Neo-Darwinianism?
By all reports Darwin was a compassionate man who even delayed reporting his conclusion that evolution involved survival of the fittest for several decades with concern for the social (religious) disruptions that his theory might evoke.
However, one must fear today that what has been established as the way of nature's evolution over the eons of time since life emerged on earth now be converted to a social/political/economic norm. I recall the distress voiced by a newly nominated Indian chief justice at a Columbia University Faculty Human Rights seminar some decades back that India as a nation, while following Gandhi's self-help ideals, was abandoning the poorest and most desperate segments of its population to fend for themselves while its growing middle class prospered.
Most recently the Chinese at the People's Republic annual conference have announced the need for an effort to bolster the rural left-behinds with support programs redirected from the prosperity of its increasingly affluent urban populations.
The European countries that have prided themselves on their social support programs may be finding themselves outflanked in global economic competition by those developing nations which are exploiting their workers mercilessly in the production of lower cost goods. And certainly U.S. pols seem bent on reducing support for those in need while boosting massively the incomes and wealth of our already super rich. Are we seeing here an international trend -- rich nations exploiting poor, rich residents despising and defrauding poverty stricken ones -- emerging as a commendable ideal?
Emblematic in my experience have been the numbers of persons -- elderly or otherwise less well off economically -- who walk away from pharmacy windows without the life-preserving medications which are too expensive for them to afford. For each who walks away, I would imagine there are a number more who have not even tried when faced with a choice between food, lodgings, and essential medications.
If there is in fact a (benign) intelligent designer, I would not imagine that such a neo-Darwinian norm will win his/her praise and support. I am reminded of some of the Hebrew prophets who predicted the divine wrath and punishment that would befall those who let greed and cruelty rule their nations. Perhaps there is a neo-Darwinian equivalent also lying ahead in the destruction of our environments and blind exploitation of the resources that have enabled us to achieve such wealth and the potential for benefiting all mankind -- which we are now threatening with destruction through our blind greed?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort
to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
However, one must fear today that what has been established as the way of nature's evolution over the eons of time since life emerged on earth now be converted to a social/political/economic norm. I recall the distress voiced by a newly nominated Indian chief justice at a Columbia University Faculty Human Rights seminar some decades back that India as a nation, while following Gandhi's self-help ideals, was abandoning the poorest and most desperate segments of its population to fend for themselves while its growing middle class prospered.
Most recently the Chinese at the People's Republic annual conference have announced the need for an effort to bolster the rural left-behinds with support programs redirected from the prosperity of its increasingly affluent urban populations.
The European countries that have prided themselves on their social support programs may be finding themselves outflanked in global economic competition by those developing nations which are exploiting their workers mercilessly in the production of lower cost goods. And certainly U.S. pols seem bent on reducing support for those in need while boosting massively the incomes and wealth of our already super rich. Are we seeing here an international trend -- rich nations exploiting poor, rich residents despising and defrauding poverty stricken ones -- emerging as a commendable ideal?
Emblematic in my experience have been the numbers of persons -- elderly or otherwise less well off economically -- who walk away from pharmacy windows without the life-preserving medications which are too expensive for them to afford. For each who walks away, I would imagine there are a number more who have not even tried when faced with a choice between food, lodgings, and essential medications.
If there is in fact a (benign) intelligent designer, I would not imagine that such a neo-Darwinian norm will win his/her praise and support. I am reminded of some of the Hebrew prophets who predicted the divine wrath and punishment that would befall those who let greed and cruelty rule their nations. Perhaps there is a neo-Darwinian equivalent also lying ahead in the destruction of our environments and blind exploitation of the resources that have enabled us to achieve such wealth and the potential for benefiting all mankind -- which we are now threatening with destruction through our blind greed?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort
to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
posted by Ed Kent at 9:19 AM
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