Pope Francis Is Wrong
Inequality is a lot more complicated than this.
Of course, Pope Francis is wrong. He is wrong in deep and abiding ways that reflect an inherent bias of understanding, not because he has no understanding of suffering — though that’s true too — but because he has no understanding of how problems are solved.
His claim is that inequality is the root of social evil. But that’s obviously wrong. Inequality is the root of the only means by which we can solve social evil. The powerless can do nothing — by definition. The ignorant do not know how to solve problems. The weak don’t have the strength to dislodge no stronger than themselves. The poor cannot afford social advantage. Inequality is the engine by which solutions are enabled.
This is toxic thinking, just like a magical belief in deity causes one to fail to understand and leverage solutions that depend on accepting one’s personal power and responsibility, the belief that inequality is an inherent evil in and of itself is self-defeating and self-destructive. To promote it is to literally disempower those whom one publicly declares that they are most interested in helping.
No, Pope Francis, inequality is not the root of social evil. Inequality is not the root of social evil in any more than a difference in entropic distribution is the root of bad weather; it’s a meaningless, empty statement. Inequality is as inherent in the nature of human society, of human consciousness, as entropic distribution being unequally distributed throughout the universe. The alternative is much worse: stagnation. Blankness. The inability to make choices because there are no meaningful distinctions.
The next time someone tells you that inequality is the root of social evil, ask them and yourself who, exactly, they intend to make whom equal with whom. Never is it intended to elevate those below them to their level; it is always intended to drag those who are considered above them down — and always for some third-party’s benefit, never for their own aggrandizement. Even though that is always the result.
