To the editor:
My avid fan, Tricia Saenger, of Temple, criticized me in her April 12 letter for lacking in social justice. She should have read my April 7 letter more carefully. I specifically wrote that social justice is “important and desirable.”
Despite knowing nothing of my life and economic status, she accused me twice of possessing something called “the hubris of privilege,” whatever that means. My wife read that and laughed, since she could not figure what “privilege” I ever possessed.
Ms. Saenger’s hero, Thomas Paine, advocated in “Agrarian Justice” for an inheritance tax on land with most of the proceeds given to people over the age of 50. Since life expectancy in 1797 was under 40, that would have been the equivalent of raising the age for Social Security eligibility today to 89, hardly social justice.
Thomas Paine’s proposals (1797) were addressed to to a group he admired, the representatives of the French National Assembly. The French revolutionaries massacred Catholics, drowned people, and beheaded 20,000 people including children. By 1804, the French government, so admired by Paine, had turned into the absolute monarchy of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.
Thomas Paine was, and Ms. Saenger is, well-meaning. However, she totally missed the concept of irony in my letter criticizing “utopia.” She should choose her heroes more carefully.
Rick Sirvint
Rindge