Reply #1: a society that has traded in its moral principles for market principles. [View All]

[understandinglife]

As we all sit in dismay watching the bodies float through the streets of New Orleans on TV, it may seem like the free market bears no real connection to this weather-driven event. And yet what we are watching is the ultimate product of our market-driven society: the eradication of the lower class – in this case poor African Americans -- by economic cleansing. While a hurricane may be the agent, Katrina is shining a spotlight on the reality of what America has become, a society that has traded in its moral principles for market principles.

The free market is not just an economic theory, it is an entire belief system based on the principle of competition, i.e. me vs. you. This system cannot survive, however, unless it is restrained by a framework of higher values based on the principle of unity, i.e. us. The tremendous success of America has always been the product of the delicate balance between these two belief systems, one emanating primarily from the world of business, and the other from the Judeo-Christian tradition. However, for diverse reasons—technological and cultural—market forces have become extraordinarily strong in recent decades, to the point where the market belief system now permeates all aspects of American life. The result is that we no longer care about “us” the way we once did, with devastating results.

<clip>

A Me Society will never build a great civilization and it is folly to promote any theory that maintains otherwise. We need to understand that the market belief system is only part of our society, and the lower part at that. Without those values that promote social unity, be they cultural, familial, religious, aesthetic, moral, or democratic, the water will continue to rise.

From Economic Cleansing in America by Paul Stiles on September 13, 2004

More at link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-stiles/economic-cleansing-in-ame_b_7272.html

And, I submit that that economic cleansing, on the part of Bush and the neoconsters extends to every impoverished person on the planet.

I think Bush and the neoconsters have zero regard for life; they've done the math, they know the population on the planet today is not sustainable, they know that without water and power much of that population will be dead within a decade or less, and if we need any evidence of how willing they are to let it happen just look at Darfur, what AIDS is going to do to much of the population of sub-Saharan Africa, their reluctance to contribute on an appropriate scale to the UN Millennium Project, and New Orleans.

They do not care about life - except their own. They have told us precisely what their real goals are in all their PNAC pronouncements and most Americans do not know what PNAC is.


Peace.