DEAR JASPER JOHN,
I have mixed feeling about your admission that you are an admirer of Ebenezer Scrooge and other hardhearted people. On the one hand my ability to analyze the source of attitudes is affirmed; on the other hand I am disappointed that people actually do have such attitudes. It seems the Gospels are not properly understood and/or absorbed in many cases. I have never found any part of the Gospel that says that the only people we should help are those who help themselves. I read the Gospels during my freshman year at Manhattan and soon later became a liberal Democrat greatly influenced by what I had read.
I do have to admit that your devotion to materialism and Scrooge goes beyond my expectations. I can only imagine what a horrible world we would live in if most people lived by your principles. Try following your ideas to their logical conclusion – every man and woman for themselves – would quickly lead to oblivion and the end of the human race
When I first viewed a version of “A Christmas Carol” in Sunday School at Holy Rosary Church in the Bronx Circa 1948 I never realized I was being subject to “gooferment” propaganda- I thought then as I do now that the movie was teaching the words and spirit of Christ.
Happy New Year-
I suggest you begin the year by reading the Gospels again with an open mind.
No fair looking at Limbaugh or FOX during breaks
Sincerely yours
Donald M Stebbins
BS 1961
Stebbins, Donald M (MC1961)
[JR: <1> Sigh, I don't think, that calling "foul" on moochers and insisting that true charity is "voluntary", is being "hard hearted". (People think I'm usually a soft touch for a sob story.) What I do with MY wealth is my business; what the Gooferment robs from me to "do welfare" is immoral, ineffective, and inefficient. <2> Where in the world did you get the idea that I'm for dog eat dog everyone for themselves? I just don't want to be TOLD by the gang in power, with fancy flags and costumes, that I will support multi-generational "welfare farmers" and a huge number of rich folks who have figured out how to game the system. If a "free society", "greed" will motivate people to cooperate. Review "I, Pencil" for a great exposition of how much better humans cooperate when they are free to seek their own self-interest. <3> Sorry, but what your "liberal Democrat" ilk have brought us, with the enthusiastic cooperation of the "conservative Republicans" ilk, (this supposed duopoly in itself is a fraud on the people) is to create a dysfunctional world where everyone tries to live at everyone else's expense. If this was a rowboat, we'd know we have too much dead weight. The incentives are all wrong. <4> Sure, you were being brainwashed by the good Nuns. You just couldn't see the bias. Now you've formed your world view based on ideas that could use some reexamining imho. Just start from the principal that you own you and no one has the right to FORCE you to do anything. The Gooferment crumbles under that lens. <5> ATDA!]
# # # # # posted 2010-12-26 22:47
