Hi Mr. Simon, I see you are on the board so I’m taking the opportunity to continue our previous conversation.
I skimmed trough few of Mr. Ellerman’s pages (with a promise to continue reading it) and concluded, I hope not prematurely, that he is arguing, amongst other things, for ethics in compensation for services rendered. What I am trying to point to, is fair regulation and appropriation, not valuation. Our forefathers took their share by force, they conquered and toiled and when done, they made laws and regulations and said, this is “mine.”
Now a new generation is coming of age, and we didn’t make any provisions for their survival, we have sent them away just like they sent us, to fend ourselves. We have left them with the legacy of war. Most of the industry is outsourced and the natural resources are being exported. If there would not be a war, would there be a revolution, would the young rise up and take their share by force, just like what we did in the past. I am saying that, it is not ethical for a society to marginalize the young for the military service while claiming to have made moral advancements, from cruelty of tribal and feudal societies, where only the eldest son stayed home to take care of his fathers and his master’s land, his firstborn was his master’s son. All the young were equally sworn into Kings Service, the lords and the peasants alike. That is what sustained the societies of the past, the tribe shunned the weak and the old, the monarchs conquered and created empires killing of and melting in with the conquered inhabitants. We are following in our forefathers footsteps, so will our young follow us. What would happen if our Armies suddenly came home and said; we are home, and no longer willing to fight, we like to raise our children and enjoy our families?
So instead of asking do we need religion to have ethics maybe we should ask is having religion enough to have ethics. I am saying that our leaders exist for their own sakes they are exercising their power over the people and sending us into a conflict, here at home and abroad. Mobilizing the society against perpetuated evil cannot possibly be ethical. What is natural in the animal relationships, survival of the fittest, shouldn’t be also natural in the human relationship, but it is. The power cannot relinquish itself, because it exists for its own sake. The weak the old and the derelict need to go in order to make space for the “fit” I don’t think so, but also I don’t think that there is a choice. The Cultural Revolution in China destroyed the old the weak and the powerless, what was left at the end of it were the smartest the strongest and the most capable.
Our turn is now, not to resist the change, to rethink our relationship to the land and its resources. Maybe this time we can gladly divide the “wheel of cheese” without the foxes help?
Keep in touch