>Ed,
>
>Couldn't disagree more. Capitalism is the issue.
>Reform only strengthens the beast. I'm not going
>to trash the local McDs, but I'm also not going to
>condemn the tactic. What is this about going
>after a label? I and many of us are opposing the
>acts and the system -that you do not want to name-
>not the label.
>
>Bruce Leier
You are right. I don't want to name the system, because I'm not really sure
of what I should call it. And I feel some personal discomfort around giving
it a name, especially one I might not like, because I am part of it. All of
us are. Someone, perhaps the late Robert Theobald, argued that changing the
system would involve changing ourselves rather fundamentally, perhaps
ethically and spiritually, and I would question how ready we are to do that.
I would grant you that we serve capitalism, but it also serves us. It has
been responsible for the very high standard of living we have in the rich
world. As imperialism, it has also at least in part been responsible for
the very poor standard of living found in many other countries. What this
has led me to wonder is how willing we are to do without the many benefits
that we enjoy because of capitalism. To get rid of it and build a more
equitable world, we might have to give up an awful lot. Let's ask
ourselves, what would we really be willing to do without? Could we give
things up without becoming rather different people than we are? Would we
want to do that?
Ed Weick
