Avarice and Usury and Precaution

When the accumulation of wealth

 is no longer of high social importance, 

there will be great changes in the code of morals. 

We shall be able to rid ourselves

 of many of the pseudo-moral principles

 which have hag-ridden us for two hundred years, 

by which we have exalted

 some of the most distasteful of human qualities

 into the position of the highest virtues. 

We shall be able to afford

 to dare to assess the money-motive

 at its true value. 

The love of money as a possession — 

as distinguished from the love of money

 as a means to the enjoyments and realities of life — 

will be recognized for what it is, 

a somewhat disgusting morbidity, 

one of those semi-criminal, 

semi-pathological propensities 

which one hands over with a shudder

 to the specialists in mental disease.

 But beware! 

The time for all this is not yet. 

For at least another hundred years

 we must pretend to ourselves

 and to everyone

 that fair is foul

 and foul is fair; 

for foul is useful and fair is not. 

Avarice and usury and precaution

 must be our gods for a little longer still. 

For only they can lead us out of the tunnel of economic necessity into daylight.

John Maynard Keynes (1931)

The Radical Priest on Luke 16:19-31

Luke 16:19-31

Sometimes,

when I think of the afterlife

the question I have is:

“Will it be much different than now?”

(In other words: on earth as it is heaven (really?))

Consider this as

we read this parable of the

one percenter.

Does his world view change

with fires of Hades

lapping him?

To start, he still treats

those in power 

with respect.

(Father Abraham)

And as usual,

 the conversation

of the powerful turns to 

how the 99ers can do their will.

(Send Lazarus to cool my tongue)

Next, there we hear

of a chasm.

Except the tables are turned.

The earthly who 

amassed and stockpiled

the gains of the economy

and separated themselves

from the rest of society

now live in a gated community

that eternally faces an abyss.

(A physical and spiritual one)

And the last aspect of

this parable is the benefit

of those who have

power and influence:

inside information.

He pleads with

Father Abraham

to let his family know

to tell them 

his story 

of Breaking Bad

by sending Lazarus.

And Abraham 

tells him,

“They just need to listen

to Moses and the Prophets.

They told the truth."

And the Patriarch concludes:

"Anyway, remember 

where you came from!

Do you really think 

Lazarus would be able to

ring your door bell?"

The Powwow at the End of the World

BY SHERMAN ALEXIE

I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall   

after an Indian woman puts her shoulder to the Grand Coulee Dam   

and topples it. 

I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall 

after the floodwaters burst each successive dam   

downriver from the Grand Coulee. 

I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall 

after the floodwaters find their way to the mouth of the Columbia River 

as it enters the Pacific and causes all of it to rise. 

I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall 

after the first drop of floodwater is swallowed 

by that salmon waiting in the Pacific. 

I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall   

after that salmon swims upstream, through the mouth of the Columbia   

and then past the flooded cities, broken dams and abandoned reactors   

of Hanford. 

I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall   

after that salmon swims through the mouth of the Spokane River   

as it meets the Columbia, then upstream, until it arrives   

in the shallows of a secret bay on the reservation where I wait alone.   

I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall 

after that salmon leaps into the night air above the water, throws   

a lightning bolt at the brush near my feet, and starts the fire   

which will lead all of the lost Indians home. 

I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall   

after we Indians have gathered around the fire with that salmon   

who has three stories it must tell before sunrise: 

one story will teach us how to pray; 

another story will make us laugh for hours;   

the third story will give us reason to dance. 

I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall 

when I am dancing with my tribe 

during the powwow at the end of the world.