Bounced mail 2

[Magic Circ Op Rep Ens]

> Hi Ray, > > Once again, I've taken the liberty of modifying "Downturn . . . " > > Without wishing to be offensive because you're too nice a chap for all > that, but I don't at all understand what you're saying below. > > Sorry! >> Keith H Arthur said: >> To paraphrase Woody Allen who said most of life consists of just showing > >up, > >> maybe the most profound social change will take place when people don't > >show > >> up. > >> > >> arthur Who are the ones who would not show up?   Why would they not show up?   What would they be doing instead of showing up?    Would they ever, under any circumstances, show up anyway?     Since I believe the act of showing up for a war is illogical as well as immoral you have to ask about the quality of those who do. The worst moments of my life has been when economists changed the tax structure and cut creative money out of my life. If you want serious change that does more then just shuffle cash then you need a serious culture.   You need people who care and who will demand that all work be compensated and that a quality of life and work is good in its own right for the health of the nation.    Since it seems that the consensus is that a truly Lean business structure would only hire about 60% of the work force then we have to say that private business is not capable of being both Lean and achieving an employed work force.    That being the case it follows that we either shoot those 40% or pay them to sit home or come up with something for them to do.   How do we decide? Well, if I decide for your kids then I am going to probably give my daughter a better job.   Since I love mine more than yours.   On the other hand if work has a different meaning,   say like Star Trek, then helping everyone to escape the peril of "scale" and drudgery becomes even more important than profit, or maybe profit just means something more than money.    As long as you have a fluid underclass then money is profit and the pressure on the middle and the children of the lower classes keeps them under control. (They will lose their jobs.)    Also private enterprise becomes the primary employer and considers its fat to be its donation to America.   "We create jobs!"  As long as you have people willing to work for next to nothing then the upper end can be self-righteous and point to the immigrant as the only truly virtuous worker.  Like the current people in the White House.    I'm not against immigration, I'm just against paying them un- American wages. These people love Renaissance Bankers but they praise the Renaissance and then create in mono-syllables.   You might want to reference Renaissance on Encarta or Britannica on that.   Things like the roots of opera and the roots of accounting coming out of the same time and culture.   Are they connected?   I believe they are, both culturally and intellectually.   But today's bankers complain about culture rather than growing and understanding it.   They simply want cash!   Cash is the only reason for work!  Cash is the only reason for their lives! There are many bad things to say about the Renaissance but the one good thing that can be said is that groups like the Camarata in Florence came up with great art, science and math considering that each was necessary to being human.   Today we speak of work as if it is only one thing.  We say that Art is not a necessity and we separate pleasure, the senses, from science and math. These people today would use a diamond for a golf ball.   In Spanish class they teach children not to speak Spanish in the middle of a Spanish neighborhood  because of economic class.   On the reservation in the middle of the world's largest lead and zinc mining area they demand that children study for the SATs that have no serious earth sciences section.   It is all about removing uniqueness, talent and pleasure from life and work.  Plato made the development of the perceptions (ART) the basis for his educational structure.   It was not the artists who chose to go to Vietnam and it is not the Artists in this moneyed society that play the games.   We earn to have the money to create.    That is a far sight different from those who create to earn money. I guess it comes down to this.    If you are blind and decide to spit then you had better have someone who isn't blind directing you.    That is what I think about change.    Change is life but it can also be death.   You didn't like Bobby Kennedy's rhetoric.   I didn't like it that much either although I didn't take it seriously like you did.   I liked the impulse to humanize things that I believe it represented for Peter.   The point for me is that you must always balance the wisdom of tradition with the needs of the present and the projections for the future.      As for the post below. Think poetry!   Or like Dylan Thomas, just read it slowly aloud. It is hard not to steal lessons. REH > > At 11:55 28/05/01 -0400, you wrote: > > > > > > >That is the reason for immigration.   When the second and third generations > >would refuse to work for garbage or tolerate a polluted or unsafe > >environment or demand an aesthetic that was truly encouraging of individual > >freedom, expression and personal excellence then we bring people in who > >don't care particularly for those things when compared to their love of > >family and desire to send dollars home. > > > >Then we write books about modern American "culture" which basically means > >everyone means different things when they use the English language which in > >return makes us paranoid about learning or using other languages since > >English means so many different things to the "citizens."   (Who needs > >another language when English can mean everything in the hands of so many > >different ancient groups?)    Religion becomes just another Messiah to be > >contemplated as the only reality and sold like a new car to replace an old > >"pagan" or just anachronistic jalopy.  And then we have books like "Culture > >Matters" which basically means that culture is in the way and therefore it > >is better to mix them constantly to make sure that they don't stop and > >involve such things as altruism or sharing or a balanced environment, or a > >common outlook or too much demand for individual excellence. > > > >"Americans"  look at us very confused when we tell them they can't "become" > >Cherokee if they want since such things come so easily to them. Immigrant > >Americans are especially confused since we have the same ancient connection > >to our ways as they do to theirs.    They get upset when we say that they > >must assume a past debt with their "American" citizenship like reparations > >or stolen property.   That was "someone" else's debt even if it is moral. > >Of course a recent "immoral" debt like the 500 billion dollars or $10,000 > >for every U.S. citizen paid  to the banks in the Savings & Loan "Bait and > >Switch"  is fine even though it  resembled a 19th century Indian Treaty. > >They equate our processes of equality, balance and sharing with "being" > >Cherokee and therefore they can't "do" them unless they "are" Cherokee by > >conversion or immigration. > > > >But Cherokees are taught that ideas and processes are universal and belong > >to those who practice them.     They could begin (but won't) with the > >awareness that knowledge means competence and that competence is the only > >real power.   Then they could proceed from that to the awareness that you > >"earn in order to make learning and realization of potential possible" not > >you "learn and realize potential in order to earn."   That is a big one and > >I don't think we will have many non-Cherokee "brothers" on that one anytime > >soon.  "Scale" is so built into non-Cherokee thought that we lost our land > >because we didn't practice it in 1880 when we were accused of being > >"Georgists."     A word so uncomfortably close to the "Georgia" (and > >Tennessee) volunteers who murdered our ancestors on the Trail of Tears as to > >be absolutely Freudian. > > > >Today is the day when we remember our War dead.   It is also a time when I > >must work to remind myself of the paradox of why it was worth it to save > >those abroad while practicing the ways of our enemies at home against our > >own "others." > > > >Ray Evans Harrell > > > > > > > > >