To have a home, the mortgages, the cars, the kids - all require a certain amount of wealth. Education, access to information, also require wealth. To be able to travel to other countries for extended periods of time, or to be able to forgo all worldly possessions and still land on one’s feet requires wealth.
By western standards Richard would be considered poor, but he had access to resources that people in the past and other parts of the world do not. I believe these resources were useful to his journey as well as spreading what he discovered to other people - - making now the perfect time for Actualism to succeed.
I think it’s an assumption to think I’m eager to exonerate the enlightened masters.
There are plenty of other people who enjoy Richard’s propitious circumstances - likely all of us on the forum do. We have even less excuses than the enlightened masters of history as circumstances are such that we now have a guide.
A man of ancient history has much less than we do but it doesn’t give their ‘wisdom’ a free pass from scrutiny. There’s no eagerness here to exonerate them. And the gurus of recent history certainly deserve even more criticism both due to scientific discoveries and due to the fact that there is more recorded history available to be examined.
I appreciate you going on record to clarify that it’s not extraneous circumstances which allowed Richard to become actually free in case someone else might be confused. I don’t want my comments on circumstances to appear reductionist.