Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

“Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.”

— Nelson Mandela

When life comes down to it, most people act instinctively out of self-interest, given the societal constraints we’ve imposed on ourselves—the profit motive, money, etc. Then, most people will pick and choose moral justifications to cast themselves in a righteous light or make themselves feel better about the rather bleak state of societal affairs. I certainly think most people would prefer, and would in fact choose, a more fair and egalitarian world where basic human rights are afforded to people. “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs,” as Marx said. But most people are not willing to do the work to bring about a more just and humane social order, nor are they willing to engage in nonviolent acts of resistance or self-sacrifices to make it happen.

The real problem for humans to overcome, in my estimation, is resentment. Far more than any inherent greed or selfish desires absent democratic oversight and accountability. On the one hand, we resent others who have exploited our labor or wronged us, therefore we often dream of enacting revenge on these people. Think Stalin, Castro, Mao, reactionary and dogmatic Marxists, etc. On the other hand, and not to be discounted, is that many humans tend to resent people less financially successful as supposed freeloaders, while not understanding or acknowledging that there’s an entire class of people (business owners) quite literally profiting off the work of other human beings while typically not paying most workers a wage to truly enjoy their lives. Think liberals, neoconservatives and the Ayn Rands of the world.

Not to mention that there’s an entire class of corporate and political elites ruling over us and using our tax dollars to siphon more profit to themselves. Somehow these practices are never considered “freeloading” from the work of others, but a working class person struggling to make ends meet is understood to be a loser.

It’s not resentment to hold contempt for oligarchs and plutocrats ruling in the name of corporate profit, nor is it resentment to understand that every worker deserves a real living wage that provides housing, transportation, food, phone, and healthcare with at least a bit leftover to save or actually enjoy living their life. But it is resentment to believe those below you on the social status ladder are simply lazy people who don’t deserve basic human necessities. This kind of thinking is the sort of dehumanizing that private power counts on from ordinary people and it doesn’t serve the community well in our attempts to resist the seeds of division. Rather than being a tool for corporate and state propaganda, be a human being.

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