their brethren who took their children for servants not go through the dearth too? So how did they go through it without these desperate acts of mortgaging their lands? The answer that I’d rather accept that was the cause of their predicament, not the dearth, is in these words, “We, our sons, and our daughters, are many: therefore we take up corn for them, that we may eat, and live.” Poor family planning brought them into their predicament, and this is in a way a poor financial decision. Giving birth to so many children that it would take a national budget to keep up a family is a very poor financial decision. When dearth strikes, it would strike them the hardest.
Apart from this, laziness too may have contributed. Seeing they were themselves owners of lands and vineyards at the start, it is probable that those who complained were those people who have lands but won’t till it. As it is written, “The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing.” (Proverbs 20:4). So we see that the things that divided men into hierarchies within such a short time here were poor financial decisions, probable acts of laziness, and time and chance of the dearth. This is a societal problem that means we shall always have hierarchies in society.
Does that then mean we should let the course of nature have its sway in crushing those it wills and letting to thrive those it will? Like we have what is called the law of natural selection in the erroneous theory of evolution. No, we must interpose to save those that are prone to be crushed by men and even by nature. Sometimes people find themselves in desperate situations not by poor decisions but sometimes by chance, by society, by treachery of men, etc. At other times they are the cause of their predicament and I too am of the opinions that if people cause their own predicament, they should be allowed to suffer the consequences of their actions. But still we must seek to ensure that as much as possible they are saved from suffering. Even if we can’t, one thing we must ensure that we never ever do is to take advantage of those who are in any predicament. This was the anger of Nehemiah when he said, “And I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words. Then I consulted with myself, and I rebuked the nobles…” (Nehemiah 5:6 – 7). So we see where the anger of Nehemiah lay.
So in society hierarchies and class must exist. There must be the privileged and the less privileged, the wealthy and the poor, the fortunate and the unfortunate, etc. And there are many means by which this come about for this is the will of God. Let that be as it may, the focus of a righteous society should be on the wellbeing of the lower class. It is written, “The righteous considereth the cause of the poor: but the wicked regardeth not to know it.” (Proverbs 29:7). If it takes the righteous to have the cause of the poor in mind, it takes an especially wicked society not care about the cause of the poor and even go ahead to trample them under and exploit their predicaments.
This is where the idea of the open upward way comes in. By open upward way I mean a society shaped in a way that just anybody can rise from obscurity to any heights of success they wish by none other but hard work, diligence, study, profitability to society, and adherence to the rule of law. Open because no special key owned by any class is required to use that way. Upward because it leads to the heights of success. And upward because going through it requires exerting oneself, not like sliding downwards. In every society there is always this phenomenon that doors of the upward path always seem to shut against the poor and less privileged. Even when it is not shut against them it always tends to be so tight that the poor can’t get through it without scars on their bodies. It therefore takes conscious meticulous societal effort to keep that door opened. It can’t remain open to the poor by nature.
A wise and righteous society therefore would seek to ever ensure that the upward path is always open. Herein is wisdom. The truth is that some of the biggest assets of a society are the poor and are found in the poor. There’s something about poverty, it teaches rare wisdom to those who grow in it. It builds the strength of character of those who life has ordained to stand under its weight and have chosen not to bend to corrupt ways. It’s a furnace that tries the man. The man that comes out of it is thoroughly refined. What fool shall then choose to discard such rare assets and shut them out? Alas we live in times when foolishness abounds in societies.
Look at the children of the rich. Many are not able to manage their affairs in wisdom. By firsthand experience and things I’ve read I see that they’re not that smart or intelligent. Everything is given to them on a platter of gold. They don’t have to think carefully on how to make judicious use of limited resources. They don’t need to truly think. Even when they succeed, they just have to follow established and proven paths and make money work for them. They’re literarily living life on cheat mode. They’re using cheat of unlimited resources to play the game of life. And gamers would tell you that there are almost nothing that makes you as dumb as using cheat in games does. Apart from that they usually are of poor character. Many are so hopelessly given up to hard drugs. Many of them are very rude, very proud, very insolent, and very uncultured. So wealth and privileges has a negative effect on our development of character and competence if not properly managed. I explained this in my book, “THE LIFE OF JOAB,” saying, “the feeling of entitlement and the enjoyment of privileges can hinder us on our path to success and competence. We see this so often when we look around us. Children of extremely wealthy people don’t tend to do so well naturally. They must be propped up with a lot of finances and that often to no avail… So entitlements and privileges which some would see as really good stuff can be the cause of mediocrity and even destruction.”
NB: the full book, THE LIFE OF JOAB is completely free and can be downloaded HERE.
I do not say here that poverty in itself is any good. The poor also have their own vices that is peculiar to poor people. The poor are prone to all sorts of petty criminality, prostitution, barbarism, lack of exposure and ignorance that comes with it, illiteracy, contempt for education, and what have you. So I’m not hailing poverty. But the fact is, as said before, some of your biggest and finest assets are the poor. When the door is open to them to ascend through the upward way, what a blessing shall they become to the society.
The person that can rise through poverty to prominence without foul play would often be found to be stronger in character, having more competence, and being more compassionate. This is because they worked their way up. And they worked their way up because they had no choice but to work their way up. They’ve been poor and know what it means to be poor and so can feel the pains of the poor. But the wealthy are already up and only need to remain up. They have a choice, either to work to go further up or not work and still go further up. They’ve not experienced poverty and so when they hear of poverty can only imagine it. Kindly read more on this phenomenon in my book, “THE LIFE OF JOAB.”
Now, America is no doubt the greatest country in the world in recent years. They became great because they harnessed the potentials in the assets found in their poor. In the days of their rising, some of their greatest leaders rose from obscurity to reign as presidents and statesmen. Just take a look at the biographies of their past leaders and statesmen and see where they rose from. Whether this is to the credit of the state or to the individual may be in dispute, however, one thing is sure, their rise from obscurity and poverty made them the great leaders they were that blessed their nations with their knowledge, rare wisdom, competence, and prowess. Had the open upward way been closed, America would have lost great gems and remained a lawless bunch of gunfighters or even an unborn nation.
Woe to that nation that closes the upward path against their poor. They shall not see progress. It is written, “When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow: that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands.” (Deuteronomy 24:19). There are several verses in the Bible that promises blessings to work of ones hands which are directly tied to helping the poor. And I feel it is in God’s wisdom to deliberately put some rare gems of the society amidst the poor so that the nation that is wicked and inconsiderate to the poor would, without knowing it, by its own wickedness destroy their valuable gems and incur curses, losses and impede their own progress. On the other hand, the nation that is kind and good shall, without knowing it, reap abundant blessings and rule the world. By closing the door against its poor, a nation jeopardises its future.
Now, how do people close the door on the poor? Let’s take a look at some life examples. When education is not free or too expensive for the poor, the door of education is closed against the poor. When job opportunities are given to those who can pay bribes for them rather than to the competent, the door of opportunities is closed against the poor. When pursuing justice becomes a very expensive procedure, the door of obtaining redress and justice is being closed against the poor. In general, when a society is shaped in a way that money is made king and the only key to opportunities and solutions in life is money, the door of the upward way is being shut against the poor.
For this reason, the cause of the poor needs to be carefully considered to ensure that as many as wish to take the upward path and play by the rules, working in all honesty, can do so without any hinderance. This is done primarily by ensuring the necessary things for life are within easy rich for the poor. These include food, a modest shelter, and means of education. I say means of education because when you say education, you mean formal education, but I feel that formal education as we know it is not only not the best way of being educated, and is also not only entirely obsolete, it has become an evil institution that destroy our young. Access to good educational content and skill acquisition is essential to keep the door open for the poor in society.
Emory S. Bogardus, in his book, “A history of social thought,” wrote of one Pestalozzi (1746–1827), saying “In his Leonard and Gertrude, he described the life of the poor, and formulated an educational procedure for educating the poor.” In that he says an educational procedure was formulated, it means it was not the standard formal education he believed that should be used to educate the poor, perhaps because the formal education may be too expensive or may not be suited for the poor. For it is not uncommon for the poor not to place importance on education in the first place. So something has to be formulated to be suited to the poor. I can’t offer any method yet that is cost effective and efficacious. My own efforts have absolutely failed and other ideas I have impracticable. For example, the idea of trying to make children own reading devices to read books didn’t quite work out well because firstly, the devices, which is usually a cheap phone with an ebook app to read simple text, aren’t affordable however cheap they may be. Secondly, those who could manage to buy a phone couldn’t manage it well. In a short while the phones were in pieces or with condemned batteries. And still others got phones but didn’t have the drive to read. And last of all they used the phones for other things entirely like playing music, watching movies, playing games, and even browsing nasty stuff over the internet. So what I thought was a good idea ended up a terrible one. My effort to also organise a book club had a disastrous fate. Parents and guardians themselves killed it. So I am personally bereft of ideas, but good thought should be given to the subject of educating the poor. Maybe I’ll find the book of Pestalozzi to see what ideas he formulated for educating the poor if there may be anything to borrow.
It was also written of the same Pestalozzi, “In opening an industrial school for the poor, Pestalozzi recognized that the poor have the least opportunities for development and the largest numbers of problems to solve,—therefore they are in the greatest need of educational advantages. He held that all the phases of human personality should be trained, and that there should be “a harmonious development of all human powers.” Hence, education is the greatest gift that anyone, rich or poor, can receive.” So making suitable education accessible to the poor is essential in helping them take the upward way.
There is this need to also stop commercialising just anything and everything. As many things as can be should be made free. I who have been poor myself, not because I was born to poor parents, but have gone through a career path not supported by my parents and so sought to advance it by my own means, I really don’t know what would have been of my career without free Open Source software. I’m so grateful to free Open Source software and foundations like Ubuntu, Blender, Libre Office, Open Office, Inkscape, Gimp, and so on. These things being free kept the upward path open to me. Had I been stranded with high end software like 3DS Max, Maya, Corel Draw, Photoshop, etc., my career would have been in shambles. Open Source has been the ground and pillar of my entire career.
The same also goes for free books and literary contents. I really don’t know how it would have ever been possible to satisfy my intellectual needs without free ebooks. I really like the idea of making books whose author has been dead for some time to be in the public domain. This has resulted in having a very large collection of very rich books out on the internet for free. Much thanks to Project Gutenberg for doing so much to ensure that rich old books in the public domain are digitalised and available as free ebooks online. And more so for their devotion to ensure that the formatting of their books are excellently done. It is a common belief that if something is free, it is good enough to be free, it doesn’t have to be quality. I’ve seen a lot of roughly scanned books just thrown out there on the net. But not so with Project Gutenberg’s books. All there books are carefully formatted to ensure a rich reader experience despite the books being free. The same also goes to Libre Vox that provides free audio books with real human voices for free.
I have shared in the past how that the free ebooks of Vincent Cheung has been very very useful for me in understanding apologetics, whereas other books of other authors who would have been also useful didn’t help me at all simply because they put a price tag to their books. So I’m ever grateful to all these individuals, projects, foundations, software, etc., that has ensured the upward way remain open for the poor like myself. Though I’ve arisen through that path a long way, I still consider myself poor. I’ve feasted on the most sumptuous of literary contents, I’ve done my work with softwares that are second to none in quality and versatility, I’ve enjoyed so many benefits, and all for free. If price tags are placed on everything, the door of the upward path would be shut against the poor.
I’m a bit surprised that old books of deceased authors are not allowed to be in the public domain here in Nigeria. The necessity of making things free hasn’t been very much realised here. Even after the death of an author, the publishers would still place a firm grip on the licence of the book to ensure it is not available in the public domain. I hope this stops. What money do they want to make that they hadn’t made when the author was yet alive? Old books ought to be released to the public domain, and authors and other content creators should try as much as possible to make things free even while they live. Now, I know that to do these things take studies, effort, skill, and money, and so money ought to be paid, but where possible, as much as possible, free quality contents should be made free so the poor can make use of them without money. Furthermore, I know that if old books are made free people won’t see the need to pay money for new books therefore greatly damaging the profit of authors and the profitability of writing. The entire book writing career is now at jeopardy. Granted. But this I say, if the career of authors suffer a blow because rich intellectual contents are free, then the blow ought to be suffered. We can’t sacrifice universality accessibility to literary content for the profit of few. With new methods of publishing and technology as well as free access to endless info on the net, we do not have the justification to sell as people did in bygone years. So not only is it that the profit of free literary contents far outweighs the harm incurred by having them free, the supposed harm are to things that cannot be legitimately had. So as much as possible literary contents should be made free for the universal access to all. This helps to keep the upward way open to all. I’m a living testimony of this fact. Of all things that should be made free, literary contents is the most important to make free for the poor. Free research procedure and findings also should be published for free.
For other necessities there is a need for price control to ensure that the poor are not exploited in getting their other necessities as well as a modest welfare program. The free market in Nigeria for example has failed. The idea of having a free market in which price of goods and services are kept in check by competition has proven to be ineffective. Governments of nations that don’t want to close the open upward way against their poor must, where a free market system is failing and oppression is ensuing, ensure they step in to ensure that prices of essential commodities are kept at the best minimum for the sakes of the poor.
The cost of justice also must be cut down as much as possible. In Nigeria, from my little experience in seeking redress in court, justice is something you buy. When I say justice is bought, I do not refer to bribing corrupt judges though bribery is rife and corrupt judges are very many, but what I refer to is that the process itself is too expensive. You pay so much money for serving this person that and serving that person this. I went to court to seek redress for a case of people letting their animals into my garden to eat up my plants, as simple as that may be I spent about a hundred and fifty thousand Naira. When the judge obviously took bribes to deliver a wrong judgment against me over such a tiny straightforward case, I chose to appeal it. To transfer the record of proceedings to the appellate court, I was told it would cost me another fifty thousand. There are so many wasteful processes that could be streamlined, and exorbitant charges for things that elsewhere are very affordable, but because it is in the court of law the prices are inflated. To deliver a notice of appeal to one of the respondents I was charged fifteen thousand. After bargaining we settled for either twelve or ten thousand. To think that one could bargain the prices of services in our courts is just funny. Now if I were to go to the respondents office myself it would cost me just two thousand Naira to and fro. But a bike man that would go on one trip round the places with loads of letters and products would deliver a ten page document for about ten thousand Naira. The clarks and court officials would be there demanding money from you everyday you go to court. They would ask you for money for their meals, for recharge cards, and all manner of things. If justice is bought, what then happens to the rights of the poor. If the poor can’t seek and get justice in court, then he’s doomed to oppression. The rich knowing he would have his way in anything he does and being confident the poor cannot afford the cost of buying justice, he’d ride on the poor and do to him what he wills.
We also must be careful not to harm the rich in order to benefit the poor. In America there is a belief amongst a faction of the political class that the rich are the problem of society and that they should be taxed heavily. I also saw an explainer video that shows how unfair the American income tax is. The video showed that the higher you earn the more the percentage of tax you pay. This they claimed would promote equality in the society. As we have such contrivances can’t fail to be evil. Except when criminality is involved, the rich worked hard and smart for their money when others may be lazying away or making stupid financial decisions. Why should people be penalised for the wrong decisions of others? Using taxes that is by percentage of income already means the rich pay more and that’s okay, but to go further to increase the percentage of tax for the rich is unfair. What happens here is to promote laziness and sloth.
In the same vain welfare programs must be only modest and should never remove the need to work to earn a living. The open upward way ought to be kept open and give everyone an opportunity, irrespective of financial status, to make progress. People should be encouraged either by direct appeal and/or by policies to encourage people to follow its path so as to self sufficiently lead a high quality of life. However we must have the poor ones amongst us who slip into poverty because they’re too lazy to ascend the upward way. These will never go up the upward way no matter what is done to encourage them to. No matter how free trainings and education are for example, they will never advance themselves. The rich should not be held accountable for their actions. Only let the society ensure that the rich don’t exploit the poor of any kind.
It is written, “I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved… Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity!” (Habakkuk 2:1, 12). There are nations which, without realising it, build their towns with the blood of the poor. They establish it in the iniquity of exploitation and oppression. Woe to them.
But God has promised, “And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day.” (Isaiah 58:10). It is in maintaining an open upward way that progress is made and blessings received. Even in moments of economic depression, the prosperity of a nation would still be good enough to maintain a good life. The quality of life would still be high. That is what is meant by, “thy darkness be as the noon day.” Great is the blessings of maintaining the open upward way.
In summary, the nation with an open upward way is essentially a nation in which there is no oppression. And such a nation shall be blessed of the Lord.
Prayer: Dear Lord, you who taught us to learn to see you in your poor, teach us the especial care of the poor of society. Help us collectively and individually to ensure that the upward path remains wide open to all the poor in our spheres of influence. Help us to do this with religious fervour knowing that when we do this, it is in obedience to your will and commands. This we ask in your dear name. Amen.
This article is part of a book I'm currently putting together titled, "THE MONASTIC REPUBLIC." Kindly watch out for it.
