Anti-Mercedes

There was a time before I removed the cobwebs and barnacles from my brain that I was hostile to fancy new Mercedes.

That means that a Mercedes trying to squeeze into traffic would get no help from me.  It was a time when I had more tolerance for lefty ideas. The obvious idea that led to my rude civil behavior was that rich people should be punished for their success.  An egalitarian premise. The basic premise for progressive taxation.

What changed my idea and my behavior was the recognition that ostentation was a viable communications mode, just as clothing, language and other parts of appearance are.  

I further came to realize that my egalitarianism was nothing more than childish “make the world the way I want it” sentimentality, rather than honest, intelligent thought about how the world works.