Ray Evans Harrell wrote:
>
> Thanks Harry,
>
> Let's consider a couple of other things.
>
> 1. it is not mankind's desire that is unlimited but mankind's capacity for
> desire that probably is so.
What *does* Harry have to say about all the various kinds of
persons who, whaever we may think of their way of life,
have been [more or less] content with
what they had: anchorites, hermits,
vagabonds, monks, talmudic and other scholars, unionized
factory workers, couch potatoes, university professors, school teachers,
lots of tradespersons, "public servants", Japanese salarymen,
Zen masters, etc. Are all these persons really no different
from Millken, Boesky, Kornfeld, Midas,
Fastow, Skilling et al. in terms of always wanting *more*?
Is every man a Don Juan, who would abandon the most
wonderful woman in the whole world after a single day
for a hag (etc. ad infinitum) -- just because the hag was
a *different* woman?
To say that man's desires are unlimited and then say that
all apparently contented persons are evidence for the
hypothesis seems to me to require "using the words with
other than their ordinary sense" -- sort of like saying that
man is necessarily violent because even vegetarians eat small
insects in their veggies and tread
inadvertantly on ants and other living
creatures. It's true, but perhaps not the most interesting
thing to argue for.
>
> 2. once mankind does desire it, completion of that desire is based upon
> several different intentionalities that are time/space and
> culture/consciousness bound. e.g. the buying of gas at your neighbor's
> station, rather than Sears, in order to save the community the loss of his
> family and to trade something else of value that he would do for you.
> Economics makes some of these very points but its problem is with its being
> basically blind to wholeness in the lives of humans and human culture.
>
> The biggest scam in capitalism is that there are no consequences to
> your not supporting community.
[snip]
Here's my little piece of evidence: $1,400 per month for
day care for one child. (Yes, I know, in Sweden the tax
rate is 110%, so their form of life is not sustainable
over the long run, unlike Bush's budget deficits which
make America richer and more secure every day....)
>
> You described purchasing, with your son, as entertainment and sport but that
> has little to do with the long term life that so many of us are forced to
> live unless we are willing to commit to working in high paying widget drudge
> work. You may as well do Amway. The products are good and you have a
> community beyond Wal-mart. There are a lot of well known movie stars and
> others who have found Amway with its private Ponzi scheme to be far superior
> to Wal-mart and its cultural poverty. Those of us in the Arts know the
> business of residuals very well also and so Amway is not that much different
> from the investment of your time and energy in a movie that pays residuals.
[snip]
I know of someone who is a -- sincere -- fundamentalist
Christian, and whose experience with Amway's tactics of
intimidation and humiliation backfired and led him
to discover his self-assertiveness in life.
His first act of self-assertion
was to tell the Amway people to stop harrassing him,
and he has "been on a roll" ever since....
\brad mccormick
--
Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
<![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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