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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Freedom Fighter who wrote (87545)	12/25/2000 1:13:49 PM
From: Walkingshadow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 132070

Hi Wayne, << It's not so easy to forgive or understand the lack of humanity on Wall St. >> I can empathize with your position. However, I think it hazardous to use the word humanity in the same sentence with Wall Street. I see no fundamental difference between what occurs in the "markets" of the streets of LA and those of the high rises of Wall Street, other than trivial differences in the things exchanging hands and superficial differences in the participants, such as socioeconomic status and such like. But what we are really talking about here is basically a human phenomenon, and while the names, faces, and specifics of the circumstances may differ, the fundamental human driving forces are identical. Perhaps it seems more disturbing because we like to think that, because Wall Street is legal, officially sanctioned, protected, and "civilized" therefore, that such fundamental driving forces are no longer operative. When it appears that in fact they are, a kind of disturbing dissonance is created, and one must then face the possibility that basic assumptions---perhaps more accurately, illusions---are not true. Decisions based upon assumptions which are not true will tend to go awry, and then we must search for an explanation. That explanation most frequently involves blame, but is this really satisfactory? The crux of the matter is the essential incompatibility between material and moral pursuits. The former will always tend to lead to corruption of the latter, usually unwittingly, and irregardless of who is involved. It is characteristic of every human, a universal pre-existing tension that we did not place, and cannot rid ourselves of. And worse, are ill-advised and poorly equipped to even try, as described long ago by the parable of the wheat and the chaff. JMVHO, as always............... Walkingshadow