Our Threatened Freedom

Is It Hard To Be Rich? (04:02)

R.J. Rushdoony

Transcript:

R.J. Rushdoony: 00:02 Is it hard to be rich? This is R.J. Rushdoony and with a report on our threatened freedom. A very superior young man worth a great many millions told me not too long ago that it is not easy to be rich. A few years ago I might have laughed at the idea, but not so anymore. I have not suddenly become rich, nor is there any likelihood of that happening. However, I have been mistaken for a rich man with some interesting results. In the very recent past, our foundation was given some large used and expensive cars. The donors decided to switch to economy cars, and we got the big ones. One of these was a particularly expensive car with all kinds of accessories. Driving it made me feel rich. Also, people took me for a rich man, although all my life, I have never personally been able to drive more than an old used car.

R.J. Rushdoony: 01:07 Results were interesting to say the least. As I stopped at a service station or I pulled up at a motel or hotel, people were ready to talk and they wanted to know what kind of work I was doing. On impulse, I gave on different occasions two different answers, both true. On some occasions I said I was a writer, which I am the author of 30 or more books. At other times, I said that I am a minister, which is also true. Reactions were very different. Those who saw me as a writer were ready to please me, flatter me, and also to tell me of foreign luxury cars I might like to try sometime. Those who saw me as a minister were immediately hostile and angry and very prone to nasty remarks. They obviously believed that it was necessary for a minister to be poor and in need of a handout, but this was not all. Being taken for a rich man also means that one should be taken for all that can be had.

R.J. Rushdoony: 02:15 People were immediately out to con me, to relieve me of some of my supposed riches. I found out that it is not easy to be rich or to be taken for a rich man. People are envious and they are even hostile. However, it is not easy to be in the middle class nor to be poor. Our age promotes class conflict, envy, and hatred. Whatever you are, someone resents you and is out to exploit you or to blame you for much of society’s problems. In other words, where a class conflict is promoted, everyone is the victim as well as the oppressor, and resentment is present on all sides.

R.J. Rushdoony: 03:04 A world of envy and class hatred is not an easy world to live in. Instead of increasing peace and freedom, it works to create conflict, and each group wants to hurt and cripple some other class. Each then sees its own freedom as necessitating the destruction of someone else’s freedom. In a world of envy and hatred, it is hard to be rich, poor, or middle class because all life is soured and tainted by class conflict. As a result, all suffer and freedom wanes. It is not easy to be anything in such a world. The crew still remains that we are required by God to love our neighbor, rich or poor, as ourselves. This has been R.J. Rushdoony with a report on our threatened freedom.