"The one who does most to avoid suffering is, in the end, the one who suffers the most: and his suffering comes to him from things so little and so trivial that one can say that it is no longer objective at all. It is his own existence, his own being, that is at once the subject and the source of his pain, and his very existence and consciousness is his greatest torture." Thomas Merton
The Banks must be restrained, and the financial system reformed, with balance restored to the economy, before there can be any sustainable recovery.
"In the Incarnation the whole human race recovers the dignity of the image of God. Thereafter, any attack even on the least of men is an attack on Christ, who took on the form of man, and in his own Person restored the image of God in all. Through our relationship with the Incarnation, we recover our true humanity, and at the same time are delivered from that perverse individualism which is the consequence of sin, and recover our solidarity with all mankind." Dietrich Bonhoeffer
LET US COMMEND OUR PAST TO HIS ABUNDANT FORGIVENESS, AND TRUST OUR FUTURE TO HIS KINDNESS AND TENDER MERCY. LET US PERMIT OURSELVES TO BE FASHIONED ACCORDING TO HIS WILL, NOT FOR HIS SAKE, BUT FOR OURS. REMEMBER TO FEED THE LEAST OF HIS CREATURES, THE BIRDS AND ANIMALS. AND THE HEARTS OF THOSE YOU MEET, WITH A KIND WORD AND A SMILE.
"A credibility trap is when the managerial functions of a society have been sufficiently compromised by corruption so that the leadership cannot reform, or even honestly address, the problems of that system without implicating a broad swath of the powerful, including themselves.
The moneyed interests and their aspirants tolerate the corruption because they have profited from it, and would like to continue to do so. Discipline is maintained by various forms of soft financial rewards and career and social coercion."