As is so often the case when I write a book, I put myself through a lot of dialectic hoops, and I start to think about things in a new way. This is happening in a major way with my latest book, “Getting in Touch with Your Inner Rich Kid.”
In one chapter, I discuss the importance of addressing the emotion of resentment. I did my best, but what was not adequately emphasized was the issue of poor kids and justice. I realize now, I had to get past the miasma of resentment in order to see the underlying cause of it.
Simply stated, rich kids get more justice than poor kids. It’s not just the ability to afford a better lawyer or advisor or accountant, altho that is certainly a big part of it. Injustice occurs on a very personal level as well. You may have had a brother or sister who was “the favorite,” and if your parents worked two shifts, the scarcity of parental attention inevitably leads to inequity, or least a perception of it. Little kids are intensely in tune to the concept of “this is not fair.” And that is a euphemism for “this is unjust.”
If you’ve been a poor kid, you have probably been exposed to a fair amount of injustice. That is bad enough by itself, but there is a second element that comes into play here: it’s your expectation of future injustice.
I talk in the book about “wealth resonance,” which has a lot to do with what kind of energy you’re sending out into the world and what kind of energy you are most receptive to, negative or positive. If you have spent a lifetime bracing yourself for chronic injustice, it is only reasonable and rational that you would be braced for more injustice in the future. Again, this makes sense, but there’s just one problem: if justice is now available to you, can you accept it or even recognize it? Or will you presume that even well intended people probably have some secret malfeasance in mind?
I confess, I have this problem constantly when I enter into negotiations for any kind of business deal. I’m so used to a poverty past of people trying to screw me (for want of a better phrase) that I find myself bracing for a negative “injustice experience,” rather than opening myself up to a positive “justice experience.” In a “justice experience,” not only will I get paid the proper amount of money, but I will also be doing work that I enjoy. In other words, I will be functioning like a rich kid.
Poor kids are conditioned to expect and cope with injustice. The idea of justice, like other “rich kid” concepts such as trust, is not only unexpected, it’s actually somewhat foreign. A poor kid doesn’t even know what it looks like. Sadly, all too often when a poor kid get some power, they act as they were acted upon and immediately turn around and create injustice for others, which of course leads to them going back to losing their power and being a poor kid again. Yet another vicious cycle.
So to get in touch with your inner rich kid, create a template of expectation of justice. Tune your receptors to just offers, and simply ignore and do not spend any time thinking protectively or resentfully about unjust possibilities. Justice and injustice are one of those many polarities of emotion that are mutually exclusive. You have to choose one or the other. Be a rich kid. Expect and choose justice all the time, and don’t let any injustice manifest itself in your life.
© Justin Locke
