How interesting I thought to myself. I was leaving the office when I ran into a guy I know named John. He thanked me for the good job I do and we had some idle chatter. He was not here to see me, but rather here to see another guy that could help him out with a development problem he was having and as he walked away, he said to me;
"I'm not going to be another victim of Prosperity in this community!"
- John the guy that saw me at work but was not here to see me.
Victim of Prosperity you say. I scratched my temple as I walked out thinking how odd a statement that was. Now, I do live in a very "well-to-do" city. Well let me rephrase. I do WORK in a well-to-do city where its common to see pretentious douche bags driving their Lambo's and Ferrari's all over the place. Not that I have anything against high performance race inspired luxury sports cars, they are fantastic and exceptional! It's the aviator wearing comb-over fake tan in January, psychedelic Robert Graham shirted guy that ruins it for us all! I digress...
Victims of Prosperity. IS there such a thing? Well it just so happened that my wife has been watching a Netflix series on the UK Royals called the House of Windsor. The particular episode to which I was subjected as on King Edward VIII. I've never been a fan of all that stuff, but this guy made me really think.
In case you were wondering, this is the Gent in question.
Apparently, King Edward, Prince of Wales, first born son of King George V and Queen Mary and successor to the throne of England, yada yada yada... was a bit of a party guy. His whole life he was subjected to being a trophy boy for the royal family and spent his life shaking hands, attending parties and being pretty much useless. In modern terms, he was a Kardashian.
However! King Edward nearly destroyed the Monarchy in England when he abdicated (stepped down as king) the throne just under a year into his rule following the passing of King George V! Now, why would a KING, step down from the throne? To return power to the people? To fight corruption in the system? Nah, because they told him he couldn't marry his girlfriend.
P.I.M.P. (your suppose to slowly spell that out with added emphasis. Go ahead, I can wait. ... ...
Ok, so he gave up the throne to marry, of course, an american divorcee Wallis Simpson.
The Church of England declared that the King could not be wed to a divorced woman at the time. So he tossed old union jack to the curb and married his lover. This made me think of the statement I heard earlier that day. Remember?
Victim of Prosperity.
Now, I am positive that the way that John, the guy I talked to at work that was not there to see me, said he was not going to be a victim of prosperity in no way related to King Edwards story, but as I continued to watch this series, as I was now interested, I noticed that several of the monarchs that were to come, namely the future king of England, Prince Charles, all have a kinda similar plight. They were born into a life they did not ask for that has limitations beyond their control.
Yes, I DO realize that that is a loaded statement. Here are a couple cats that have grown up in wealth, status and prestige versus someone born with nothing, no education and no formal upbringing. But, the underlying principle is the same. When the ability to choose your destiny is removed from you, what are you left with?
It might be a big stretch, but I now do believe that in certain scenarios, Victims of Prosperity can exist. Sorry John, your not one of them.