Posted by Smalls at syr-24-24-14-133.twcny.rr.com on March 28, 2003 at 16:31:27:
In Reply to: Shhhhhh! posted by Booty Princess on March 28, 2003 at 16:14:34:
The protestant work ethic. That old idea that if you want your neighbors to think you are blessed by God, you have lie cheat steal and work too damn hard so that you can LATER say "Oh no, this... God gave me this because I'm so good".
This is the essential fundamental lie upon which our society is built.
This culturally-subconscious... and sometimes conscious belief... that we are not rich or poor on a combination of dumb luck and dumb luck, but that it's God smiling on those He digs. If we're rich, no matter what we did to earn it, God must love us and... *drumroll*
We're going to go to heaven and not *really* die.
This whole damned schpiel comes back to looking for some rationale by which we are not mortal, as so much of human bullshit comes down to.
Religion is the primary motivating factor... and those of us not slaves to that structure have to pick a side, either opposing that structure or cruely trying to squeeze dough out of the faithful by pretending to bow to the same structure they do. This is where the greed actually comes in, on the secondary level.
The insult with the injury.
Everybody wants to prove they're going to continue past this life... and that's what this war is about, who's going to heaven. And I consider that a tragedy, because I'm not so sure there's a heaven for ANYONE.
Mike