In Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt, Chris Hedges defines scarcity as “the gap between what people want, and indeed expect, and what they get.” He breaks down how people in power weaponize disparity to remain in control. This gap—scarcity—is then used as a tool of oppression against the public. Systems are set up to be foundationally imbalanced, according to Hedges, and the inability to meet the needs of the masses creates volatility. Not only is scarcity relevant to our material world, it is also interwoven with our identity. To be at a loss with our physical world, politics, and economy means part of our role, and therefore our identity, begins to crumble.
Scarcity is also seen in Robert M. Cover’s essay “Violence and the Word” when the expectations of what justice should be is met with subtly violent repercussions. This leaves the masses at a loss of what justice should be and what it should look like. Instead of trusting that the legal system will meet their needs, they are left unfulfilled and that sense of insecurity begins to creep up again. While it is hard to put into words what justice is or should look like, it is typically not imagined as the cruel punishments administered by the courts. Protection is expected and wanted of the legal system; disparity begins to fester when the outcome deviates. Suffering as a result of inequality is ultimately what Hedges is stressing when he delineated the gaps created by elites and higher-ups.
Works Cited
Cover, Robert M. “Violence and the Word.” Yale Law Journal, vol. 95, 1985-1986, pp. 1602–1629. HeinOnline, Yale Law School Legal Scholarship Repository.
Hedges, Chris. “Introduction.” Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt, Nation Books, New York, New York, 2015, pp. 10–19.
