George Peabody - the founder of modern philanthropy.
Moved by such false compassion, many wealthy people believe that their own happiness will not be complete as long as others suffer from having less.
This attitude leads them to philanthropic sentimentalism. They feel a certain personal well-being in materially helping not only the truly needy, but all those less fortunate than themselves. To assure their own happiness, they become philanthropists.
In turn, this philanthropic sentimentalism prompts them to desire the elimination of the supposed root of “unhappiness,” that is, social and economic inequalities. In this way, a reformist tendency, fundamentally liberal and egalitarian, to transform society in a revolutionary way is born.
This inclination manifests itself, for example, in American foreign policy, which is frequently oriented by liberal principles. This policy strives to impose liberal democracy which, according to its mentors, is the magic answer to the woes of poorer countries.
In the Unites States, liberal and egalitarian reforms of a socialist nature often come from the revolutionary elements of the higher classes, and not from the working classes.
Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq party, casts his ballot in Iraq's first free election in Baghdad, Iraq, on Jan. 30, 2005.
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pius XII: A Theme Illuminating American Social History (York, Penn.: The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, 1993), American Appendix, p. 198.
Nobility.org Editorial comment: —
Is it not this egalitarianism and sentimentalism that leads billionaires like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, George Soros and many other rich Americans to defend and lobby on behalf of the crippling, grave-robbing 55% federal “death tax” on every estate over $1 million? (Cf. David Kay Johnston, “Dozens of Rich Americans Join In Fight to Retain the Estate Tax” in The New York Times, Feb. 14, 2001.)
