A Philosopher's Warning
From JR Nyquist:
This week I had the pleasure of interviewing the Brazilian philosopher, and president of the Inter-American Institute, Olavo de Carvalho. During the conversation I suggested that something is wrong with our thinking today; that we don’t worship in the same way, or obey the rules in the same way, or observe common courtesy as we once did. “To someone like me,” he began, “who visited this country in the 1980s, and came back to live here in 2005, the changes that the American mind has undergone in recent decades are really shocking.”
Carvalho recommended that I read Tamar Frankel’s book, Trust and Honesty: America's Business Culture at the Crossroad, which, he explained, “describes the alarming decline of moral standards in the American business world....” According to Frankel's book, the erosion of trust and honesty has to do with a rising acceptance and justification of fraudulent practices. "What has changed," she writes, "is the attitude towards dishonesty and breach of trust. Today, there is a greater acceptance and more justification of dishonesty." How did this come about? With the removal of certain barriers to fraud, temptation has increased.
Carvalho has his own insights into the causes of moral and intellectual deterioration in America: “One of the factors that has brought about this change, with its highly corrosive consequences in the daily lives of Americans, was the fashionable ‘neo-liberalism,' which saw the business world as a self-regulatory power, able to override morality, religion, and culture and to dictate standards of conduct based on the supposedly miraculous power of market laws. What made the greatness of America was not just the free market economy, but a synthesis of this with Christian morals and with a culture that included love of country and family. Separated from these regulating forces, the capitalist economy becomes an engine of self-destruction, which is exactly what is happening today.”
Undoubtedly, there is truth in the assertion that traditional American society has collapsed, being replaced by “the open society,” so named by George Soros and Karl Popper. According to Carvalho, the open society defines itself as “not recognizing any transcendent values and by leaving everything at the mercy of economic conveniences – conveniences that are something alleged even to justify the very demolition of the free market and its replacement by the welfare state, based upon taxation and debt.” In other words, Carvalho is saying that the free market doesn’t make men good. It does not train them to be moral. It does not bother to defend itself against socialism. Those elements in society that previously instilled moral values are no longer as effective, if they are effective at all...
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Read the rest.
posted by Concerned American | 7:10 PM
14 Comments:
That is a sound analysis. There is a dearth of sound analyses these days.
We are so completely screwed.
CIII
And one other thing.I pretty much agree with all thats said about our morales and everything else that we used to stand for being totally corrupt on all levels and everything.
I think it's time to go back to snatching these sob's up by the collar. Arctic Patriot has it right. RESIST!
Enough is Enough!
CIII
What made the greatness of America was not just the free market economy, but a synthesis of this with Christian morals.....
"Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed the conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?" - Thomas Jefferson
--hollywood
This quote comes from a German post-war economic architect:
The sphere of the market, of competition, of the system where supply and demand move prices and thereby govern production, may be regarded and defended only as part of a wider general order encompassing ethics, law, the natural conditions of life and happiness, the state, politics, and power.--A Humane Economy, Wilhelm Roepke.
Absent an unswerving adherence to the Ten Commandments, ethics become experimental and Machiavellian power struggles become the norm, and when the Judeo-Christian ethic is eclipsed, the market order becomes characterized by fraud.
"Thou shalt not steal" is not abrogated by majority vote!
Rothbard offered a false choice. We will not be saved from political oppression by the market. The fate of our country ultimately hinges entirely on the hope of a spiritual rebirth.
MALTHUS
No consequences for amoral behavior.
But plenty of rewards.
Without the rule of law, without religion, without morality. The opposite of American. Just another 3rd world shithole. A Jungle.
He seconds your brilliant situational awareness post from earlier this week.
Well since there is no God, and we are nothing more then "smart apes", is it any wonder that people act like animals??? Little sarcasm there,sorry. If this is all there is to life, and nothing to worry about after I die, I guess I can act just like I want with out there being any repercussions. Animals don't know right from wrong, have no appreciation for a beautiful sunrise or a fall day, or a glass of good lemonade. I'm torn, I want to fight back, HARD, the only thing that is stopping me is my faith in God.
Alas, Babylon.
The removal of all religious symbology - and thus the reminder that there's something out there bigger than you, to whom you'll have to answer some day - from public life is definitely PART of it.
Another important part is the "diversity" nonsense which declares that disgusting, vulgar doggerel recited rhythmically over plagiarized "samples" and thudding "beats" is music; that a Crucifix in jar of urine, a Virgin Mary statue covered in dung, or a photograph of a nude man with a bullwhip embedded in his anus are all "art" which should be granted TAXPAYER FUNDING, and that the most crass, disgusting behavior must be not only be accepted but ENCOURAGED and anyone who things otherwise is a racist bigot.
Further, it is also the premise that We The People have no right to enforce any sort of standards - and that the only proper arbiter of right and wrong, good and bad is the Government via its uniformed agents, and that any physical coercion or violence -- even in self-defense -- is illegitimate unless perpetrated by one of said "agents."
In short, I usually sum it up as "Nobody's afraid of getting punched in the mouth any more!"
In 1980, if someone were to "drop the F-bomb" in the presence of a child or a Lady, REAL men like my Father would have asked the miscreant to cease his use of profanity. If he failed to do so - or had the nerve to object to the request - REAL men like my Father would have punched him in the mouth - and followed that up with whatever other actions might have been necessary to finish the lesson!
Today, anyone may say or do essentially anything they please -- except anyone with a sense of traditional Christian morality or an insufficient melanin count.
In short, we've broached the Biblical line whereon "men begin to call evil things good -- and good things evil!
Personally, I've declared my own war on "Political Correctness" and endeavor to be the Man my Father was.
Though my polite requests have been vehemently rejected, my fair warnings about what would follow if they persisted have so far been sufficient to end the confrontation, but I am fully prepared to apply the fist of education to the part with the problem if it should become necessary for me to do so.
And, I'm fully prepared to accept any consequences that may result.
I will no longer passively participate in the destruction of the society which pulled most of the world out of tyranny.
I will **NOT** go quietly into the next "dark-age", and if I must go along with the rest, I'll do so with my knuckles bloody but my conscience and dignity intact!
I challenge all REAL men to join me in saying "ENOUGH"! -- and drawing the line in the sand, just as our Fathers, and their Fathers, and theirs did as well.
We are not to blame for the misdeeds of The Enemy -- but we ARE to blame for allowing Evil to flourish by being the GOOD MEN who did nothing!
STOP DOING NOTHING! or -- as Alvie, Pete and others exhort us daily -- RESIST!
By word, by fist, or by any other means The Enemy may make necessary!
Ugh. Good statism versus bad statism, eh? What do you think got us here in the first place?
The first anon had it right--"We are so completely screwed." I'd rather hoped y'all wouldn't add to it, though.
It's individualism versus collectivism; there is no other issue. Either you accept that the individual is sovereign, or you do not. It's time to make up your minds.
Cling to your Christian morals.
There's more to the human mind and experience than dogmatic mythology. If you can't open your mind to growth, you keep yourself at the same level of intelligence as the "smart apes" you so much like to denigrate.
Anyone can be taught love and kindness without following the 10 commandments. And also without all the religious and racial hypocrisy. Brainwashing is a great thing, if it's your brand of brainwashing.
Dedicated,
So you'd punch someone in the mouth for dropping the F-bomb. How about taking the Lord's name in vain? Where do you intend to stop? Anytime anyone says anything you don't like, you'll clench your divinely-anointed Fist of Righteousness? Is that the game plan?
Brass and various anonymi:
Why not? Christ is not some pussified wimp, despite 50 years of propaganda to the contrary.
Thinking like yours is almost Soviet in its banality and utter roboticism.
Unfortunately, the various Liberty movements attract such as you like stink to you-know-what.
The Spirit of '76,
The Christ I know, when asked by his disciples, "Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to destroy this town," rebuked them, saying "You do not know of what spirit you are." In other words, he would not use force to make other people be good, as Dedicated Dad wants to do. The Christ I know told Peter to sheathe his sword when he tried to use force to defend Him.
Jesus threw some trespassers out of His Father's house, once, it is true. But the important part? They were literally trespassing in His Father's house.
If you think you have the right to use violence against people who are committing spiritual evils? If you think you have the right to use force to uphold God's moral laws? [His prerogative.] The Liberty movement doesn't need you, because sane people know that physical violence can only be used to defend against physical threats to physical persons and things.
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