In this Easter Sunday, day of rebirth, my thoughts go dark and worries weigh on my mind. So to exercise them this post asks:
Why was Lincoln Assasinated?
Why was Gandhi Killed?
Why was Kennedy Shot?
Why was Martin Luther King?
Why was Paul?
Why was Jesus killed?
Their deaths are not coincidences. They're not random fates that come to those of great prominence. They are not French nobles dying under a guillotine in a mass panic of the populace.
Take Gandhi; killed by a man who didn't like the direction that Gandhi was taking the country. A direction away from materialism, away from capitalism, away from violence as a mirage for strength. Years after his death India is becoming an economic force, following not Gandhi's teachings but the capitalism purported by his murderer.
A friend of mine said that capitalism is evil. I don't think so. I think capitalism is like a monarchy lead by a dauphin, with all its childish desires who with great advisor and guidance can be a great king, and who with no advice, guidance or control can be a brutal punitative king. Capitalism is a tool, a great tool but it is not a moral compass. To justify morality on the basis of the market is a way of excusing our behavior and to ignore our conscience, and this lead us to Lincoln.
At the time of the civil war, most of the US wealth was in slaves. Imagine your house, that you have worked for years to own, to shelter your family and yourself in your old age to be made up of slaves. It makes no economic sense to walk away from this wealth, it makes no economic sense to turn your back on "the institution." But Lincoln saw different.
Lincoln saw the truth behind such a system, and the great spiritual and moral cost of it. Capitalism saw only profit and loss, blind to the souls of men and women. And many like Wilkes-Booth saw no purchase, no value, in seeking a more spiritual moral nation, and shot and killed a man I deeply admire.
Now today wrapped in easy justifications, many a man (and women!) preach the whole wallet gospel of capitalism and denigrate socialism as immoral. What madness.
Luis Muñoz Marin said it best: "Capitalism provides in abundance what it distributes unequally while socialism divides equally what it doesn't produce."
Capitalism is not evil, neither is socialism. They are both vacuous systems devoid of morality but that which people give them. Neither is each system exclusive of each other.
If the United States is to be a shiny city upon a hill, it needs to put morality in front of capitalism. It can't blindly follow the market that behaves like an impertinent child and then take a stand on their moral behavior, when they've expropriated their morals to the market!
And this has to be true morality. Not fake morality. We don't need laws that attempt the appearance of morality and push it not with action or example but with punishment.
We don't just need more Kennedys, Gandhis, Lincolns in this country we need everybody in it to recognize the greatness of spirit of them, and recognize it on those still alive and working on bringing a better world into being. We need a country that will see a Gandhi die of old age, in peace. You don't have to be a Kennedy or a Moses to change the country, just stop a Wilkes-Booth from action, and that is something anybody can do.
Why was Lincoln Assasinated?
Why was Gandhi Killed?
Why was Kennedy Shot?
Why was Martin Luther King?
Why was Paul?
Why was Jesus killed?
Their deaths are not coincidences. They're not random fates that come to those of great prominence. They are not French nobles dying under a guillotine in a mass panic of the populace.
Take Gandhi; killed by a man who didn't like the direction that Gandhi was taking the country. A direction away from materialism, away from capitalism, away from violence as a mirage for strength. Years after his death India is becoming an economic force, following not Gandhi's teachings but the capitalism purported by his murderer.
A friend of mine said that capitalism is evil. I don't think so. I think capitalism is like a monarchy lead by a dauphin, with all its childish desires who with great advisor and guidance can be a great king, and who with no advice, guidance or control can be a brutal punitative king. Capitalism is a tool, a great tool but it is not a moral compass. To justify morality on the basis of the market is a way of excusing our behavior and to ignore our conscience, and this lead us to Lincoln.
At the time of the civil war, most of the US wealth was in slaves. Imagine your house, that you have worked for years to own, to shelter your family and yourself in your old age to be made up of slaves. It makes no economic sense to walk away from this wealth, it makes no economic sense to turn your back on "the institution." But Lincoln saw different.
Lincoln saw the truth behind such a system, and the great spiritual and moral cost of it. Capitalism saw only profit and loss, blind to the souls of men and women. And many like Wilkes-Booth saw no purchase, no value, in seeking a more spiritual moral nation, and shot and killed a man I deeply admire.
Now today wrapped in easy justifications, many a man (and women!) preach the whole wallet gospel of capitalism and denigrate socialism as immoral. What madness.
Luis Muñoz Marin said it best: "Capitalism provides in abundance what it distributes unequally while socialism divides equally what it doesn't produce."
Capitalism is not evil, neither is socialism. They are both vacuous systems devoid of morality but that which people give them. Neither is each system exclusive of each other.
If the United States is to be a shiny city upon a hill, it needs to put morality in front of capitalism. It can't blindly follow the market that behaves like an impertinent child and then take a stand on their moral behavior, when they've expropriated their morals to the market!
And this has to be true morality. Not fake morality. We don't need laws that attempt the appearance of morality and push it not with action or example but with punishment.
We don't just need more Kennedys, Gandhis, Lincolns in this country we need everybody in it to recognize the greatness of spirit of them, and recognize it on those still alive and working on bringing a better world into being. We need a country that will see a Gandhi die of old age, in peace. You don't have to be a Kennedy or a Moses to change the country, just stop a Wilkes-Booth from action, and that is something anybody can do.
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