Friday, August 25, 2017

Illustrative Samsung Corruption Case


South Korea seems a decent and respectable, if conservative and right-wing, country, and their decency is reflected today in the fact that a really rich man is facing actual jail time for corruption. He had a team of 28 lawyers working for him--imagine that. I'd be lucky to have one, juggling my case with a dozen others, probably boozed up and disinterested, at that. I find this case remarkable, because a rich man might actually go to jail, and illustrative, because the sentence seems light at five years.

A poor man may steal something, or deal drugs, or both, and get twenty years, sent to a hard prison, where who knows what will happen to him, and who cares? A rich man may steal millions, and get no jail time at all, or if he does get some, it's going to be a light sentence at one of the easier jails, where at any rate he will get preferential treatment.

That's the main problem with justice in our world. It's not new. Always has been, and still is. It's the left-wingers that want to change this scenario and make justice truly blind. In other matters, such as love, ordinary life, and medicine, the rich may have all the advantages, but in matters of justice, to which human beings attach a spiritual significance, they should be equal to the poorest of the poor. Now, the right-wingers would not agree with that. They would say, to be rich is to be handed a blank check. Until the bank account is empty, the check can cover anything, including any sin. Money is equated with piety. To me, that is blasphemy. But there are even "Prosperity Gospel" Christians who believe money means Grace.

At any rate, I can't imagine such a sentence being handed down in an American courtroom. The rich here get off. No matter what the crime is, they get off, except if the crime is against other rich people. If there are rich victims, you know, rich people matter, so an exception is made, as in the case of Maddoff, who sinned against his own kind.

Even O.J. Simpson got off a murder charge, because he was rich. Color of skin did not matter one iota. I don't think black Americans understood that race was not a factor in that case. They rooted for O.J. and seemed elated when he got off. I recall black coworkers cheering as if they had won something. For my part, I was not surprised. He was rich, he would get off. A poor black man would be on death row right now. Not everything is about race. Money is far more important.

Now, if most blacks were rich, then the shoe would be on the other foot. There are plenty of poor whites, and ironically, they seem to be the ones marching in these white nationalist protests. They lack all class consciousness. They fail to understand, they are viewed under the same lens as the poor blacks. All are dispensable. Racism is opposed because it disrupts productivity and profits. Most barriers in society are generated not by race, but by class. It is not the blacks that are out to get whites. That has always seemed a ludicrous proposition to me. Why some whites want to single out a minority race as a scapegoat for all their problems just seems like blind animal stupidity, like a dog biting its tail because a flea bit its behind.

No comments:

techlorebyigor is my personal journal for ideas & opinions