The more things change....

...the more they remain the same?

Quote :

And when you think of this! The number of men who are in fact responsible for the condition of the world right now ... could all be contained in this room, & they are acting as though there were no way of common understanding ... the world is in chaos simply as a function of their inability to assume the middle position in a conversation.

Joseph Campbell - interviewed by E. Bourantinos, September 30, 1985

Ann

Same ol, same ol.

"There is nothing new under the sun."

Americans are crazy. They think Republicans can fix the mess that they, themselves, created?

What a sick joke.

Your avatars get better and better. Your wisdom is as insightful as ever.

Ann

alice wrote:

"There is nothing new under the sun."

Americans are crazy. They think Republicans can fix the mess that they, themselves, created?

What a sick joke.

I said it before and I'll say it again, "Anyone smart enough to solve the problem, is too smart to want the job!"

CAN THE USA SURVIVE GIVEN THE FOLLOWING?

The folks who are getting free stuff, don't like the folks who
are paying for the free stuff,
because the folks who are paying for the free stuff can no
longer afford to pay for both the free
stuff and their own stuff.

The folks who are paying for the free stuff want the free
stuff to stop, and the folks who are getting the free stuff want even
more free stuff on top of the free stuff they are already getting!

Now... The people who are forcing the people to pay for the
free stuff have told the people who are RECEIVING the free stuff, that
the people who are PAYING for the free stuff, are being mean,
prejudiced, and racist.

So... The people who are GETTING the free stuff have been
convinced they need to hate the people who are paying for the free
stuff by the people who are forcing some people to pay for their free
stuff, and giving them the free stuff in the first place.

We have let the free stuff giving go on for so long that there
are now more people getting free stuff than paying for the free stuff.

Now understand this. All great democracies have committed
financial suicidesomewhere between 200 and 250 years after being
founded. The reason?The voters figured out they could vote themselves
money from the treasury by electing people who promised to give them
money from the treasury in exchange for electing them.
Thomas Jefferson said it best: "The democracy (Republic) will
cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work
and give to those who would not."

The United States officially became a Republic in 1776, 235
years ago. The number of people now getting free stuff outnumbers the
people paying for the free stuff. We have one chance to change that On
Nov 6th, 2012. Failure to change that spells the end of the United
States as we know it.

ELECTION 2012 IS COMING...

------------------------------------
"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of
other people's money". -- Margaret Thatcher





Partly true and partly false in my opinion.

D. J. (Don) Stephens wrote:

alice wrote:

"There is nothing new under the sun."

Americans are crazy. They think Republicans can fix the mess that they, themselves, created?

What a sick joke.

I said it before and I'll say it again, "Anyone smart enough to solve the problem, is too smart to want the job!"

I agree!

Dear Alice,
I think that what you have posted is a bunch of Republican crap. I do wish that people did not need someone to tell them what they should think and decide. I do not think it is possible. People do not want to think this stuff out for themselves. They do not want to be responsible for their legislators. They want mom. They want everything to be ok without their own thought. That is the problem with America. Hope and it must be.

Love,
Betty

It seems to me that Joe provided the answer to the problem in his statement:

Quote :

the world is in chaos simply as a function of the inability of [the men who are in fact responsible] to assume the middle position

As long as we see the thing as either/or we stay stuck with the extremes.

Joe calls it enantiodromia - running back and forth between the polarities.

As long as we believe that there is not enough stuff to go around, there will be those who hoard more stuff than they need, and that means that there will be others who have to go without enough stuff to survive.

Just me.

Ann

Betty Fasig wrote:

Dear Alice,
I think that what you have posted is a bunch of Republican crap. I do wish that people did not need someone to tell them what they should think and decide. I do not think it is possible. People do not want to think this stuff out for themselves. They do not want to be responsible for their legislators. They want mom. They want everything to be ok without their own thought. That is the problem with America. Hope and it must be.

Love,
Betty

I knew that it was a tiny bit of truth mixed with a whole lot of error. That's why people are so confused now a days.
They speak of people who will not work--there are many who would love to work, but are unable to work.
Either there are no jobs or they are disabled.

I do think foreign aid could end for a bit. The people we give to do not like us.

Ann,

I agree with you.

alice wrote:

Ann,

I agree with you.

I knew that.

Ann

Dear Alice,
I wish that I had that magic wand that could cure this earth's peoples of their own selves. I look around and see that most people do not want to comprehend the universiality of humanity. Instead, they would like to think that money is the measure. It will ever be that there is a difference between the people who have it and the people who do not. I think of our LC once in a while. She, the pragmatist, knows the truth.
Love,
Betty

Betty,

I miss her, but wouldn't pretend that she knew the truth.
She didn't even want me to have disability payments.
I am glad she is not in charge.

There is a difference between "want" and "need" and we often confuse the two.

Quote :

All cultures have grown out of myths. They are founded on myths. What these myths have given has been inspiration for aspiration. The economic interpretation of history is for the birds. Economics is itself a function of aspiration. It's what people aspire to that creates the field in which economics works.

The Collected Lectures of Joseph Campbell, Lecture I.1.1 - The Celebration of Life

Betty wrote:

Quote :

I look around and see that most people do not want to comprehend the universiality of humanity. Instead, they would like to think that money is the measure.

You guys should get together. You both make sense.

I miss LC, too. I didn't always agree with her, but she was challenging when we disagreed. She forced me to think.

Thinking is always a good thing.

Ann

Maybe if we talk about her she will see and drop back in. She was fun to argue with.
She left a huge hole here.