RE: capitalist religion (was: NANO: _Forbes_ cover story)

From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Tue Jul 24 2001 - 01:03:19 MDT


Mike Lorrey wrote

> Lee Corbin wrote:
>> We can probably safely state, however, that for human beings
>> capitalism is "natural" if
>>
>> 1. there is a sufficient tradition of liberty in a culture
>> 2. the ruling government or state is not overly powerful
>> 3. no existing religion has absolute control, unless it's
>> fairly mild and isn't antithetical to profit
>>
>> I think that I see why you wish to describe capitalism as
>> "natural"
>
> This is correct, because the above conditions exist when man is 'in a
> state of nature'.

To me, a state of nature occurs only before the advent of agriculture,
and the other technologies developed about 10,000 years ago. In this
state, humankind is thought to have lived in small bands of hunter-
gatherers. I don't think that people under this condition have a
tradition of liberty, either. They're usually used to doing what
the head man, or couple of men, say. The kind of "tradition of
liberty" that I had in mind was what the early colonists of the U.S.
had, and what the colonists to all other English speaking countries
carried with them to new shores.

Lee



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Oct 12 2001 - 14:39:55 MDT