Aristotle

"The mother of revolution and crime is poverty"(Aristotle)
Do you agree?

Revolution is a significant change that usually occurs in a relatively short period of time. It is caused by people who are unhappy with their present state and thus want to evoke change for the better, to a state that they are satisfied with. Crime is the wrong doings that people commit. Examples include murder, abduction and stealing. Poverty refers to a state of being impoverished.

Aristotle's saying, "The mother of revolution and crime is poverty" is saying that revolution and crime are caused by poverty. I agree with Aristotle. Usually, poor people are unhappy, not because they do not know how to be content but rather they have insufficient to be content about. Poor people struggle with their daily lives and livelihood because they do not have sufficient money for basic expenses such as food, shelter and sanitary facilities. Happiness is very subjective and near impossible to define as each individual has different definitions as to what happiness mean to them. But one fact is that poor people are not happy with their physical state. It is hard to feel joy when one has to struggle with living every single day which is a strain.

Therefore these unhappy people who are discontented about their present state want a change. They want a better life where they no longer have to worry about survival and are able to live life like an average human being. So the answer to this problem is to revoluntionise. This is how revolutions come about. They are the solutions to problems that people face. Feasibility and effectiveness of this as a solution, however is a whole other issue. But these poor people could not care less. They are very unhappy and they demand a change, anything other than their state of poverty would be an improvement to them. Hence revolutions occur and often periods of trouble and tribulations follow.

However it is not true to say that revolution is entirely caused by poverty. Poverty is only but one of the many causes of revolution. There are many types of revolution caused by different issues. There are cultural, intellectual, philosophical and technological revolutions. The people who started these revolutions may not necessarily be poor. They may be elites or nobles who are displeased with certain laws and thus rebel against it. Most of the time, the rich has more power and hence would be able to effect change and has more influence than the poor. The rich also has more resources to revolutionise than the poor. The key to starting a revolution is to get a large group of like-minded people and half the battle's won. With people, there is might. These people again, need not be the poor.

Common crimes such as stealing, pickpocketing and robberies are mostly committed by the poor for a simple reason - the need to survive. Hence in such cases, poverty does cause crime. However, a number of such crimes do not take place because the criminal is poor and needs money. Sometimes, the criminal is very rich and is only committing such crimes for fun or to seek attention. Or, the criminal may commit the crime because he is being dared to or asked to prove his bravery by some gang. Again, the latter group of people may not be poor.

Often, an unfair assumption about the poor is made. The poor needs to use unlawful means to survive. The poor has to steal to get money. Hence people often associate poverty with crimes. But this assumption is outright untrue. Yes, some poor people may steal because they need money but not all poor people do so. It is therefore unreasonable to label the poor as people who commit crimes as Aristotle's saying seem to do so.

There are other types of crimes such as rape and murder which have no link with money. Not all murderers or rapists are poor. Hence it is untrue to say that poverty leads to these crimes. There are very driving forces behind these types of crimes such as hatred and so on, it is not solely due to poverty.

Poverty is indeed a reason for crimes and revolutions but it is not the sole cause. There are a thousand and one reasons for crimes and revolutions. Aristotle is right in saying that poverty triggers crime and revolutions but this is not true all the time.