A Celebration of Calvanism?
This op-ed by Gary Hull of the Ayn Rand Institute deserves scrutiny.
"America transformed a once-desolate wilderness into farms, supermarkets and air-conditioned houses, not by taking those goods away from some have-nots, nor by "consuming" the "world's resources"--but by reshaping valueless elements of nature into a form beneficial to human beings."
That desolate "howling wilderness," was and is the source of this abundance of natural capital that we've just about tapped out to get the level of comfort many enjoy today. It was a matter of geology and evolution, just like the oil under the Middle East, yet only our innovative open culture allows us to both transform and abuse what we have here. We aren't alone in this endeavor though. The Japanese are very successful in aquiring our natural resources (they long ago used up theirs) and turning them into expensive quality products we go in debt to buy back. Am I to assume they aren't encouraging consumption? Who is more corporate in their monotone of thought than they are?
Nice work if you can get it I suppose, but blame for the negatives and responsibility comes with it.
Corporatization is the real culprit here and there is a day of reckoning. The resources will run out if this innovation coupled with conservation isn't rammed through the mindlessness of the MBA run world. The Calvanism of the Puritans celebtated achievement. There is nothing wrong with that, but they also punished those who failed strict standards of achievement in business. Odd how the most conservative colony now is the most liberal. Transformation into something better is what America is about. We've got work left to do.
"America transformed a once-desolate wilderness into farms, supermarkets and air-conditioned houses, not by taking those goods away from some have-nots, nor by "consuming" the "world's resources"--but by reshaping valueless elements of nature into a form beneficial to human beings."
That desolate "howling wilderness," was and is the source of this abundance of natural capital that we've just about tapped out to get the level of comfort many enjoy today. It was a matter of geology and evolution, just like the oil under the Middle East, yet only our innovative open culture allows us to both transform and abuse what we have here. We aren't alone in this endeavor though. The Japanese are very successful in aquiring our natural resources (they long ago used up theirs) and turning them into expensive quality products we go in debt to buy back. Am I to assume they aren't encouraging consumption? Who is more corporate in their monotone of thought than they are?
Nice work if you can get it I suppose, but blame for the negatives and responsibility comes with it.
Corporatization is the real culprit here and there is a day of reckoning. The resources will run out if this innovation coupled with conservation isn't rammed through the mindlessness of the MBA run world. The Calvanism of the Puritans celebtated achievement. There is nothing wrong with that, but they also punished those who failed strict standards of achievement in business. Odd how the most conservative colony now is the most liberal. Transformation into something better is what America is about. We've got work left to do.
posted by Mark at 10:44 AM
2 Comments:
"by reshaping valueless elements of nature into a form beneficial to human beings"? Are you kidding me? Do you suppose that the indigenous population might have something to say about that statement?
They did. But in my family the Abenakis were welcomed in the house and worked with my ancestors as scouts and hunters. Modernity has alwys been elusive though.
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