The assumption is that: "Man's desires are unlimited."
Sensibly, the assumption doesn't say what these desires may be. I suppose the first desire must be to survive - or nothing else follows. But, from thereon desires can focus on anything. In line with the basic desire to survive, I suppose food, clothing and shelter will loom large - even for the anchorite, or hermit.
Do you think the overwhelming desire of the anchorite might be to reduce his lack of perfect holiness? Might the never ending desire of the hermit be - to be left alone? Maybe - I don't know. You seem to know, so perhaps you have some kind of special entree into their minds.
Because of your listing, you seem to equate "unlimited desires" with the Midas' of this world. Where on earth does the assumption say - or even suggest that? That interpretation comes from your mind, not from the assumption.
My desire - occasionally to be fulfilled, but not ended - is to lie on my back on the lush grass of an English meadow in summer and watch the fleecy white clouds scud across a blue sky. But, to do that after the normal maintenance chores that go with living, I have to save enough to take a trip to England, break loose the time that would give me an unhurried holiday, and so on.
So, when you see me working lots of overtime and spending weekends at a second job, will you climb out of your all-encompassing knowledge of everyone else to sneer at my lust for money - never to know that in my mind are the white clouds contrasted against a blue sky?
Then, as Stephen Leacock wrote, you jump on your horse and ride off wildly in all directions.
Your Don Juan paragraph is ill-directed to someone who spent 57 years with one woman.
The fact that I buy my gas at the cheapest place doesn't stop you buying from your local gas station for reasons other than getting the best price. Just don't try to force me to satisfy your desires. I wouldn't use force against you.
You said (actually you didn't - I see now it was Ray so I'll talk to you both):
"The biggest scam in capitalism is that there are no consequences to your not supporting community."
I thought you said there were consequences - the local gas station would go broke. Make up your mind.
That day care cost seems high. However, you are writing to someone who not only had 5 children - including one Canadian baby - but brought them 3,000 miles to Canada, and later 3,000 more miles to Southern California.
Better to light a candle than curse the darkness.
Are we to add an Amway criticism to your inevitable Bush remark no matter the subject?
As we say in Southern California, Brad, have a nice day!
Harry
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brad. wrote:
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
****************************** Harry Pollard Henry George School of LA Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: (818) 352-4141 Fax: (818) 353-2242 *******************************
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