On Thu, Aug 23, 2012 at 10:17 AM, joseph berg <[email protected]> wrote:
> 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) > Getting back to the masses: - The beginning of reform is not so much to equalize property as to train the noble sort of natures not to desire more, and to prevent the lower from getting more. Aristotle
