9.30.2013

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


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.