Littlegiraffe,
I tend to agree with you that individuals who decide to do something nice are to be applauded. Even if you aren't acting out of a misplaced sense of guilt, helping others is a good thing to do. However, if the government assumes the role of righting ancient wrongs by taking our wealth and property for redistribution, that is tyranny.
I'm a bit curious as to how far you are personally willing to go in this. Are you willing to sign over the deed to your home and property to the Cherokee Nation? Do you donate 10% of every dollar earned to the NAACP? What percentage of your income is donated to food for the hungry in Africa, South America, or Asia? Are you a volunteer at the local soup kitchen? When was the last time you took off your warm winter coat and gave it to an ethnically minority panhandler? Do you ride a bike or bus, rather than contribute to global pollution? Do you still use electricity to light up your home at night, to cook your food, and power your home entertainment center? Do you live in a house that has more than one room and an outhouse? Are you willing to give up your job and career if you found that your employer doesn't meet your high standards of conduct?
Now I realize that none of that is any of my business. If you don't do any of those things it doesn't reflect badly upon you as a person. Do I do any of those things? I wouldn't sign over the deeds to my property unless someone was willing to pay my asking price, and that wouldn't be cheap. We supported the Civil Rights Movement by hefty contributions of both time and the tiny financial resources we had as young people. Our charitable giving peaked during the last years before retirement, but are now minimal at best. I don't give the time of day to panhandlers no matter how pitiful they try to appear. I drive my automobiles where and when I have to get from one place to another. We enjoy watching television and reading late into the night. We live in a large house, and we pay for it out of the money we earned while working for a lifetime. I try to tend to my own, and leave others to make their own decisions as to what they should do with their lives and property. I gave up hoping for beatification years ago, about the time I realized that the socialists, anarchists and communists are worse than the capitalists they'd like to eliminate.
Never apologize? Well, if you haven't done anything to feel guilty about, or failed in your responsibilities, then why apologize? Apologize for living well? I don't think so, so long as its paid for by honest labor. Apologize for having a certain amount of wealth and property that was honestly come by? Never! Apologize for taking advantage of the opportunities taken? No siree, Bob.
some of those things i do, and some can't be done. i don't have a deed to a house, and i originally said "*reasonable*" because it would be nuts for everyone to be homeless to right old wrongs.
i'm not talking about tyranny. i've heard a lot of reasonable arguments about reparations and some long term solutions that would painlessly and voluntarily shift wealth back where it belongs.
i'm not sure it's possible for the majority of employees to find ethical employers, as most businesses seem to fall apart if they behave ethically. that is everyone's fault. we should always take into account which businesses have the highest ethical standards when we patronize them, and for those that can't afford to pick and choose, they should protest or at least send in a complaint.
it isn't that we don't do enough. we could do far more if enough people cared, but that's just it. we live in a culture of dismissing every injustice, of talking about something else. this should be discussed daily, instead of britney spears, american idol, and other national obsessions taking up all our time. but there would still be room for nonsense, if people just took a fraction of "idle gossip" time to say something meaningful. that's just not our way.
talk isn't cheap when it adds up to a different world emerging, as it does when talk is used to some end- but it only works if people care. if they see no problem, no solution will be reasonable, but if they care about the problem, then reasonable, voluntary solutions will emerge.
Asherman wrote:Collective guilt. Its enough that you are male of Anglo-Saxon ancestry. The same mad and chauvinistic rush to Empire was fundamental to American expansionism. The British plantation system was even more brutal than American version. The British Slave Trade was a booming business, and the model for later American Slavers. You made of Australia a continent sized prison that dispossessed the aboriginal population. You lot oppressed the Indian Sub-Continent, introduced opium into China, and stole the diamonds of Africa, we merely followed your sterling example. British factors and investors in American businesses often profited more than their American customers and clients.
You are as guilty of the extermination of Native Americans, the destruction of the buffalo and vast prairies as any American alive today. You forced the mass migration of Irish onto our shores by official policies resulting in famine. You were a leader in the Industrial Revolution, that made dehumanized wage slaves of the masses and despoiled the environment with pollution. Had it not been for the British Empire, it is possible that the current problems in Southwestern Asia wouldn't even exist.
Given the craziness of making modern people "guilty" for the crimes and stupidity (20-20 hindsight) of their ancestors, you can't escape your guilt. Now, what are you going to do about it? Give the land back to those who were dispossessed? Make millionaires of the descendants of slaves? Eliminate every machine and source of power that crushes the human spirit and destroys the environment? Good luck expiating your guilt.
Sir, your sarcasm, is of the sweetest nectar.
