Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Capitalists and Republicans thoroughly fisked; Dems too, and who's living in the suburbs?
Go here and read Robert Waldrop of the Catholic Worker movement reply to this quote from Malcolm Berko:
"In this business of investing, it's the bottom line that counts while kindness and goodness isn't worth a pickled herring ... If you and your broker want to be socially conscious people, donate money to a charity or various charities of your choice. Investing is for making money not for appeasing your soul by making feel-good choices."
Mr Waldrop's blog is far more hard-hitting than most I've read. He recommends Mr. Berko give up WalMart for meth labs -- it's about on the same moral plane and far more profitable for investors.
"What's that you say? These are illegal drugs? They do terrible things to our communities? Well, what does that matter? You plainly say in this column that all that matters is return on investment; social issues -- such as how a corporation treats its employees -- count for nothing. So who should care how much evil they do with their money by investing in methamphetamine manufacture? You are missing out on great returns by not advising your readers to start making methamphetamine in their bathtubs and selling it to high school students. Yes, it's illegal, but when has legality really mattered to big business in this country?"
This thinking fits with my experience of those who work directly with the poor: an aggressive and relentless abjuration of our secular culture. (He eviscerates with the skill of a velociraptor.)
I agree with Mr Waldrop's sense that many Catholic Republicans have settled in the suburbs of Sodom, satisfied with lukewarm lip service from their own party on abortion, as they condemn the entire populace of the Gomorrah SMSA, and mark any bishop who doesn't shout it out their way to be a spineless heterodox weakling worthy of no less than a fiery purgation.
I don't even think I can any longer consider voting for Kerry just to annoy Sodom suburbanites. As my late father would say in one of our many election year discussions, "I think you just wasted another presidential vote, son." Anyone want to join me in the wilderness?
