RE: Elysium Review

[Shaeroden]

i was listening to Stef's review of Elysium, and he referred to the hatred of CEO's or "resentment of the rich" as stemming from the idea that "there is money out there, you didn't get yours, so somebody else stole yours."

his initial speculation was that it came from dating, in the idea that someone else got the girl you wanted, therefore the somebody else is a thief.  or that it's a particular phase of childhood that never gets grown out of where you can't stand the idea of other people playing with your toys, even when you're not using them.  but i think i might have a better explanation as to why this idea sticks so strongly in people's heads.

when i was a child, my grandpa was a very competent and talented wood worker.  he would carve birds out of wood, and paint them with such detail, he almost gave my grandmother a heart attack because she thought a live magpie was on the dining room table on one occasion.

of course, when you carve a bird out of wood, you start with a block.  there is an extreme disparity between the value of a block of wood, and the value of a beautifully carved and painted bird that would sell for $400-$800.

he passed a little bit of this talent on to me.  he showed me the basic principles, how to carve with the grain, etc... and after a few months, i was making detailed figurines and reliefs of cars, bugs, bears, and dragons out of wood.  i entered them in competitions and won some ribbons for them.

i wasn't conscious of it at the time, but now that i think of it, i made $5 blocks of wood turn in to prize-winning artwork worth $20 gift cards.  in other words, i did something that added to the total value of myself and the world.  at a very young age no less.

it wouldn't surprise me if these people who hold on to this idea of "infinitely-constant-value/someone-stole-my-share" stems from the lack of going through a similar process like this as a child.  the child never observes themselves adding to the value of anything, so they grow up believing that they can't add value, therefore, in their mind, all value in the world is infinitely constant.  just like matter is infinitely constant.  (infinitely constant meaning that it cannot be changed in the infinity of time, not space)

whereas kids who get involved in value-adding activities like woodcarving, fixing cars, building computers, building fences, welding, etc...  real "value adding" tasks become somewhat aware of their ability to add value to something, and therefore don't grow up believing in an infinitely constant value of the universe, because they know they can add to it, therefore it cannot be constant.