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To: napscoordinator
So are you not for capitalism also?

Actually, I am. The market has wonderful benefits if it is directed to fulfilling goals. But I would like to see a return to the approach to the market the western world had for hundreds of years. Let the market function to fulfill most needs. But limit what the market can sell and how it can sell it where experience indicates it can drive thru the dark side of human nature to a degrading and ultimately self-defeating end.

In ModelBreaker's world, people would go to jail for selling magazines showing bare breasts and for selling cocaine. Public expressions of homosexuality would be strongly discouraged--probably illegal--although I think there is no point making homosexuality itself illegal. If they want to have a private, secret, decadent culture, that is between them and the Lord. But the mainstreaming of their culture reduces the entire culture to their level.

We also need to bring back hypocrisy and shame. Public shame for behavior that legitimizes decadent behavior. And hypocrisy because, the public appearance of virtue is a good thing, even if the person showing it is not perfect. What that says to kids is that virtue is important and that the hypocrite is ashamed of the secret sin.

I never thought I would reach the point where I would advocate these prescriptions. But it should be clear by now to anyone who looks objectively at the situation that our unfortunate flirtation with anything goes social libertarianism since about 1960 has been a complete failure.

We could remedy things by getting rid of the market (which by its nature is amoral and exploits any edge to sell product, including, if permitted, the dark side of human nature) or by driving decadent behavior back underground to shameful stuff that bad people do. The former results in socialism and totalitarianism. The later requires restriction on some public behavior, which I am instinctively loath to do. But the two cannot exist together. Either we have to jettison the market or we have to jettison anything goes social libertarianism. If I had to choose between two unattractive options--and I believe we do--I would choose to retain the market.

130 posted on 01/26/2006 5:58:03 PM PST by ModelBreaker
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To: ModelBreaker

Time to buy a clue. Hint, when you start advocating hypocrisy as though it were a virtue, your train has jumped the tracks. Yeah, exactly what this or any culture needs is better liars. Oh yeah, that makes a helluva lot of sense.


133 posted on 01/26/2006 6:14:09 PM PST by Melas (What!? Read or learn something? Why would anyone do that, when they can just go on being stupid)
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