Quote:
Originally Posted by henry quirk
If one monkey has access to, say, 400 million bananas, I'm thinking he can afford to give the finger to all those impoverished, occupant, monkeys...after all, 20 million bananas buys a helluva lot of gorillas, each more than capable of dealing with anything the occupants monkeys can foist up.
Yes, Virginia: it really does come down to 'might makes the right'.
As I say up-thread, 'how they (the banana-having monkeys) got the bananas (legally, illegally; morally, immorally) is irrelevant.'
In the same way: the envy of the banana-less monkeys is morally neutral (amoral).
I don't decry the occupants for envy, only for their *dishonesty.
They dress up 'envy' in pretty clothes and call it 'right' and 'moral'.
Just pony up with the truth, for a change, that being, 'we want your bananas!'
*Also irrelevant...I'm just sayin'...  |
Ahh, the old reductio ad absurdum argument with a nod to class welfare thrown in without actually using the c w words. Then, just in case, you seal your argument with the statement that
" 'morality' and 'just'" are fictions and therefore, irrelevant.
I don't know if you actually believe this or if you are just applying that statement to monkeys. But either way, it allows you to never bother yourself with any thoughts deeper than the depth of that mirage out on the desert horizon.
I may be hopelessly optimistic, but I believe that the majority of Americans can find a little morality within themselves if they dig deep enough, and a few are even interested in what actions can be honestly claimed to be just.
The culture in which "morality" and "just" have no revelance is the corporate culture. The corporate culture has imposed its own amoral pursuit of profit and power on its minions on both sides of the aisle in Congress.
Thanks to the high cost of getting elected in the modern era, Congress has become a millionaire's club. Worse yet, they have to do what their major contributors want or else no money for the next round of elections.
It is both immoral and unjust to use taxpayer money to bail out institutions that were collapsing thanks to the criminal activities of their own CEO's. It is immoral and unjust to not only retain the Bush era tax cuts for the wealthy and large corps, but to actively pursue even deeper cuts in taxes for this group. Meanwhile the gap between rich and poor continues to widen, and those Americans in poverty, the American Working Class, and the American Middle Class are asked to shoulder the burden of reducing the deficit through the curtailment of educational opportunities for their children, a crumbling national infra-structure, etc.,etc.
These reductions so that the rich can get richer have hit the states and public workers as hard as anything else. Imagine how much even worse 9/11 would have been without those brave fellow citizens - the fire fighters, the police, the port authority - these middle class Americans rushed to the scene and many gave up their lives in the attempt to save as many victims as possible.
What if the state and city of New York had been engaged in austerity measures at the time, and only half the normal amount of police, fire, etc. had been available to respond? This is the road our country is going down now, and I am not optimistic about the eventual outcome.
And since when did the term "social contract" become a dirty word? Since the corporations declared class warfare about 25 years ago. And Since when has it become unAmerican to feel compassion and act upon it? And since when has our government stopped helping the little guy in favor of getting payoffs from corporate bullies? Since when has "promote the general welfare" turn into a greed driven rape of our American land? Since when have profits for shareholders become more important than the air our children must breathe?
Since around the time of Reagan - that's when. Ronnie was little more than a cat's paw for big business and it went downhill from there to the reign of King W who blatantly favored his old oil and business cronies and ushered in the era of war for petroleum, obscene defense contracts for Halliburton (linked inextricably to VP Dick Cheney), tax cuts for the wealthy, granting "person" status to corporations, and disappearing all sorts of Constitutional freedoms use the guise of the "Patriot" Act.
While the Republicans are the in your face party of the rich, the Democrats have responded feebly, caving in at every turn and showing the most lackluster leadership ever from Obama on down. Now, why should that be. Check out who's starting to fill Democrat war chest, and even a 4 year old could see what's going on.
These things are indeed immoral and injust. American citizens have not only a right to assemble to protest these things, they have a DUTY to.
You sir, Mr. Quick, show a tendency towards arrogance and, worse yet, an indifference to the plight of your own country. I sentence you to a life among real chimpanzees in a real jungle. Chimps travel in family groups led by an alpha male. The male will sometimes steal food from a weaker chimp, but, in general, chimp society has evolved to further the survival of the group and the passing on of its genome. That alpha male would make quick work of YOU, Mr. Quick. Social Darwinism at its finest - something you seem to admire. Have a banana.
