IanB wrote:
I am someone who finds the puritanical religious instinct far more frightening culturally than economic neoliberalism.
I understand that perspective but I don't actually share it (and I speak as someone who spent some extremely unhappy years in a Christian Brothers school).
IanB wrote:
Even on my more optimistic days capitalism strikes me a good play pen for the maniacal and sociopathic to get their rocks off building paper empires and winning paper wars. Anything to keep them out of uniform and away from drums and flags and pulpits. There is still plenty of damage done but not as much as they would do in uniform. It's a question of where they do the least damage. And it's up to the rest of us to keep the reins on them. Harder to do that when they have God on their side and a sidearm.
See, I completely disagree with that. For me, global free markets ultimately do far more real damage than any army or clergy. Economics is a more destructive force than religion. Which isn't to say that organised religion is benign. But when we compare scale, I think the corporations end up being worse than the churches.That's how I see it anyway.
