The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has

Hear now the thunderous warning of James Baldwin: “The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose. These words strike like lightning, for they reveal a truth as old as kingdoms and as fresh as the present hour. When a man is stripped of hope, denied dignity, robbed of future, he becomes untethered from fear. Such a man cannot be threatened, cannot be bribed, cannot be silenced—for all that could be taken has already been stolen from him. In this condition, his very existence becomes perilous to those who rule, for desperation gives birth to rebellion.

To have nothing to lose is to stand outside the bonds that tie most men to obedience. The farmer guards his land, the merchant his shop, the father his children, the worker his wage. These things tether them to patience, to compromise, to restraint. But when land, shop, children, or wage are stripped away, the restraints dissolve. A man with nothing to lose becomes like fire in dry grass, unpredictable and uncontainable. Baldwin, who lived through the storms of racial injustice in America, knew well that oppressed peoples, when pressed beyond endurance, could no longer be contained by laws or threats.

Consider the story of the French Revolution. For centuries, the poor carried the weight of a bloated aristocracy. They starved while nobles feasted. They paid taxes while the wealthy indulged in extravagance. At last, the peasants had nothing left to lose—not bread, not dignity, not even hope. Their despair gave rise to fury, and fury to revolution. Thrones were overturned, palaces stormed, and the might of a kingdom crumbled under the march of the dispossessed. Here Baldwin’s truth stands radiant: the danger of creating men with nothing to lose is that their wrath, once awakened, can sweep away the mighty.

Think too of slavery in America. For centuries, men and women were stripped of freedom, denied family, and robbed of all possessions. The enslaved, with nothing of their own to protect, became the wellspring of a spirit that masters feared. Rebellions flared in fields and plantations; fugitives fled into the night, their courage greater than their chains. And in time, the war that ended slavery was driven in part by the truth that a people denied all humanity cannot be held forever in silence. For those with nothing to lose will gamble everything—even life itself—for the chance of freedom.

Baldwin’s words are not only a reflection of history but a warning to the present. Whenever a society breeds inequality so deep that whole classes of men and women are cast aside, it sows the seeds of its own peril. Poverty, injustice, and exclusion forge the dangerous figure Baldwin describes. If those in power would preserve their order, they must not drive their people into despair. For the man with nothing to lose does not fear the gallows, nor the prison, nor the judgment of those who cast him out.

The lesson is clear and eternal: guard against building a world where men and women are stripped of hope. A just society must provide its people not with luxury for all, but with dignity for all. Land, work, education, family, and the promise of belonging—these are the anchors that prevent desperation from turning to destruction. A wise people do not fear the dangerous man; they prevent his creation by ensuring that no one is left with nothing to lose.

So, O child of tomorrow, carry this wisdom with you. Strive in your life to lift the fallen, to share with the needy, to defend the dignity of the least among you. In your community, in your nation, in your world, fight against systems that strip men of hope. For Baldwin’s warning is both prophecy and command: if you would avoid the peril of dangerous men, then make a society where all have something to live for, something to protect, something to cherish. Only then will peace endure.