> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
> Behalf Of Gautam Mukunda
> Had you mustered the rather trivial academic honesty of quoting me in
> context, you would not have altered my point. People say that. It's not
> necessarily true.
What essential bit did I leave out? The part where you wrote, "Well, I hope
so," with regard to the truth of "virtue is its own reward"? You agreed
with the saying, which contradicts your other words.
> Whether it is or is not, it is nonetheless true that
> virtuous behaviors have _real_ rewards that make them worthwhile
> whether or
> not you believe in the afterlife.
Good grief, that is the *very* attitude that the saying rejects. Its
meaning is that one should not and cannot expect society to reward virtue.
It does not, by any stretch of imagination, mean that virtue itself is half
the reward, the other half of which is bestowed by society, as you're
suggesting here. You're taking a wise saying that goes back at least to
Aristotle (Matthew Prior is the author of the English version you quoted)
and trying to make it say the *opposite* of what it means. How awfully
Orwellian.
> People (like you) who claim otherwise
> have done more harm to the poor and disenfranchised over the past 25 years
> than any group in the United States, by justifying the attractive but
> eventually self-defeating self-pitying belief that one is not responsible
> for one's own life.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Throw up the same sad straw man that justifies the far
right failure to accept *any* responsibility for poverty, the pretense that
liberals blame society *entirely* for poverty. That is the kind of neurotic
blame-seeking polarization that tears people apart. Nothing will make it
clearer to our enemies that we are vulnerable. Imagine the satisfaction our
enemies take in seeing an American disrespect half the population the way
you just have.
More polarization of left and right is exactly what we don't need now, so if
that's what your upcoming detail replies are going to be, think again,
differently. Come up with words of unity, not division. Let go of the need
to find blame, the way you did in the section quoted above. Recognize the
responsibility that you are evading when you choose to blame a cartoon
version of liberalism for poverty, for example.
What you said has nothing to do with me, since I am actively involved in
helping people in poor communities take responsibility for their lives, not
just talking about it. And guess what, I'm not becoming wealthy doing it...
because virtue is its own reward. Entirely.
Nick
