Morality

This is a loaded word. Thanks to our Western and puritan/Catholic forbears, morality now appears to mean anything to do with sex. Who does what, and with which, to whom. And that's all it appears to mean.

But what about -- lying, stealing, and cheating? What about greed and overweening pride?

I guess these are all OK now, because we see ample evidence everyday from our leaders, big business moguls, and many folks in the public eye through our mass media [which in itself perpetuates these moral myths].

It is OK to pay a CEO of a corporation an obscene amount of money while refusing to support a minimum wage for the workers of said corporation; and this is just one example.

It is OK to arbitrarily move industries off shore leaving tens of thousands unemployed because it's cheaper over there, and shareholders get a better dividend (and CEOs reap a greater reward).

It is OK to lie about going to war, or killing people if they are not on our self-defined 'good guy' list.

It is OK to despoil the environment for short term gains; the quarterly balance sheet must show a profit or heads will roll...

It is OK to destroy the social service infrastructure of a country or a state and farm it out to private enterprise because they do it better, at least ideologically. I won't climb on this bandwagon just yet, but wait for it!

But don't get caught having sex! Hoo boy, that will squash your chances of success much faster than ripping off the customers.

I guess as long as we follow the great adage of Gordon Gecko: "Greed is good" our concepts of morality will remain as is. Everyone wants growth. It's good.

But then again, cancer is a rapid growth...

'nuff for now.

PB White