My Bully Pulpit

[rdonnay]

"By dwelling on inequality, the pope is promoting envy".

This is a quote from an article by Lant Pritchett on Bloomberg.com
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-1 ... -sin-.html

I have heard arguments like this more than once in the past 2 weeks.
First from the Wall Street Journal, then Fox News, and now Bloomberg.

This is a classic non-sequitur in that the conclusion of the argument does not follow from its premises.

It is true that if an individual dwells on his or her place in life in comparison to others he or she may be guilty of envy. Pritchett tried to translate the Pope's message about fairness and justice into the word envy.
I'm not buying it.

Inequality is a symptom of a much bigger problem, the problem of injustice and unfairness.

Imagine the story of "A Christmas Carole" and how different the message of Christmas would be if written by Bloomberg instead of Dickens. What if the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future were replaced by the ghosts of Rockefeller, Ayn Rand and Gordon Gekko? Instead of challenging Scrooge over his past behavior and frightening him with the consequences of his actions, I see them huddled together in a board room, drinking cognac, smoking cigars and complaining how the less fortunate were envious of their wealth and success and that it is his right to look upon them with contempt.

I believe that it is about time that the church spoke up for the meek and the poor in spirit. This is not to say that I am for more entitlements. On the contrary, I believe that this is a big part of the problem. It is injustice and unfairness of another kind and has also contributed to this inequality by favoring the elderly over other needs of our nation. The elderly are now complicit in this injustice and need to be challenged as Scrooge was challenged.

Conservatives want the church to stay out of politics when it preaches against greed but they are happy to have the church in politics when it preaches against progressives. The same is true in reverse about progressives and the church and for this I plead guilty.

History has shown us that countries become more and more unstable with less and less equality.

Tolerance and acceptance of gross inequality is bad politics. It cannot be justified as a good and proper outcome of democracy and capitalism.

I am always in support of the church when it speaks as a proxy for Jesus, for Gandhi, for Abraham Lincoln, for Martin Luther King, for Nelson Mandela or even for Teddy Roosevelt.

Teddy Roosevelt was the leader of the progressive movement. He never talked about inequality, but he did talk about injustice and unfairness. He never accepted this as just and proper and was fully aware of how this inequality was stirring up anarchy and political unrest.

Teddy Roosevelt was able to change the minds of the powerful people of his time and he did it by talking directly to the people through his "Bully Pulpit". The pope will never change the minds of people like Lant Pritchett, just as Jesus never changed the minds of the powerful people of his time. The pope is talking to the people, just as Jesus talked to the people. He can change their minds and their hearts and, in the end, it will lead to a more just and fair society, and more equality.

The pope is appealing to "the better angels of our nature", not to the politics of envy or greed. Justice and fairness should not be confused with envy.

I have not said this in over 50 years, but here goes. God bless the Pope.

[bwolfsohn]

Good stuff roger..

Did you see the Jimmy Kimmel send up of fox's interpretation of A wonderful life ?

Entitled: "Mr Potter and the Communists of Beford falls"

http://m.newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-she ... and-commie

[rdonnay]

Mr Potter and the Communists of Beford falls

That's great! I need to stay up later and watch Jimmy Kimmel.

Or better yet, I'll just record it with my DVR.
Oh crap! I just triggered a bout of envy from those who don't have a DVR.

[bwolfsohn]

I don't watch jimmy kimmel, although he's probably the best of the late night guyz... john stewart had it on crediting kimmel w/ it..