Simone Weil Princeton Theological Seminary Public Domain
Crass Materialism
Richard Girard
I have been writing an awful lot of consequential articles this year, in terms of subject matter, complexity, and size. My articles last year averaged a little over 3000 words. This year they are averaging over 4600 words each.
Part of the reason is that this year's articles have tended to involve my thinking out loud as I write; being uncertain where an article is going to end up when I start it. Given some of the subjects--Marxism, human trafficking, education, philosophy and government--it could hardly be otherwise.
Yet, in the end gentle reader, I hope that you have found these articles both worthwhile and entertaining. I also hope that they have made you think, whether you wanted to or not. If these articles have made you question your preconceptions and biases, even for a moment, then I have succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.
The world that we live in is neither simple to explain, nor is it easy to live in. The rules that we are told by society we must live by are not the rules by which the most materially successful members of our world live. As I mentioned in my November 15, 2012 OpEdNews article, "Marxism for Fun and Profit ," Sitting Bull, the great Hunkpapa Sioux leader, saw the contradiction in the values of our "leaders" and the average American:
"Strangely enough, they have a mind to till the soil, and the love of possession is a disease in them. These people have many rules that the rich may break, but the poor may not. They have a religion in which the poor worship, but the rich will not! They even take tithes from the poor and weak to support the rich and those who rule. They claim this mother of ours, the Earth, for their own use, and fence their neighbors away from her, and deface her with their buildings and their refuse.
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