There’s an old joke, not so old that Jesus heard it, but old nonetheless – You can tell Monopoly is an old game because it’s got a luxury tax and it’s possible for rich people to go to jail. The possibility of either or both happening is greater in the board game than in real life. In real life taxes and jail are more and more the monopoly of the poor and quite rare for the rich. This makes sense given the rich design and game the system. The gamed system can be called military justice. It consists of abusive superiors inflicting suffering against those judged inferior; for example those who are rich against those who are poor. Thus, when Jesus announces in this Sunday’s Gospel that he’s bringing “glad tidings to the poor,” letting “the oppressed go free,” and “proclaiming liberty to captives,” he is showing that he understands how the system works and is setting out to change how the rich game it.
The old game plan is apparent in Ferguson, Missouri. Rich rulers pass bills to cut corporate taxes while they increase consumer taxes. Rich rulers also pass incentives for police in their military justice system (aka criminal courts) to provide revenue for the town – out of the pockets of the poor. The City’s court system is thus not an impartial arbiter but a manipulative force compelling “the payment of fines and fees that advance the City’s financial interests.” (The Ferguson Report) The court system routinely issues arrest warrants but not for public safety needs. Instead it issues them to people who are poor who missed appearances on minor parking and housing code violations. People who can’t afford to pay the oppressive fines are then held captive by capitalism’s payday loan system and its for-plunder prison system. The old game plan is also apparent on Wall Street. Those who make their home on Wall Street are those who are rich and write and rewrite the laws to game the system. Of late they have been playing the game of massive fraud schemes.. Unfortunately, the rich lost that game. Not to worry; military justice came to the rescue. The rich were given the people’s money with nobody even getting threatened with jail let alone spending time in one. The old game plan is also apparent in Davos, Switzerland, where once a year those same Wall Street executives and those from other fraudulent financial enclaves are free to play games in the snow and attend the World Economic Forum (Jan 20-23). They gather because, as they tell us, they are “committed to saving the state of the world.” But the world does not need saving by those who are rich and game a system that routinely and aggressively prosecutes, oppresses, and imprisons those who are poor. We do not need their game of jailing common people for minor violations at the same time it calmly exonerates, assists, and emboldens those who are rich for major violations. The world needs to be saved from them. The world needs to be saved from their system. They game a system of capitalist enslavement so that the wealth of the richest 62 people equals the wealth of half the world’s population. (Oxfam)
Oxfam’s announcement this past week of a world system based on designed inequality in the extreme, was made by its Director, Winnie Byanyima. In a rather Christ-like manner she is changing the game plan: “It is simply unacceptable that the poorest half of the world’s population owns no more than do a few dozen super-rich people who could fit onto one bus…. We cannot continue to allow hundreds of millions of people to go hungry while resources that could be used to help them are sucked up by those at the top. … I challenge the governments, companies and elites at Davos … Oxfam is calling for action against tax havens … accompanied by a commitment on the part of governments to invest in healthcare, schools and other vital public services … The richest can no longer pretend their wealth benefits everyone … the wealth of the super-rich has come at the expense of the majority and particularly the poorest people.”
Prayer: Spirit of Freedom, we act on behalf of those who are suffering in the world.
Question: Who has been shaping my beliefs about the system, especially its use of money and jail?
January 24, 2016 Luke 4:14-21 Third Sunday In Ordinary Time