Letters to the Editor
had_enough
Published Letters: 814 Editor's Choice: 48
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@benjamin--you lose
[Read the article: Takes one to know one]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sorry Benjamin. You're making the elementary--and probably unavoidable--error of ignoring the clear facts that Gary's been presenting.
Instead, you attack Gary for pointing out the clear facts of the Mormon "religion." By ignoring Gary's points, you make yourself look silly.
Read any reasonably objective history of Mormonism, and you come to the inescapable conclusion that it's nothing more than an elaborate fraud. A con-game of immense proportions, started by one man, Joseph Smith, who is exactly as Gary has portrayed him. He wanted to screw underage girls. The more, the better, and he figured out a near-perfect way to do it. He was a genius, of the kind. But he was also scum of the lowest order. Gary said it better than I could.
I don't know if you're a Mormon or not--if you are, I feel sorry for you--but if you're not, I can't figure out what your problem is. Mormonism is built, in its entirety, on a fraud. Any reasonable person can see that. Even Christianity is not quite so blatantly hollow at its core.
And I know I'd have real trouble trusting anyone in a position of power who was an adherent of that religion, unless I had a clear idea of the degree of their devotion. I can see being comfortable with the *cultural* world of Mormonism, however much I disagree with it. But if you subscribe to the actual faith, in whole, then I'm not too sure about your ability to govern a highly diverse society.
And, yes, the fact that Harry Reid is a Mormon bugs me. But I can't do anything about that. I can do something about Mitt Romney. He should be kept well away from levers of power.
Actually, I hope that one day our species outgrows the childishness of all religion..before we annihilate ourselves in its name. It'll be a near thing, if we do.
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I cannot believe how stupid some readers are.,..
[Read the article: Why capitalism, like nature, is beyond good and evil]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...including the one who posted that post. Morally stupid, that is.
There are many things capitalism is really lousy at: preserving the commons, most generally.
Within that notional area, you can find our wrecked medical-care system, a system that would work far better, and be far cheaper and more efficient, as well as higher-quality, and FAR more fair, if administered as a quasi-socialist system. This is not even debatable, whatever anyone may say. All you have to do is look around and see the truth of it.
So, capitalism is REALLY bad for people's health. From our medical care system, to the idea that polluting our planet is fine as long as it makes money (our flavor of capitalism, esp. in America, never counts the cost of pollution in market activity, and when government TRIES to do that, they get shucked-and-jived to death by people who don't seem to care that our children will all be breathing poison and living in shit, if we keep on this way).
Capitalism is morally wrong in numerous other ways, but they all relate to preserving the commons. When you let capitalists destroy the commons, that's evil.
So, posters who say capitalism is neither good nor bad, don't know what the fuck they're talking about. Or they're right-wing trolls.
And if you say "capitalism isn't bad or good, it's the people who use it" I say that's a distinction without a difference. It's like saying guns don't kill people, people kill people..a more specious piece of crap I never heard. Without people, guns couldn't do shit. Same with capitalism. Inevitably capitalism will be used for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many. It has been ever thus. That's the essential nature of it.
The latest problems in the financial markets are clearly the result of the creation of dangerous, not to say immoral, financial instruments, instruments that can, and will, and have, do great harm in the hands of people with no principles other than greed.
These instruments never should have been *allowed* to exist.
But, these instruments are a natural creation of capitalism, which is biased toward the creation of monopolies, and toward cheating, by any means necessary. Andrew's original article made that abundantly clear. These exotic derivatives, and their management, were simply a form of cheating.
anyone who says otherwise is merely shilling for our most recent versions of robber-barons.
In order to survive the end of fossil-fuels, let along thrive, we are going to have to completely re-tool our current arrangements, and that includes largely unfettered capitalism. We're going to have to design a form of socialism, one that works, because if we keep on this way, we'll all go down the tubes. Any sustainable system of economic activity in the face of declining energy sources must have as its goal the preservation of the Commons before all else. And that means capitalism is OUT.
Go ahead and say capitalism is a wonderful thing...but face the music about its consequences: this economic system, in its many flavors, used by humans, is destroying the planet. It cannot be sustained. Answer that, all you Ayn Rand acolytes.
And don't give me that crap about how the Soviet systems and the Chinese communiest systems were equally bad. They were, in their way. But they were not real socialism. they were capitalist systems camouflaged as socialism. Benefits flowed to a different group of people is all..but the concept was the same. Whatever propagandists in Russia and China may have said, their systems were also designed to benefit the few at the expense of the many.
Soon the choice will be stark: some kind of fairness to all, or annihilation. It's just a matter of time.