Posted on 11/02/2008 7:17:07 PM PST by mtrott
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's_______. You fill in the blank. These are the words that much of western civilization's legal and financial systems have been founded upon for centuries. You are expected to go out and toil for what you desire, not expect to have it taken from someone else and given to you. The idea is that it is fundamentally immoral to desire to take what your neighbor owns for yourself.
The problem is that once envy and jealously take over, one's own initiative and industry wither away, leaving one vulnerable to snake oil salesmen who tell you they are going to take from the rich and give it to you. I guess I could kind of understand this mentality if this country truly had the kind of desperate poverty and starvation seen in some parts of the world, but that is just not the case. We have the richest "poor" in the world, and we are the most charitable country in the world, as well.
I am just so ashamed of and disappointed in this country at this point. Even if by some miracle McCain pulls out the election, it is downright terrifying, as well as appalling, to accept that literally millions of Americans have no problem with demonizing fellow citizens who have more than they do, and, further, run to the polls to vote for someone who unabashedly says he will take more of their money and "spread the wealth around". And, I am also ashamed I, in younger years, also harbored such jealousy of the "rich".
The rhetoric being used by politicians to stoke the fires of covetousness is simply astounding. Witness the claim that it is only "fair" that federal taxes go up on people who are already paying 35% of their income in federal taxes. Fair? What is "fair" about it? This doesn't even take into account state and local taxes, which brings the total taxes they are paying up to the vicinity of 50%. Seems obscene to me.
Another heinous notion is the one being promulgated by Sen. Biden, i.e, that the rich folks "need to get with the program and do their patriotic duty" and pay higher taxes! This sentiment was echoed by Sen. Obama when he insinuated that the rich not wanting to pay even more of their own money in higher taxes was "selfishness". This kind of talk only further reinforces the feeling of the middle class that the "rich" somehow have too much and that the middle class should get some of it. Did the "rich' break into peoples houses or bank accounts and take their money or possessions? Never mind that most of the "rich" worked their tails off for it for years, and many of them put the money to work in the real economy, thus creating most of the jobs available in this economy.
Honestly, I kind of wish McCain would just come out and call this what it is: pure jealousy and covetousness. And ask the American people if this is really who they are.
I’ve been saying this for years.
Class warfare is a fundamental pillar of the Democrat party sick strategy.
Envy also drives musch of the animosity directed toward the US internationally (see my tagline).
God knew what He was doing with those Commandments.
There are degrees of desire.
There is desire, just wanting something. It is a step above the basic instincts. It can be good or bad depending on what you desire.
There is jealousy, which is a desire for what another has. It ranges from mild to intense.
There is envy, which is a passionate and sometimes violent desire for what another has.
Then there is covetousness. When you covet what another has, you hate that person for what they have, and you hate God for giving to that person what you desire — to the point of being blind to all that God has already given you.
There is a reason why the Greek of the ten commandments is most accurately translated as “Do not covet your neighbor's wife.” While it has its literal application (not to covet your neighbor's wife), it also has its metaphorical meaning, which is not to desire anything that others have, because one form of desire LEADS to another by evil impulses and forces.
Black racism in this country is largely founded on class warfare, which USES covetousness as a tool to stir up hatred for others and blindness to what they have.
The race-baiters know what they are doing, and they are dancing with the devil by using this strategy.
Thomas Jefferson said, “To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, ‘the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it.’”
You have stated, quite eloquently, what has bothered me most about this election.
Bump.
And the people who want to rob you of your goods to redistribute them to others are the least generous with their own goods. Just check out the tax returns of the “benevolent” DIM candidates.
My SweetBaby and I were just talking about this today
Covetousness is part and parcel the basis of socialism, nazism, facism, and communism.
The 10 commandments have never, and will never, be proven wrong.
Excellent article!
The democrat/socialist version of the 10th Commandment:
Though shalt not covet anything that is thy neighbors, unless he has more than thee.
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