"Acts that are wrong in themselves can be expected to have bad effects of a particular kind that is not just accidental. Their badness follows from what is wrong in the act itself, so that there is a rational, conceptual link between them and their results. These consequences are a sign of what was wrong with the act in the first place. Acts of lying or
injustice are themselves expressions of disrespect and untrustworthiness, so
they unavoidably call for more of the same.
Hubris calls for nemesis, and in one form or another it's going to get it, not as a punishment from outside but as the completion of a pattern already started."
Mary Midgley, The Myths We Live By, 2003
“The world says: 'You have needs — satisfy them. You have as much right as the rich and the mighty. Don’t hesitate to satisfy your needs; indeed, expand your needs and demand more.' This is the worldly doctrine of today. And they believe that this is freedom. The result for the rich is isolation and suicide, for the poor, envy and murder.”
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
"Can we actually suppose that we are wasting, polluting, and making ugly this beautiful land for the sake of patriotism and the love of God? Perhaps some of us would like to think so, but in fact this destruction is taking place because we have allowed ourselves to believe, and to live, a mated pair of economic lies: that nothing has a value that is not assigned to it by the market; and that the economic life of our communities can safely be handed over to the great corporations.
Such damage is justified by its corporate perpetrators and their political abettors in the name of the 'free market' and 'free enterprise,' but this is a freedom that makes greed the dominant economic virtue, and it destroys the freedom of other people along with their communities and livelihoods. We need to confront honestly the issue of scale. Bigness has a charm and
a drama that are seductive, especially to politicians and financiers;
but bigness promotes greed, indifference, and damage, and often bigness
is not necessary. There are such things as economic weapons of massive destruction. We have allowed them to be used against us, not just by public submission and regulatory malfeasance, but also by public subsidies, incentives, and sufferances impossible to justify."
Wendell Berry, Compromise, Hell!, September 30, 2004
The ECB hiked its key interest rate by 25 bp to 4% this morning.
Retail sales and PPI came in stronger than expected, boosting the US Dollar.
But nonetheless stocks rallied, on the familiar refrain of 'soft landings.'
The spokesmodels were gibbering the usual bullish songs of selective dissonance.
Did I mention that there is a quad witch option expiration tomorrow?
Wash, rinse, repeat.
This November we will be remembering the 60th anniversary of the first of the assassinations that set the stage for the decline of the American Republic.
The Latest Declassified Evidence on the Assassination of JFK
How easily we close our unfeeling eyes and forget, drifting senselessly with the tides.
Have a pleasant evening.
