Class trips are always fun diversions from the classroom. The last time my daughter went on a school outing, she got more than schooled; she got a life lesson. As the trip wound down by mid-afternoon, the teachers gathered all the kids and started counting heads as they await their bus. All the kids had had their lunches but some were still hungry after a full day of activities. My daughter and a couple of friends asked the teacher if they can run down to the edge of the market square to buy a slice of pizza. The teacher refused. The handful of kids pressed on, “But we’re hungry. We’ll come right back.” The teacher was steadfast. “We can pay for it ourselves,” cried the kids. After some back and forth, the teacher finally said, No! Other kids can’t buy pizzas. The puzzled kids looked at each other, then at the teacher and back to themselves. Then they said, “Because others can’t afford it, we therefore can’t buy it with our own money?” That’s correct!
When my daughter came home and told me, she was still steamed about the whole idea where her liberties are tethered to others. “That’s bull shit!” she exclaimed. It can be, and you do not need to use foul language at home, I snapped back. But I was glad she had such a strong—almost allergic—reaction to her crash course in politics and government. “How is that fair?”
Sometimes what is not fair can be viewed as right for society. Imagine a child had enough money to buy pizzas for everyone. “That would be a good thing,” said my daughter. Now, imagine the same wealthy child buying all the pizzas but fed it to the pigeons and then no one would have pizzas. “That would be a waste.” Now, imagine this child buying all the pizzas and keeping it for himself? “That’s selfish.” Money unlocks all sorts of possibilities and enables all sorts of behavior in people causing all sorts of reactions from everyone else. Our political system walks a fine line between encouraging entrepreneurship for those with wealth and the marginalized requiring subsidies for subsistence.
Just because someone disagrees with us, it doesn’t mean they are wrong. But them not being wrong, doesn’t mean they are right, either.
It’s the eternal tug-of-war between the rich and the poor, the have’s and the never-had-it, and the famous versus the nameless masses. Governments sometimes reign in the behavior of the upper crust with regulations and taxation so the subsidized needy don’t fall too far through the cracks. The two social classes rarely mingle except where one is employed under the other. And their roles define the power positions and dissolve much opportunity for common ground. In my daughter’s case, she sat silently with her friends as antipathy grows alongside her hunger. The kids whom the teacher was shielding from conspicuous consumption sat silently begrudging not just their hungry, but their very sense of literal worth. Everybody waited in the square for the bus, miserable and hungry. Some had their choices taken away; others never had one. Both positions are unenviable.
I told my daughter, at least she can come home to a fridge full of food and daddy will cook a nice hot meal. She also has the option to take the leftovers for lunch or make something else. Other kids don’t have warm meals to come home to! So while I didn’t agree with the teacher’s reactions, I understand why she did it. Society functions as a collective. Special groups, whatever the interest, have its place and purpose. In the past, they have overcome the inertia to meaningfully move society to a better place. Many of our current ‘rights’ we now enjoy have been birthed this way. But if left uncheck, splinter groups can leave the masses rudderless as the free speech of one group can muzzle another. My last words on the topic to my daughter over our dinner were that there are at least two sides to every argument or issue. Just because someone disagrees with us, it doesn’t mean they are wrong. But them not being wrong, doesn’t mean they are right, either. And that was the teacher’s impossible situation. The goal is to recognize the inequity and try to right it. But often, we all find ourselves experiencing the limitation of others. It doesn’t mean we need to live within it. Then she said, “What if the next time we used class money raised and bought a snack for everyone?” Now you’re solving real world problems!
