tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383701632927065467.post6864077471707493856..comments2023-08-21T03:51:17.425-06:00Comments on Enlightened Catholicism: Solidarity Is Not The Way Of The Ferengicolkochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03432916690101599393noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383701632927065467.post-56397786504063465592013-06-02T11:36:58.171-06:002013-06-02T11:36:58.171-06:00Thanks p2p, I have the whole series of interviews ...Thanks p2p, I have the whole series of interviews between Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell on DVD, a gift for contributing to free speech radio. I read "Hero with a Thousand Faces" at the time of the interviews. It is wonderful. Colleen, you can get all the Star Trek series on Netflicks for $8.00 per month. My son and I have most of all of them except the original series on DVD's. We were really involved. Harry Potter was a little behind my son but my daughters enjoyed those books, and we all liked "The Lord of The Rings". <br /><br />The problem with Catholic morality is that it does not follow the evolution of ethics very well. Catholic moralists fail to listen to the scholars of the day and seem to fail to listen to the Holy Spirit. They further support the Ferengi society. They are not only wrong but they are not very ethical. The Church supports the authoritarian in society that leads to .2 % of society controlling 37% of the resources. Again corporate profits were at a all time high last year yet this did not spell job increases, but does spell further attempts to squeeze the middle class and poor for even more in the future to ever increase these profits and the massive benefits for a few. This will lead to societal unrest even violence.<br /><br />As long as the Catholic Church follows the path of the fasciest,wealthy, Opus Dei, we ARE the problem. No ethical or moral solutions will come from our religion until ordinary people like us demand it. This is beginning to happen but perhaps what will really happen is a new myth and a spit off church. This is much more likely, plus the secular society of today is at least as ethical as is the RCC. <br /><br />Secularism, modernism, and relativism are not the ethical problems that the Opus Dei Church argues. The problem is the lack of ethics in a Ferengi, male, homophobic clericalism.rdp46noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383701632927065467.post-51111130021807880492013-06-01T19:29:08.827-06:002013-06-01T19:29:08.827-06:00The idea that we can keep printing money and borro...The idea that we can keep printing money and borrowing money to stay afloat is a dead end. The idea that we can expend billions into a banking system that has failed and is immoral in the sense that it creates nothing but destruction for so many people, is not just fascist, it it just plain stupid and is also a dead end. People instinctually know this to be a dead end. However, the powers that be all pump out nonsensical theories as to how this has come about and they also have no sense of the history in any kind of depth as to the whys. Therefore, they can not reason with a full deck. Hence, we have politicians on the right and on the left and in the middle who really don't have a clue as to how to tame this beast called capitalism, that when it reaches a certain point turns into a vulture. It happened in Spain. It happened in France. It happened in Great Britain. Surely we all feel the scars of the Wars from this death trap of a system that can not and refuses to see its own flaws and the misery it causes the entire planet of human beings. <br /><br /><br />I had the opportunity today to listen to a historian talk about the War of 1812. As well I listened to a historian talk about the Iran Contra Scandal or Affair as it is named. The problem I see here is that ignorance & arrogance paves the way to create monsters such as Ronald Reagan who truly did not have an in depth understanding of people and the issues at hand. Nor did he care, or did GW Bush. They do not seem to be able to see the other side of the coin. Any talk that is different from their spin is immediately rebuked. Pope Benedict as well mirrored the same stuff and brought people into this century with a lot more baggage than we can carry to survive as a nation and as a democracy. <br /><br /><br />The economy sucks and it has sucked for years and years for so many. Karl Marx spoke about the pitfalls of capitalism. The wealthy love their capitalism and their power. They love colonialism. They do not love independence. They really do not believe in freedom for anyone but themselves. They keep saying we are better off without unions. We are not better off. We are worse off now that GW Bush, his father and Ronald Reagan sold us out. No wonder there is a Tea Party. No wonder there are young people getting angry who are out of work. The solution is work that pays a living wage. The solution is not work camps and people working under the gun. That will repeat under the current system in which the 1% govern everything and determine who works and who does not.<br /><br /><br /> In Europe the situation is and has been much worse than in the US. My hunch is that there is a lot of infighting amongst the remaining banks for the left over crumbs they can scavenge to empty into their coffers on the backs of poor people who are getting poorer by their greed. The notion that socialism is something to scorn or be afraid of and reject has brought on a lot of post-World War II Wars, which are really proxy wars. I'm just real tired of it all. Especially when I see my son out of work. Especially when I see so many young people around the globe either out of work or working some dead end job for literally nothing. It is a crime. This country, the USA, should get its act together. Will it? I don't know. I pray that it will.Fran Schultzhttp://www.reverbnation.com/franschultznoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383701632927065467.post-55624614698053549552013-06-01T17:41:33.604-06:002013-06-01T17:41:33.604-06:00George Lucas consulted Joseph Campbell when he was...George Lucas consulted Joseph Campbell when he was creating the Star Wars universe. His book "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" explores the idea of archetypal heroes. <br /><br />Campbell was an Irish Roman Catholic who had studied world religions and mythology from the time he was a child until long after his doctoral studies were finished. Here's a link to one of the wonderful interviews by Bill Moyers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2F7Wwew8X4Y On Star Wars.p2pnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383701632927065467.post-75004731736757450752013-06-01T10:09:24.145-06:002013-06-01T10:09:24.145-06:00I also thought it was interesting that the Ferengi...I also thought it was interesting that the Ferengi coveted 'latinum'.colkochnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383701632927065467.post-43991275386084009482013-06-01T09:48:49.901-06:002013-06-01T09:48:49.901-06:00Interesting that both "Franciscus" and &...Interesting that both "Franciscus" and "Ferengi" come from the Latin name for Germanic tribes near the Rhine, the "Franci" (the Franks).Agni Ashwinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383701632927065467.post-81529125516984436382013-06-01T07:23:39.207-06:002013-06-01T07:23:39.207-06:00Dennis, the really annoying stat is corporate prof...Dennis, the really annoying stat is corporate profits at all time highs and no resultant jobs. Why is that never mentioned? <br /><br /><br /><br />It was strange how in some pictures Pope Benedict did look like Palpatine. Star Trek and Star Wars were big in my house as well, but Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings might have been bigger--except for DS9. My daughter told me a couple of days ago she was getting the entire series and shouldn't I be jealous. I had to admit there was no shouldn't about it, I was jealous.colkochnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383701632927065467.post-45623235070178673242013-06-01T07:16:29.632-06:002013-06-01T07:16:29.632-06:00Not just the futility, but the insecurity as well....Not just the futility, but the insecurity as well. The energy solution is the same one I thought of as well, but I don't think it was ever explicitly stated, and as a true Trekkie fan of DS9, I think I might have remembered if it had.colkochnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383701632927065467.post-15778565627735866062013-05-31T18:53:49.011-06:002013-05-31T18:53:49.011-06:00I grew up with my children watching Star Trek and ...I grew up with my children watching Star Trek and Star Wars. They became the new myth of ethics. Just as any myth the Catholic one included, there are always faults. We also went to the RCC for church and schooling, but I think we all found the Star Trek and Star Wars myths a little more palatable because the Ferengi were not in charge. When the merchants attempted to gain control in Star Wars, what we got is the evil emperor who looked a lot like Pope Benedict. Perhaps Francis is a jet eye knight and will slay the evil emperor in the Vatican but that will take a complete war on the curia and I doubt he can survive that.<br /><br />Society has tilted toward the fascism that supports the evil emperor. When Corporatism has more power than one person one vote, we are headed for horrible unrest to say nothing of difficulties in the world eco systems including the human one caused by greed of the merchant corporatist. Their god is really the litinum. They will steal all that they can to get the energy to mint more so they can horde it---- not provide JOBS. The corporate profits were at an all time high last year but no jobs. More dinero for the .2%.<br /><br />A society with not socialism, but with a social democracy able to decide where to spend the resources would be better than what we have. It would be more Christ-like!rdp46noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383701632927065467.post-37241264669987836002013-05-31T14:53:46.397-06:002013-05-31T14:53:46.397-06:00I suspect the problem with replicating the gold-pr...I suspect the problem with replicating the gold-pressed latinum had to do with the amount of energy it took. But even if that problem had been solved, I have faith the Ferengi would have found something else to covet. I think that is the point the Ferengi are supposed to illustrate in the Star Trek panorama. The futility of covetousness.tpel_91noreply@blogger.com