“Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil, but as a necessity, or even a duty. Sin is not a distance, it is a turning of our gaze in the wrong direction.
Human beings are so made that the ones who do the crushing feel nothing; it is the person crushed who feels what is happening. Unless one has placed oneself on the side of the oppressed, to feel with them, one cannot understand.
Power is as pitiless to the man who possesses it, or thinks he does, as it is to its victims; the latter it crushes, the former it intoxicates. The truth is, no one really possesses it."
Simone Weil
"As everything in what used to be called creation becomes a commodity, human beings begin to look at one another, and at themselves, in a funny way, and they see price tags. There was a time when people spoke, at least occasionally, of 'inherent worth'— if not of things, then at least of persons.
It is sometimes said that since everything is for sale under the rule of The Market, nothing is sacred. Does anyone doubt that if the True Cross were ever really discovered, it would eventually find its way to Sotheby's? The Market is not omnipotent— yet. But the process is under way and it is gaining momentum."
Harvey Cox, The Market as God
"Those who are at present so eager to be reconciled with the world at any price must take care not to be reconciled with it under this particular aspect: as the nest of The Unspeakable. This is what too few are willing to see."
Thomas Merton
Stocks were able to enjoy another lackadaisical summer day, with an upwards drift.What is risk? Something that can easily be ignored for the day, until it rises up and smacks us in the face. But while the music plays, the dancing must go on.
Gold and silver caught a little lift on the slightly weaker dollar. I am not so sure about silver, but gold is going to some day express its determined resistance to being treated like just another fiat currency.
Politics continues to distract and divert the public conversation. And much of it is somewhat artificial and even arbitrary, and unrelated to the most pressing topic of the day, which is political and economic reform.
The 'lesser of two evils' is a political strategy, an engaging diversion, but not a real choice.
It is a convenient rationale designed to persuade you, the public, to accept one form of evil over another. And if it is allowed to progress, it can lead an otherwise educated and civilized people to tolerate monstrous things— and the unspeakable.
Such pride, such perverted justice, such hypocrisy, is as old as Babylon, and as evil as sin.
How then are we to resist, when most even of the faithful may seem to be falling away?
As I, and so many others have found, both recently and in times past, the only way to fill the emptiness of a heart either broken by loss or made unquiet by worry is with love, of God and God in others. Defy the world with love, and a light will come into your life.
Need little, want less, and love more. For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.
Have a pleasant evening.
