On Tue, 25 Aug 1998, Daniel Worley wrote:
> Now I have heard many different reasons put forward to explain the
> increase in violence and crime in this country. But this is the first time
> I have ever heard it blamed on Capitalism. That is about equivalent to a
> kid saying "The dog ate my homework."
>
> The increase in violence with a like increase in sexual assault, rape,
> and child abuse can be better laid at the feet of the creeping socialism
> and communism and the resultant decrease in moral teachings that began soon
> after the end of WW-II and got into full swing in the 60's. No we didn't
> switch over to those `isms, but as lot of their belief systems rubbed off
> on us (the United States).
This is no way to make an argument. Going by this one may argue that
socialism and communism is a better system since crime rates (especially
against women) were the lowest under the soviet regimes. And look at what
is happening to Russia after the switchover to capitalism and a return to
religion.
> We now have two full generations of citizens who grew up and attended
> public schools where any mention of religion was forbidden. Where teachers
> were afraid to even attempt to express any form or "moral" attitude or code
> for fear it would be considered teaching religion. Two generations raised
> on a belief system that poked fun at religion and churches; that made light
> of any form of moral code other than the "Me Too" or "I want My Share (and
> yours to)" attitude. Or the code that says "The world owes me a living
> whether I work or not." They embraced the "To each according to his needs"
> portion of the formula and threw out the "From each according to his
> ability" portion.
Maybe you should have a look at countries where religious fundamentalism
is dominant and look at how they are treating human beings. In India for
instance crimes against women are the highest and the social status of
women lowest in states ruled by the Hindu BJP. Rape is a mechanism that is
frequently used by those acting in the name of god in the pogroms against
minority muslims and cristians. On the other hand social indicators for
women are the highest in the states of Kerala and West Bengal ruled by the
atheist communists.
> Maybe there is a system better than capitalism, but we just haven't
> thought of it yet. Fine. But lets not try to blame the social ills of a
> half century plus of promoting socialism and socialistic programs, on
> capitalism.
> Capitalists don't rape, pillage, and burn. They sell their products.
> Most (if not all) know you can't sell to dead, dying, or injured potential
> customers.
Isn't it incongruous this mail coming from Dan following another one from
him on Monsanto. Everybody on this list knows about Monsanto and what it
is doing and what it stands for. Maybe Dan thinks Monsanto is not
capitalist. It is a socialist non-organization trying to feed the world's
hungry maybe!
D.Parthasarathy
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Indian Institute of Technology, Powai
Mumbai, 400076, India
Phone: 091 022 576 7372
email: dp@hss.iitb.ernet.in
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