The RH-Factor

Most of us know about blood types and the Rh-factor. The RH-Factor in this case has nothing to do with blood types. We might say, however, that there’s an RH in our blood that has potential for epic consequences.

What is the RH-Factor? Woven into our experience is the legend of a heroic Robin Hood. One take on the tale is that when the robber barons of thirteenth century England had pilfered too much, there emerged—at least in folklore—a hero to the masses, who robbed back from the rich and dispensed booty to the poor. 

We should not be surprised if news of a present-day Robin Hood soon steals the headlines and perhaps our hearts. Some might even cheer and exclaim that the phenomenon is overdue. Today’s Robin Hood would not ambush at the roadside, however, as in prior times. Instead, it seems he or she would be a brave and benevolent hacker.

Because of the digitalization of our world, hackers of a different sort, the criminals, are an omnipresent threat to us all. Most of us fear the hacking of our identities and bank accounts. Indeed, we are told that there are highly skilled individuals and criminal organizations scheming at this very moment to steal from anyone vulnerable—the bigger the account, the more rewarding to the hacker. These thugs likely aspire to someday be robber barons themselves. Instead, a Robin Hood-style hacker or band of hacking pickpockets might funnel booty toward addressing social and environmental ills.

The RH-Factor is that perhaps an outraged, highly stealthy and sophisticated, nerdy band is capable of causing the sudden disappearance of ill-gotten hoards. A modern Robin Hood’s cadre of revolutionaries may even have at their fingertips the means of liquidating bulging portfolios and encumbering key properties for tide-turning reversals of fortunes. Armed with today’s techno-tools, incensed insurgents might massively redistribute wealth—not to themselves—but to organizations dedicated to reversing climate collapse, and/or to any of the myriad efforts to address social injustice, and/or to save our oceans and the other ecosystems on which all life depends. 

Because of digitalization, vast caches of wealth—those of the robber barons of this era—the .1%—may be vulnerable. And, an extracted fortune may be impossible to reconstitute once digitally scattered—like seeds in the wind—into thousands of donations to crucial causes.