The trouble with our critics is that they speak as if there is no suffering, persecution or oppression in the world. Every grievance raised with them is immediately written off and attributed to fanaticism alone.
Their opponents live in a vacuum, unaffected by their conditions. Resisting imperialism is not their right. Poverty and environmental degradation are no excuse to migrate. Their lands were not invaded and wrecked by foreign powers from the other side of the planet.
No, their burden is their profession of faith alone. If only they would just abandon this, their conditions would immediately improve, reaping all the delightful benefits enjoyed by the multi-millionaire intellectuals who represent the Free World.
Such is the caricature painted of both the east and west. The ordinary man and woman of enlightened lands, weighed down by a mountain of debt, does not get a look in here. Those at the bottom of the pile especially, surviving on food banks and goodwill, are not included in this pastiche.
Our critics paint a picture of them and us. But in reality we are mostly all in it together. For the down and outs of both east and west, the relentless daily toil struggling to make ends meet offers little to celebrate.
In truth, there is the wealthy pundit who has built their career telling us how good we have it, and then there’s everyone else, trying their best to make it within the constraints of the conditions imposed upon them. Them and us, indeed.
Last modified: 8 February 2024
