Wednesday, April 01, 2015

State and church sanctioned sentimentality

Thankfully someone outside the comfortable tree of sacred state sanctioned sentiment has pointed out that government as mother and father  is a very dangerous  and growing monster ,,,,able in one foul swoop to turn tyrant.  Nice enough now but you wait !
Theodore Dalrymple has done the church and the state a service - reminding them that they are in cohoots and are too remote and sentimental ..( and are reactive - they often feed off taxes ) ..for them or our own good --- the toxic cult of sentimentality has disasterous consequences for societies;   like those in Europe who are most infected with the disease ; true care is tough local and personal first .
Its unlikely Dad and Mum goverenment would ever be fat enough to keep us in the manner to which we have become accustomed . They could realistically only ever appear to listen .
Dearest mother and father  - at your very best you pruned us . But only and ever because you knew where the cuts would heal  and because you know that for us and Australai to really survive and thrive  we must push each other to live independantly innnovatively and ......avoid the easy road of dependancy .


ACOSS can talk all it likes about cutting off more of the savings of the wealthy ,but those of us who have worked hard all our lives to avoid dependancy know its easier to give in .( we need a million dollars in savings to compete for a pension )  This should not be so.

ACOSS , with government must respect the way we invest our money towards retirement . Sure,  discourage the family home safe haven and buildings and savings banks generally . Give incentives for Trusts which serve particular and productive investment purposes instead of hoping houses and banks and pensions will save us . Should shares and access to them be given more of a priority?


As for the church - if it thought for itself ,  maybe it would be aware of the danger Dalrymple has identified.
as Macintyre has put it
The modern nation-state, in whatever guise, is a dangerous and unmanageable institution, presenting itself on the one hand as a bureaucratic supplier of goods and services, which is always about to, but never actually does, give its clients value for money, and on the other as a repository of sacred values, which from time to time invites one to lay down one’s life on its behalf . . . [I]t is like being asked to die for the telephone company.
"The handing over of the gospel to the anemic embrace of bourgeois sentimentality."  Metz

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