On Tue, Aug 21, 2012 at 10:01 PM, 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. > Those Wall St. rascals who brought down the economy wouldn't have been able to do that if the elite had been more compliance rather than performance-oriented. As it stands, none of those rascals have yet been punished. Just remember--many are smart, few are truly responsible: - The Athenians are too brilliant to be good, and scorn stupidity more than they abominate vice. (Will Durant) Or have we become like the Carthaginians?: - At Carthage nothing that results in gain is looked upon as disgraceful. (Polybius) The elite should create a compliance system for the masses to help them cultivate a moral compass which would keep them out of trouble and thereby create a more stable society. When the notion of "transgression" dies out, then individuals AND society are on their way to derailing themselves: - Purity is the power to contemplate defilement. (Simone Weil)
