Kleptocracy can work best for Homo sapiens [making some of us rich before all of us die (and a good part of the bulk of the biosphere as well)] only if we're not too sapient.
Our institutions will serve kleptocracy best if its functionaries are none too self-aware. That's why kleptocracy (aka: civilization) will always jail, torture, murder its Socrates, its Jesus, its Galileo — if not in the name of the church then in the name of the state.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
Appraisals and Inherent Value
Only kleptocrats are literate, only kleptocrats maintain schools and universities, only kleptocrats have governments in which leaders tell citizens the value, the validity ... of this, that, and the other thing. If you're reading this, you're almost certainly a kleptocrat, trained from birth in the values of this or that kleptocracy. You probably know that in 1492 Columbus got some backing from the queen of Spain and parlayed it into a "discovery" of "America." You may also realize that Christian cultures typically assumed that Christian values trumped all over values: thus the values of things in America were zero until some Christian put a value on them.
Of course after the Protestant Reformation, to Protestants, things Catholic no longer counted: old things, Catholic things had no value until revalued by some Protestant. Thus it didn't matter what value the emperor of the Aztecs put on his palance, or his kingship, or his people, the Conquistadors and the priests could declare it null and void and place a new value on it: this beautiful maiden in the gold necklace has no value, but I'll sell her to my friend for a Spanish coin: so, her correct value is one Spanish coin. Similarly the Lutheran could desecrate the popish altar and then sell it to his fellow Lutherans for so many German pfennigs.
It may happen that in 1920 that some Irishman arrives at Ellis Island, ferries to Manhattan, beholds the Brooklyn Bridge, and is swiftly offered the purchase of the Brooklyn Bridge by some Five Corners street tough. The salesman even offers the Mick a receipt. In this case the Mick has no money whatsoever and is thereby saved from buying property not owned by the seller.
OK: that's enough background for starters: now I ask this: did the Aztec maiden have any intrinsic value? Should Montezuma's value of her count? Is there in Heaven an Accounts of all things in the Cosmos, all appraisals logged?
In other words: is God's appraisal any better than the Spaniard's? or the Lutheran's? Or the Street Tough's?
Can use value ever be translated into market value? Might God's heavenly accounting make such a distinction? What if God's heavenly accounting makes distinctions that I haven't made or even hinted at here? (Gee: how could that be? I'm trying to hint at everything!) What if the atheists are right and there is no god: do my questions therefore become meaningless?
For now I'd be happy could I only know that somebody read this and reviewed their own assumptions about value! and god! and market! and intrinsic! and kleptocracy!!
Of course after the Protestant Reformation, to Protestants, things Catholic no longer counted: old things, Catholic things had no value until revalued by some Protestant. Thus it didn't matter what value the emperor of the Aztecs put on his palance, or his kingship, or his people, the Conquistadors and the priests could declare it null and void and place a new value on it: this beautiful maiden in the gold necklace has no value, but I'll sell her to my friend for a Spanish coin: so, her correct value is one Spanish coin. Similarly the Lutheran could desecrate the popish altar and then sell it to his fellow Lutherans for so many German pfennigs.
It may happen that in 1920 that some Irishman arrives at Ellis Island, ferries to Manhattan, beholds the Brooklyn Bridge, and is swiftly offered the purchase of the Brooklyn Bridge by some Five Corners street tough. The salesman even offers the Mick a receipt. In this case the Mick has no money whatsoever and is thereby saved from buying property not owned by the seller.
OK: that's enough background for starters: now I ask this: did the Aztec maiden have any intrinsic value? Should Montezuma's value of her count? Is there in Heaven an Accounts of all things in the Cosmos, all appraisals logged?
In other words: is God's appraisal any better than the Spaniard's? or the Lutheran's? Or the Street Tough's?
Can use value ever be translated into market value? Might God's heavenly accounting make such a distinction? What if God's heavenly accounting makes distinctions that I haven't made or even hinted at here? (Gee: how could that be? I'm trying to hint at everything!) What if the atheists are right and there is no god: do my questions therefore become meaningless?
For now I'd be happy could I only know that somebody read this and reviewed their own assumptions about value! and god! and market! and intrinsic! and kleptocracy!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
