Sounds OK, Saul. Your proposal is identical with idea of the Founding Fathers, who were almost all of the moneyed elites. They called it Virtue. Then it was intermingled with religion when old fashioned virtue was replaced by pure self-interest. Then the religionists used their words and teachings as a new form of virtue except it's mainly all self-interest again.
This is an interesting problem. People are naturally, and necessarily engrossed with self-interest. They need to see some benefit in selflessness or virtue in order to maintain a peaceful, productive society. If it can't be obtained in earthly terms then it comes with religious salvation. Once salvation is assured, it allows for any other earthly excess I'm being a bit excessive here but it's for effect. I'm fed up with all the dumb people in our society. And all their insane views. And their pseudo-science. And just about every value they have. Most of them seem to live in the south or in the hinterlands. It might as well be 1300 instead of 2012. WC ----- Original Message ---- From: saulostrow <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Wed, August 22, 2012 11:26:27 AM Subject: Re: Subjective - Objective perhaps we should invert your conclusion and say the truly (financial) elite should be trained to be more compliance-oriented, everyone else can be performance - so that we no longer believe we need or want to be like the elite and thus get ourselves out of trouble On Wed, Aug 22, 2012 at 4:01 AM, joseph berg <[email protected]> wrote: > On Tue, Aug 21, 2012 at 9:04 AM, William Conger <[email protected] > >wrote: > > > America has come to despise the old fashioned sense of morality and > > ethics, the > > real and visible hand, when it comes to the implementation of capitalist > > economics. Now it's proper to only follow the money, care about the > money, > > ignore values that any society needs, and claim that unfettered > > self-interest is > > the only true and impartial way to manage wealth. The Founding Fathers > > valued > > Virtue as the highest good. For them it meant self-deprecation and > > service for > > the greater good: putting the other fellow's need above self-interest. > > Some > > actually tried to follow that principle and they certainly framed a > > Constitution > > that aimed at embodying it. > > > > What people need to do in my opinion is to recognize that their positions > > in > > life are not only due to their own diligence but also the structures the > > society > > has in place. Those structures favor inequality in both opportunity and > > condition. > > > > I'll venture that all the people on this list have enjoyed a much greater > > proportion of inequality of condition and opportunity than most > Americans. > > Our > > duty is to help create greater equality of opportunity for those who > don't > > yet > > have their proper share and then assure them more and more improvement in > > their > > conditions. > > > > But what about those who the better they are treated (the more > opportunities they are given), the worse they become (e.g., the more > problems they create for not only others but also for themselves, the worse > they become)? > > I've certainly met a lot of people like that. > > Something tells me that the truly elite can be performance-oriented, > but everyone else should be trained to be more compliance-oriented if only > to keep themselves out of trouble. > > -- S a u l O s t r o w *Critical Voices* 21STREETPROJECTS 162 West 21 St NYC, NY 10011 [email protected]
