This afternoon, Barack Obama will be speaking at the high school here in the town where I work and where I was born. I would have liked to have gone and seen the nuts and bolts of the political machine up close but the tickets were all gone by the time I heard about it. If I could meet Obama I have a brilliant new economic plan I would like to share with him. Since Obama isn't here (or isn't he...) I'll share it with you, my beloved pals. You might want to sit down, its a a doozy. (I know you are already sitting down. What kind of weirdo reads blogs standing up?)
Okay, my radical new economic plan. Here it goes:
We give take 100% of the wealth from the rich and give it to the poor.
In a very short time we end poverty and hunger. We treat the sick. We shelter the homeless. Crime is dramatically reduced because no one wants for anything. Now if you are one of those fortunate top one to five percent of Americans that hold all the wealth in this country then this may sound like a bum deal but hear me out. You, my rich friends, will still have everything you ever had. You just get the benefit of sharing it with the rest of your countrymen. Just think of all the new friends you will have! Your new friends will be glad to share it right back with you. And, you will be freed of your slavery to greed and might stand a better chance at avoiding eternal damnation. Doesn't that sound awesome?! Am I not a genius?!
Well, I have to admit, it's not my plan. I read about it in a book called the New Testament. Ya see about 2000 years ago, this guy named Jesus came up with this plan. It really caught on and he gained a lot of followers. Unfortunately the establishment of the time was not as excited about it and Jesus was killed. However, his followers believed in his economic plan so much that even after his death they made it a reality. Don't take my word for it though, here is a bit from that book I was talking about: "All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. There were no greedy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought money from the sales and put it at the Apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need." (Acts 4:32-36.) Now unfortunately the establishment was not happy about this and they threw those Apostle guys in jail but I believe this proves that this plan has worked before and can work again. Actually, I believe it will work again. This book I'm talking about describes a time when our world will no longer be ruled by greed but by love. I don't think we have to wait for that time to come. I think we can start making that world exist now by embracing this awesome economic plan. I know it won't be easy. This plan is an exact opposite of the trickle down economics or the ownership society that our country's Republican party has been selling for decades. I guess you could call Jesus' plan an owner less society. It would be a big change but aren't both parties selling themselves as agents of change? Man, if you want change, I got ya some change with this plan. And if you think my economic plan is crazy, wait until you hear my ideas on foreign policy and border security! Yowza!
Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith
6 comments:
I've long thought that no one person ougtha be able to possess more that 10 million dollars at a time...call me a socialist, communist, whatever...but there's absolutely no reason or need for anybody to have more wealth than that.
Yeah. It's insane. It's like Caligula but there are thousands of Caligulas and worse than that, our culture encourages everyone to want to be Caligula. We can't insure children or provide health care or re-build our infrastructure but we can drop 700 billion in another crazy trickle down economics sham.
In other news... have fun and good luck at SPX Rob!
Here's what I don't get. I don't get idiots who use the term "moral relativism" as if it's some dirty concept only espoused by heathens and prostitutes (oh...and Democrats).
It's all relativism. The idiot that quotes "an eye for an eye" but neglects "treat thy neighbor as thyself." The moron who rails against someone because of some perceived offense, and totally forgets about casting the first stone.
Political collection at church? No relation whatsoever to the moneychangers at the temple. Nossir! It is easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich
person to get into the kingdom of God...except when the rich person is an evangelist. Then it's okay.
And let's not forget all the weird shit in the bible that no one wants to follow. Like slavery...'As for your male and female slaves whom you may have-- you may acquire male and female slaves from the pagan nations that are around you. (New American Version)
...or in Leviticus, where it says that a woman who gives birth to a male child will be unclean for a week and can't enter a santified place for 33 days, but, should she give birth to a female child, will be unclean for two weeks, and can't go to church for 66 days.
We all pick and choose what we want to believe from the Bible. Even fundamentalists don't follow every command, or else they wouldn't be able to function in today's society.
Sorry. Rant over.
I hear ya. People pick and choose verses that support their own ideas and not God's intention. If the Old Testament was God's definitive message then Christ would not have come to deliver the new covenant. The NT is pretty clear that the most important message of the OT is to love God. The new commandment delivered by Jesus is to love one another. Greed, violence, intolerance, profiteering, exploitation, hoarding of wealth, apathy toward the poor, abandoning the old... none of those ideals which have been glorified as virtues in the US for as long as I have been alive, none of those can be justified against Christ's commandment, Christ's order to love one another.
See, but here's the thing: who is to say what God's intention was? You are absolutely correct about Christ's order to love one another and how today's political message completely diverges from that.
But the bible is not really a definitive source for the intention of God. It's a whole bunch of documents that were translated from Aramaic to Ancient Greek to English (or, in some cases, Aramaic to Greek to Latin to English). I mean, it's like playing a game of "telephone" with God! Who's to say what Mark, Luke, Deuteronomy or anyone else were really like? Or what they really thought? Or what their true connection to God was?
I think people try to take faith and make it into something else. They want to formalize it and impose it on others. It's as if it isn't enough that they believe. They want everyone else to believe in exactly the same way. That's what I hate about formalized religion. I have my own faith. I worship no false idols...including the guy in the Roman collar at the altar.
I don't know. Sorry. This kind of stuff just ticks me off.
I won't argue with that. The Bible is a complex book and I don't think any of us mammals are capable of understanding the intentions of the divine but the good news is one does not have to over think it. Jesus provides a kind of path to the divine for dummies. If you can pull off loving one another then the rest should fall into place. If you forget that, you could memorize the entire OT and never have a clue. The goal should be to first have a personal relationship with the divine. Then, if you are rock solid on that, you might consider sharing this relationship with others. That falls under loving one another. Judging people, fighting people, telling others what to do, trying to exclude people etc. do not fall under loving one another. This is something children should understand but adults pick out what they want and use it for their own needs. We are mostly pathetic scared greedy hoarding animals.
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