Friday, June 23, 2017

Does Capitalism Depend Upon Envy?

We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness; ...
- Thomas Jefferson, "U.S. Declaration of Independence" (rough draft)

8 comments:

  1. A perfectly sublime –– if somewhat verbose and overly-intellectualized –- summation of what ails us.

    The earnest young man tells us what-SHOULD-be-patently-obvious to all persons capable of critical thought

    I have to add, however, that I gind the yiung man's tine amusing. He sounds as though he is telling the world something NEW that he, himself, has just discovered the necessary wisdom to appreciate.

    All that aside, this piece hits THE Nail squarely in the dead center of its head.

    I often wonder why I appear to be part of a small-ever-dwindling minority who has known this all my concsious life?

    Surely I can't be the ONLY ine left who faithfyly attrended Sunday School where we were taught that ENVY is one of the Seven Deadly Sins –– and that ENVY was the Father of Spite, Malice, and all Destructive Impulses?

    One upon a time the majority KNEW that. How could it so quickly and so easily be forgotten?

    The sententious young man explained it well. Moral, ethical and spiritual POISON arose,spread and saturated our once green and pleasant land like a cloud of toxic gas with the advent of MASS COMMUNICATION.

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  2. KIPLING'S LITTLE MAN

    ________ ~ or ~ ________

    Bolshevism Revisited

    A Leftist caught in doubt
    Lifts up his head to shout:

    Your treatment is unfair,
    You bully! How you dare
    To question my veracity
    With cruel, hard-eyed tenacity
    I do not know. My views
    Which boldly you accuse
    Of being falsely ranked
    In truth are sacrosanct.

    My thoughts are Holy Writ.
    Your thoughts are quite unfit;
    Based on selfish fears
    They inspire tears
    And dare to say the blame
    Lies squarely in the frame
    Of those whose failing lives
    Look to him who thrives
    And say: Your gold is mine,
    You greedy, bloated swine.
    You have more than you need.
    It's up to you to feed
    Me, the ill and weak,
    Else Heaven that you seek
    Will ever be denied.

    And I will see your hide
    Shredded, tanned and dried.
    And hung outside the gates
    Of each neighborhood that hates
    The needy and the poor,
    Who soon will storm your door
    And drag you from your bed
    And then lop off your head.
    While the masses you denied
    Will ever take great pride
    Your ignominious demise
    Was effected in the guise
    Of condign righteous wrath
    Giving Bourgeois digs a bath.

    With stolen food and goods
    We'll raze your neighborhoods
    And laugh to see you hurt
    Dying in the dirt.


    WE DO NOT CARE TO RISE:

    We live for your demise.
    We thrive on righteous hate.
    It is by now too late
    To make a plan to stop us
    End the Founder's opus.
    Our Marx destroyed your God.
    He's in - not on - the sod
    Feeding nematodes
    In their dark abodes.

    With mockery and shrill
    Sarcastic gibes we kill.
    We drool with sheer delight
    At the thought of endless night.
    Where everything that's witty,
    Charming, gracious, pretty
    Slumps to the nitty gritty,
    As we revel in the dung
    Corrupting all your young.

    For 'we are the little folk, we
    Too little to love or to hate.
    Leave us alone, and you'll see
    How quickly we'll drag down the state.'*


    ~ FreeThinke (2007)
    –––––––––––––––––
    * Rudyard Kipling

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  3. Check your privilege!

    *shakes head* (ironically)

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  4. It does. As it does on its counterpart greed.

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  5. _______... NOTICE ... _______

    _ Your Prayers are Needed _

    ___ JERSEY McJONES ____

    Our Beloved Friend and Favorite Antagonist
    is Gravely Ill and Fighting for His Life
    in a Battle with Metastatic Cancer.

    We ask those of you who pray
    please to pray for his recovery,
    and the well-being of his wife
    and family.

    We ask those who do not believe
    in the power of prayer please to take
    a few moments each day to send
    your kindest thoughts and fondest
    hopes his way.

    Right Now the Guy Needs All the Help He can Get.
    The Least We Could Do Would Be to Consider Him
    and Hope for His Return to Good Health
    in Our Thoughts and Prayers.

    THANK YOU



    ~ FreeThinke

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  6. Hesiod, "Works and Days"

    (ll. 1-10) Muses of Pieria who give glory through song, come hither, tell of Zeus your father and chant his praise. Through him mortal men are famed or un-famed, sung or unsung alike, as great Zeus wills. For easily he makes strong, and easily he brings the strong man low; easily he humbles the proud and raises the obscure, and easily he straightens the crooked and blasts the proud, -- Zeus who thunders aloft and has his dwelling most high.
    Attend thou with eye and ear, and make judgements straight with righteousness. And I, Perses, would tell of true things.

    (ll. 11-24) So, after all, there was not one kind of Strife alone, but all over the earth there are two. As for the one, a man would praise her when he came to understand her; but the other is blameworthy: and they are wholly different in nature. For one fosters evil war and battle, being cruel: her no man loves; but perforce, through the will of the deathless gods, men pay harsh Strife her honour due. But the other is the elder daughter of dark Night, and the son of Cronos who sits above and dwells in the aether, set her in the roots of the earth: and she is far kinder to men. She stirs up even the shiftless to toil; for a man grows eager to work when he considers his neighbour, a rich man who hastens to plough and plant and put his house in good order; and neighbour vies with is neighbour as he hurries after wealth. This Strife is wholesome for men. And potter is angry with potter, and craftsman with craftsman, and beggar is jealous of beggar, and minstrel of minstrel.

    (ll. 25-41) Perses, lay up these things in your heart, and do not let that Strife who delights in mischief hold your heart back from work, while you peep and peer and listen to the wrangles of the court-house. Little concern has he with quarrels and courts who has not a year's victuals laid up betimes, even that which the earth bears, Demeter's grain. When you have got plenty of that, you can raise disputes and strive to get another's goods. But you shall have no second chance to deal so again: nay, let us settle our dispute here with true judgement which is of Zeus and is perfect. For we had already divided our inheritance, but you seized the greater share and carried it off, greatly swelling the glory of our bribe-swallowing lords who love to judge such a cause as this. Fools! They know not how much more the half is than the whole, nor what great advantage there is in mallow and asphodel (1).

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