The “Protestant Work Ethic” we white Americans so praise, Sam, is an example of the cruelty of power, in my opinion. An example of the duping and baiting of the working classes.

The English ruling classes of earlier centuries did not work very hard or put in very long days at the grindstone. They were a leisure class besides being a ruling class, going to enormous lengths to invent diverting games and pastimes for themselves. (Tennis comes to mind, as do oil paintings and watercolors, and great works of poetry penned by the idle.)

The great middle buffer class were taught to work hard, and take severe punishment as a matter of course for any failure.

We live in a world defined centuries ago by a tiny, elite, hereditary ruling class who abused power as if it were a God-given right.

And we don’t even see it. We can’t overturn the thought patterns and build something new, because we VALUE those ancient ways of being. Because what we were taught got passed down generation to generation, and we’re still duped.

We’re still led by a leisure class, and we still believe them when they abuse their power, which is pretty much constantly.