Bernard Shaw's Remarkable Religion: A Faith That Fits the Facts

166 Bernard Shaw’s Remarkable Religion
The Nonwork Ethic and the Idolatry of Parasites
Ricardo saw this system as unfortunate but inevitable; Shaw knew it was
arbitrary and evil. The disease afflicts both upper and lower classes: “What
is the matter with the poor is Poverty: what is the matter with the rich is
Uselessness” (Man and Superman 2:794). Both are spiritually debilitating.
Parasitism as well as poverty produces atrophy of soul. The poor are brutalized
by want and disease; the lesions of surfeit and ease are more subtle
but still profound. “The right to live is abused whenever it is not constantly
challenged” (2:793), yet the artificial rights conferred by property
produce a class that regards parasitism as the definition of gentility. Members
of this class regard it as dishonorable to help in the production of what
they consume; they insist that their right to live should not be challenged
by even the necessity to produce their share of life’s sustenance. The
gentleman parasite “is necessarily the enemy of his country” because he
preys upon it (2:739).
The class system is not objectionable for making distinctions between
people because distinctions are the inevitable result of differences; it is objectionable
because the distinctions it makes are destructive and artificial.
Sidney Trefusis, the Unsocial Socialist, insists on “the natural inequality of
man, and the failure of our artificial inequality to correspond with it” (Unsocial
Socialist 160). People naturally differ in their talents and abilities,
but these differences are suppressed by an artificial hierarchy based on the
possession of money. Money becomes the sole measure of value. The system
is self-justifying. Depriving people of the means to live well degrades
them, and their degraded condition is used to justify their deprivation. Sartorius
justifies refusing to improve his slum, saying that “these poor
people do not know how to live in proper dwellings: they would wreck
them in a week” (Widowers’ Houses 1:92). Sartorius, who has experienced
poverty, is more understanding than most; his daughter’s attitude is more
typical: “Oh, I hate the poor. At least, I hate those dirty, drunken, disreputable
people who live like pigs” (1:110).
Breakages, Limited, and the Accumulation of “Illth”
Capitalist inequality is economically destructive in several ways. By placing
the parasite at the top of the hierarchy, it debases productive labor and
ensures that everyone will strive to do as little worthwhile work as possible.
Even if the worker preserves some pride in his work, in spite of the
prevailing nonwork ethic, he is aware that he is working for the benefit of
someone else. For him, the more one does, the more one is robbed. Like