Brad McCormick, Ed.D. wrote:
> Permit me to insert, in medias res, a concern I have:
>
> Ed Weick wrote:
> > REH not Ed wrote this
> > >Too bad they can't assess liability for lost families,
> > >intellectual capital, land use ideas etc. It seems to
> > >me that you are using the rules of a divorce without
> > >separating.
> > >
> > >Better you start with the ideas of justice
> > >and the rule of law as defined by both groups. The
> > >truth is that one group has the power,
> > ED was snipped
> [snip]
>
> How to provide reparations to persons whose
> lives have been adversely impacted by
> the exploiters, *without* in turn doing
> injustice to the persons (such as most of
> ourselves) who are associated with the
> exploiting classes but have not themselves
> done significant exploiting?
First, it is not the issue you are describing. It isthe abrogation of
legal contracts that were ignored by
looters and brigands who found their way into the
government. Many of those people's children today
are living off of the fruits of that theft. I don't know
of any private institution that could not demand
recompense, the same as the Jews and the Swiss
banks, with compensation for lost earnings and
wasted lives. It seems to me that you are not
believing in your own system. If not then what?
> This is, of course, an old problem (reverse
> discrimination due to "affirmative action", etc.).
I have had no problem giving jobs up to people whowere qualified and
connected. Whether that connection
was family, or friends. Work depends upon belief,
loyalty and integrity.
As I said I have no trouble
losing a job to a person who is qualified, and
connected. That includes minorities and women
who are now connected.
Over the years I have seen plenty of
incompetent majority folks getting jobs for no
reason other than their connections. I've even trained
a few when they found themselves overwhelmed at
what their BS had accomplished. I do find them
lazy and prone to commit the cardinal sin in the
performing arts, they are not dependable. Programs
are cast sometimes four years away, with millions
lost if not delivered. I would hire a martian that
was both dependable and could do the work. I
see no reason to hire an incompetent simply because
they belong to the majority. But then the Arts like
the sports world are a no BS tough assed profession.
> But let me put it pointedly: What motivation
> should a person have to help others when there is
> nothing in it for the person him or herself? For,
> if *that kind of life* is good for some, then
> (applying Kant's universalizing logic) it should
> be good for all, and, therefore, we should
> help the exploited -- not to have reparations, but
> to have more deprivation.
Could you be more clear here. I am reading twocontradictory messages.
I do remember a quote
from Kant that said something like "You can never
give a gift until you have paid your bills first, anything
else is theft." Of course there is the issue of Usury
as well which relates to the lack of integrity within
the spiritual systems of the majority which makes
them dis-loyal and undependable. "Who cares who their
mother is if they can't shoot the basketball." Or maybe
they should come do some of that high metal work with
the Mohawks. We'll see how good they really are 54
stories up with no safety rope. And then there is Y2K.
I ran my computer ahead and if it is any indication we
have been given a blow by the over-complexed that will
cost lots of money and give lots of jobs to those who
are not paying.
> Another popular idea I find dubious is
> providing reparations to the living for the
> harms done to the dead. Should a [black, indian,
> etc.] M.D., lawyer, university professor,
> etc. be paid reparations for the harm
> done to his or her ancestors, who, being
> dead, are presumably beyond the ability of
> earthly things to affect them any more?
Legal contracts don't stop at death unless theysay so. The contracts
with Indian people in the
U.S. said as long as the water flows and the
grass grows. And you and I are both legally
responsible for those contracts whether we were
born or not. But the spiritual issue of the country's
identity as a good force in the world or at least in
our citizen's eyes is more important to me. Other
wise I have to teach my children their country is
a sleazebag.
Brad, is there not a civil contract to have a
society that works? Making such a talented
minority as the Blacks, in spite of the racist
rhetoric from the bully class, mad as hell and
holding them back seems guaranteed to put
them in the same place as the Italians, the Irish,
the Jews who resorted to organized crime.
The Blacks are too many to be held down for
long and it is to the advantage of our European
brothers who have been patronizers for the last
100 years to help out the Black class. Class
warfare just doesn't work in the U.S., there is
that sticky constitution that is pretty rickety as
it is. I can see the French and others delighting
in exposing the "holier than Thou American
hypocrites" that constitute the American majority.
Our children having to avoid the Sorbonne lest they
be accosted with what vile people their parents and
grandparents were and are.
As you well know, psychology is a
powerful motivator. I could see the European Union
forming around the "U.S. as the enemy" with proof
of the hypocrisy and betrayal of the Constitution
placed in the treatment of a Black minority that has
advanced and grown more since 1954 in Little Rock
than any non-black minority grew either here 43
years after the revolution or in Russia or any other
revolution. They are all over the performing arts,
sports, CEOs in companies and all in spite of a
bully resistance in the non-black ranks.
Sounds
almost like a potential South Africa with European
boycott gleefully applied. There is plenty of
ammunition and motivation as well. What would
be the mutual benefit or the individual benefit in
going down THAT road?
Did I hear that we are too powerful to fool with?
Add up that beloved GDP and then put all of those
feuding European state's GDPs together once they
have unified against us. They would be the most
powerful economic force on the planet. And if Japan
decided it was in their interest to join them and make
peace with the Socialist Chinese. Even I could write
that novel. In the end they would say it was because
they had sent all of the losers over here for the last
500 years. If you don't believe me then ask the
Spaniards a few questions about culture. It will open
your eyes.
REH
>
>
> Etc.
>
> These probably are not "popular" thoughts and
> questions.
>
> Of course there are many *exploiters* living
> among us, who should be brought to justice,
> and many exploited among us who are in need
> of reparation. But it seems to me that the
> objective should be to achieve a "win-win"
> situation for as many as possible (again,
> taking into account the need for justice
> in the cases of those who have used power
> not for trusteeship but for exploitation).
>
> If it is a tragedy for a person to be
> confined to a wheelchair, it is also
> a tragedy for a person to have two good legs and
> not be socially enabled to use them. If it
> is good for the crippled to be enabled to
> walk, it is also good for the able-bodied to
> walk, too.
>
> It is popular to rank sufferings, and to
> dismiss the problems of the relatively well off.
>
> But no less a figure than Elie Wiesel
> said (and I heartily concur):
>
> "Don't compare! Don't compare! All suffering is
> intolerable."
> -- Elie Wiesel (quoted in TIME, 19Sep94, p.94)
>
> \brad mccormick
>
> --
> Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
>
> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 914.238.0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua, NY 10514-3403 USA
> -------------------------------------------------------
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