The principal problem that afflicts our country was diagnosed two hundred and twenty-seven years ago, by a very perceptive Frenchman. To wit:
“Cast your eyes upon the capital of your empire, and you will find two classes of citizens. The one, glutted with riches, displays an opulence which offends those it does not corrupt; the other, mired in destitution, worsens its conditions by wearing a mask of prosperity which it does not possess: for such is the power of gold (when it becomes the god of a nation, stands in the stead of all talent, and takes the place of every virtue) that one must either have wealth or feign to have it.”
~ Denis Diderot (Abbé Reynal) in Histoire philosophique et politique des établissements et du commerce des Européens dans des Deux Indes, Book IV, 1781 (Vol. XV, Oeuvres complètes, Paris, Club français du livre,1973).
Mon. Diderot was writing 'under cover' in a book officially authored by his friend and co-philosophe, the Abbé Reynal, addressing his Majesty Louis XVI of France. That portion of the sentiment which I have emphasized (bold & italic) is as applicable now as it was then -- perhaps more so, since the age of the CREDIT CARD has made "feigning" wealth a practically universally available affliction, and by virtue of the sentiment in parentheses -- which is, if anything, more true now than it was then.
Would Diderot weep to know that still, after all this time, his warnings have gone unheeded? Or would he, being philosopical, put it down to the apparently immutably small nature of human nature? One can't help but wonder.
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