tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5320826620507241679.post4067888458330921087..comments2023-06-21T10:26:47.525-05:00Comments on ("RAM").........Red Alert Moderates: Billionaire EpiphanyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5320826620507241679.post-60027570186612505562011-11-20T07:30:40.283-06:002011-11-20T07:30:40.283-06:00As an Idealist, I would say that truth is transce...As an Idealist, I would say that truth is transcendent to the thoughts and experiences of both Plato and Aristotle. Substantive experience is availed its significance in respect of the mind of God (or field of consciousness). As an Empiricist, I would say that practical experience (the Word made flesh) frames the logos for our communication. I don't see a simple, Bright Line between the subjective ideal and the practical objective, since it's with the practical that we apprehend and communicate our evolving interests and ideals. It's not principles-in-themselves that explicate higher truth, but our expression of principles in respect of an experiential, substantive Context, as it unfolds in concert with the participation of each perspective of consciousness. In part, that's why representative democracy is not a suitable form of governance for many cultures, i.e., the ones that fail to balance their ideals with their markets. Moreover, that's why representative democracy may not much longer remain viable for America. Having lost sense of basis for higher ideals and values, a gathering majority of Americans have lost faith except in the vulgar market. Conservatives who have unbalanced and confused their ideals will not long preserve America based only on faith in the material market. What could be more confused and unbalancing than to sacrifice one's entire being to an ideal of having no ideal apart from the vulgar market? What could avail a faster slide to despotism than to advocate free-market trading with despots?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5320826620507241679.post-61576220441756107322011-11-20T06:52:31.497-06:002011-11-20T06:52:31.497-06:00Fine article. Having irrationally lost rational f...Fine article. Having irrationally lost rational faith in any higher source of morality, many desperately seek to find morality not in responsible individuals, but in the collective will that is availed expression in the marketplace. The same people who tend to say you cannot legislate morality are often the ones who believe morality is merely a triviality. For them, that which finds expression in the market is moral. Problem is, that which finds expression in the market often is centrally contrived and regulated by government in cahoots with those who own or invest deeply in government. When these people say morality cannot be legislated, they often mean to say, We own you, so abandon hope. Were the market truly an expression of local interests, rather than centrally contrived interests, innate moral empathies would hold more sway. But localism has shrunk puny next to the centralizing Leviathan. The Departments of misEducation, crony choking and hedging of Energy, and Commerce for the well connected cannibals ensures that localism, and therefore moral empathy, will remain chained. Samuel Adams foresaw aspects of this when he wrote late in his life to the well known secular humanist who otherwise often displayed common sense: Thomas Paine.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com