:: Capitalism 90210 ::

What does the religious Protestant concept of predestination has to do with the Wadi? What has the German sociologist Max Weber to do with this and why should we listen to Kelly of Beverly Hills 90210?

Well, usually, when a high-tech success story is revealed, people tend to link between the success itself and the people behind it. And they link it in a very special way. They tend to believe the people behind the success are in themselves successful. They tend to think those people are better than others.

Weber explained where this Capitalist thinking came from. According to Weber, Protestant Ethic was constructed around the concept of predestination. With some sociological twists, wealth is taken as a sign that its owner was one of God's elect and predestinated to go to heaven. Thus, Protestant Ethic gave raise to Capitalism which is providing encouragement for people to acquire wealth.

And as this is deep inside us by now, we also tend to think the other way around. Good people, better people, will do fine in terms of wealth.

None, neither our capitalist way of looking at things, nor the reverse way of looking at things are true.

Kelly said this simple (though out of the context of the specific episode): "bad things do happen to good people". And I may add: "good things do happen to bad people."

Next time we will deal with the concept of luck.

Sleep on it.

Wadi Writer #1 (Gray)
WadiList@mail.com

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