At 09:04 AM 10/3/01 -0700 Nick Arnett wrote:
>> The reason you're stating and restating the obvious is that you're
>> countering an argument that nobody made. Neither Friedman's essay nor
>> Gautam nor I have argued that wealth is evidence of moral superiority.
>
>Friedman absolutely did so. He wrote, "American power and wealth flow
>directly from a deep spiritual source." It is a simple cause and effect --
>the cause is spiritual strength and the effect is wealth and power. Or, if
>you will, the reward for America's virtue of spiritual strength is wealth
>and power. I don't see any failure of logic in reading it the other way
>around, that wealth and power are the reward for spiritual strength.
Nick, your first problem is that you are confusing Friedman's "spiritual
source" with your own definition of "spiritual strength." Friedman
defines "spiritual sources as follows, "a spirit of respect for the
individual, a spirit of tolerance for differences of faith or politics, a
respect for freedom of thought as the necessary foundation for all
creativity and a spirit of unity that encompasses all kinds of differences.
Only a society with a deep spiritual energy, that welcomes immigrants and
worships freedom, could constantly renew itself and its sources of power
and wealth."
This is clearly much different than the "spiritual strength" you are
arguing about. Rather, it is, as Marvin and Gautam have stated, the
spiritual underpinning not so much of individuals but of our entire
civilization. Additionally, as Marvin and Gautam also noted, those above
principles, while being inherently good in their own right, also are prime
contributors to wealth and power.
Additionally, Nick, I think that you are not fully considering what Marvin
wrote in your haste to reply. Marvin spent a great deal of time
explaining that just because A implies B, it is not necessarily also true
that B imples A. The converse of a true statement is not necessarily
true. Thus, one cannot see a nation with wealth and power and infer that
that nation has a strong spiritual source. Friedman is arguing, however,
that you can look at a nation with a strong spiritual force, as described
above, and infer that it will be realtively wealthy and powerful.
Finally, it should be noted that there is an element of time to Friedman's
comments. Friedman specifically notes that over the long term, wealth
power are only possibly with the strong spiritual source as described
above. Obviously, wealth and power can be controlled by evil regimes in
the short term, but Friedman argues that in the long term, they are doomed
to fail.
I think that he's right.
JDG
__________________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - ICQ #3527685
"Freedom itself was attacked today, and Freedom will be Defended."
-U.S. President George W. Bush, 09/11/01
