THE MYTH OF A CLASSLESS SOCIETY

Communism, as we all know by now, is a failed ideology. Why? It was primarily based on the aspirations of a classless society. A classless society is a myth. A pigment of our lofty ambitions – and realistically – of our imaginations.

Human society, just like other non-human groups, is naturally hierarchical. Singapore’s great PM Lee Kuan Yew was merely stating a fact when he said, “The human being is an unequal creature. That is a fact. All the great religions, all the great movements, all the great political ideology, say let us make the human being as equal as possible. In fact, he is not equal,
never will be.”

That is why in Singapore, a third world country that PM Lee Kuan Yew helped transform into first world status in one generation – there are still the upper, middle and lower classes of society. However, in Singapore, even the lower echelons of society or the “poorest” citizens can afford the fundamental comforts of a first-class society. PM Lee has tamed the beast called capitalism to work not only for the rich but for the poor as well.

Capitalism breeds and promotes the natural inequality of men - more than any type of government system. It’s “unintended” consequence is “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”.

Only a president who is willing to wield a strongman’s power in order to “put things in order” for the greater good – can put a stop to this malady of capitalism. Man can never be equal, but a good leader will try lessen, if not minimize, the gap. In doing so he would have to go against the interests of the upper echelons (the 1% super-rich) of society. A measure of self-sacrifice has to be made by them and a compromise reached. I’d like to believe that this is in part what Pres. Duterte wants for the Philippines.