This university ‘cheating’ scandal, has brought a few things to light.  I can hardly write that sentence with a straight face.  There is nothing unifying about those things we call ‘universities’ today, and there is hardly an aspect of those fractured—things—which is not cheating every student in some way.  But one of the most annoying aspects is the feigned hatred for aristocracy.  When I was a child and thought as a child people would often say to me “life isn’t fair.”  I thought if people stopped saying that maybe it would be.  But then I gave up my childish ways and realized that life is not fair and it never will be.  But many today still think as children.  And we are all reaping the consequences.

Women and Children First. Those with power have a greater duty to lay down their lives. The Wreck of the Birkenhead. Thomas Hemy. c.1892.

Jesus said the poor would be with us always.  In context he was making it clear that worship of the Father through the Son is more important than social problems.  We are worshipping creatures, we are here to worship, and if we worship the wrong thing i.e. the created rather than the creator, the poor/social problems/whatever, instead of Yahweh through his son Jesus the Christ, we are going to make a huge mess of things.  Christ also made other stunning statements to our snowflakes yearning for fairness.  He says he spoke in parables so that some people would not understand(Matthew 13).  He was fulfilling prophecy, glorifying his father, not enlightening those who didn’t want the light.  That doesn’t sound fair.  Even more unfair is the Parable of the Talents Jesus tells in Matthew 25.  He concludes saying:

For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Nothing about this seems fair to us.  Each servant was given a different amount in the beginning and though the two servants who invested got the same percent back the servant with the most money was again rewarded when the wicked servant was rebuked.  Moe went from 5 to 11, Larry went from 2 to 4, Curly went from 1 to 0.  That’s not fair.  Because the point is not about money or status the point is about how you handle the responsibility given to you.  It’s about the relationship between you and your creator, not you and other men.  That brings us to a key concept in our politics and social concerns today, envy.  Envy is the sidelong glance.  ‘But what about him’ Peter says.  Jesus replies “what is that to you, follow me”.   Even in a perfect world were everyone followed Him, there would be a million inequalities. That’s how God wants it.  Those inequalities are opportunities for conflict, as well as reconciliation and stronger relationships.  It’s easy to get along with people who are just like you.  But when people are richer or poorer than you, you have to work a little to sacrifice or humble yourself.  Jesus divided Eve from Adam so that they could relate to one another in a richer, deeper way.  Men and women can complain about what they don’t have and compare themselves to the other, or they can be faithful with what they do have.  The wicked servant was not appreciative, he thought God was stingy.  He thought it was a zero sum game and was to afraid to take risks or to profit.  He was probably a Socialist and those who take his side are guilty of envy.  Envy used to be considered a bad thing, because God said so.  It was one of the seven deadly sins.  Sadly today in America it is considered a virtue.

There will always be rich and poor, gifted and ungifted, beautiful and ugly.  God likes it that way.  Every system we have devised to try to eliminate these differences has resulted in death and destruction and slavery, often on a large scale.  There are types of equality which are good.  Equality before the law is good, no matter who you are you should get a fair trial if you are wronged or accused of wronging someone.  Conservatives speak of equality of opportunity vs. equality of outcome.  The outcome side is that impossible task which Marx and all who follow him pretend they can fix.  The opportunity side is somewhat doable, by striving for a merit based system.  By rewarding people for what they can do instead of who they are, or who their parents are(( Even this is arbitrary, what do you have that you were not given? God gives some abilities (Exodus 31) and some status (Romans 13), some neither.)).  This is what seems to upset a lot of people about the cheating scandal.  But while the U.S. has done far more here and by extension around the world to bring this about, inequality of opportunity will always be with us.  In this country upward mobility or the measure of the poor’s ability to become wealthy is better than almost anywhere[2. I would argue even the nations Slovenia, Chile, Italy, and the UK, where it is better, that fact is due to American thinking being exported].  But it is declining.  I think one major reason for that decline is the establishment of Envy.  Attacks on the 1% are more common, so why bother?  What is in fashion is attacking the 1%.  What is out of fashion is minding your own business and achieving the most you can.

And that gets back to Jesus’ words.  What matters is your relationship with your creator.  Do you appreciate and enjoy and make the best of what he has given, you?  Or do you grumble about the neighbors and go vote for Bernie?  There are some vestiges of this left in our culture, like that catch phrase from Spider Man, : ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’  And that’s what we forget.  Since aristocracy is a fact, what do we do about it?  It used to be that those with more were held to a higher standard.  A gentleman was not just someone who had more, it was someone from whom more was expected, by himself, his family and society.  You get the perks but you also have the duties.  We see the breakdown of this all around.  Children of the wealthy are party girls and playboys, they don’t lead by example with what they have, they exploit it for selfish ends.  Unlike the English gentleman who laid down his life in war for his country, the wealthy of today party, drink and have sex in ways unbecoming of the worst heathen from days gone by. We see it in the Kardashians, Hiltons, Trumps and even the British royal family.  One example of this done right is the speeding rules in Iceland.  The highest speeding ticket in the world is from Iceland.  Because it’s a progressive system.  The more money you have the higher the fine.  Which is how it should be.  Not because speeding matters at all, it doesn’t, but because if you believe there should be a penalty, it should hurt the same for everyone.

This was brought to light recently with the prostitution scandal involving Robert Kraft.  People are suggesting that he is receiving harsher treatment because he is a high profile person.  But that’s good, he should be held to a higher standard.  Just like Gregg Gianforte should be picked on for knocking down a reporter, when the average person might not be.  If you want the power and the money and the influence, you should use it for good.  People are watching.  Bad behavior should be condemned and punished.  You can’t champion bad behavior in the wealthy as a right of passage and also suggest you care about the poor and repressed.  Bad behavior by those who can, is the same abuse of power as that which you see in whatever social problem.  When the Kennedy’s are caught with a woman under the desk, it’s not cute.  It’s abusive.  They are supposed to represent the people, to be selfless.  Their sin trickles down or up whichever way you want to look at it.  Bad men elect bad leaders and bad leaders encourage bad men.  Whichever side you are on, you have a responsibility to stop evil in yourself.  We are to emulate the king, Jesus and to model our leaders after him.  He sacrificed everything.