said of london during the industrial revolution,
'we manufacture everything there except men.'
'we blanch cotton, strengthen steel, refine sugar and shape pottery; but to brighten, to strengthen, to refine, or to form a single living spirit, never enters into our estimate of advantages.'
- john ruskin.
its a little strange reading about when capitalism just kickstarted and got birthed, now that we're in these financial fritters. the whole basis of capitalism is self-interest, and it worked really well for all of us, who were wise enough to know that we were all selfish, naturally. selfishness was the reason why communism would never work out, it was the reason why capitalism would. or would it?
the meltdown we have on our hands now is perhaps an indication that operating in self-interest doesn't always work out for everybody eventually. there comes a point where self-interest is garnered at the expense of another, and the accumulation of self-interests is the negation of the self, eventually.
still, capitalism is the only system that would work on earth, and, only if we still needed money in heaven (assuming there isn't the snap your finger and pink ice cream appears option), then absolute communism under the system of theocracy would be perrfect! ideally, the christian community in acts2 already practised a kind of communism in a small satellite fashion, i suppose if churches started really sharing and disregarding the value of money for ourselves, sold what we had and shared and gave as we had need, wouldn't that be nice? and so undemocratic and uncapitalist and unconsumerist? now, that sounds really absurd, but absurdity is the name of the game when our minds are 'renewed' ie. unhinged from former biases and existing doorframes of thought.
*all for theocracy.
*need to redo this blog. black and white. and... maybe more words?
