Some of this hits home. And since this is a fine piece of writing, I thought I'd link it and see what y'all have to say.
Some of it I think is rather overly bleak and a bit over the top. Some isn't.
I do wonder how people can afford the massive debt they rank up. Student loans alone, yikes. How the heck can people entering the labor force deal with 100k in debt? I seriously wonder how people my age can rack up tens of thousands in credit card debt.
Personally, I plan on keeping my expenses down, invest a bit, and eventually purchase a decent amount of land flat out. Maybe try my hand at running a small business. That's down the road. The article did have one thing right. I'd rather eat a gun than spend the next 40 years in a cube. I'm still young (26), and at the moment have decent prospects. I don't expect the future to be rosy, so I'd rather live within my means now and save for tomorrow.
Thing is, seeing the archtype 'company man', that's what I've never done and hopefully never will be. I do not want the white picket fence, 2.5 kids, being forced to work a job I hate to get by, etc etc. Sigh. Time to get some sleep. Need to be in at work in 5 hours to get the new server online.
I also wonder why you would make the generalization that religious people only do good things out of hope for some eternal reward.
That struck me as odd, too. You need to have religious rewards as a carrot-and-stick approach to being a good person?
Interesting.
I'm guessing the guy's an atheist, in addition to being leftist. And he's nowhere near 50.
Bingo.
I'd bet dollars to doughnuts he also:
1. Does not have kids (If he does, he is not married to their mother and does not live with them. IOW, a sperm donor, not a father)
2. Never was in the military (If he was, I think he & Scott Thomas Beauchamp would get along swimmingly)
3. Is a leftist & desperate to immanentize the eschaton.
Read his mini-bio:
Adam Engel is a Contributing Editor for Cyranos Journal. Adam has published poetry, fiction, articles, and reviews in several web sites and magazines such as CounterPunch, Dissident Voice, Online Journal, Hudson Review, Accent, The Concord Journal, Beacon, Art World, Ward6 Review, CounterCurrents, LewRockwell.com, Literal Latte, Lummux, POESY, Chronogram, Press Action,and many others. Adam was a featured reader, along with Robert Creeley, Suzanne Pomme Vega, Robert Bly and others at the Woodstock Poetry Festival, August, 2001, where he read from his first book of poetry, Oil & Water. He can be reached at
bartleby.samsa@verizon.net, or at his partially completed (very partially) website at
www.adamengel.com.
That sort of writing is pretty distinctive, 'bout as distinctive as that of a "lays on hands, speaks in tongues" charismatic Christian.
Manedwolf, I'm really curious where you get that view of religion. I also wonder why you would make the generalization that religious people only do good things out of hope for some eternal reward.
I don't.
In my experience, humanist atheists and real Christians, in the true sense, get along quite well. They share a sense of common decency to mankind, and do things because it's right to do them. The Christian might believe they're being observed, the atheist might just have a vested interest in promoting the future of mankind, promoting knowledge and alleviating suffering, but the goal is the same, as is the motivation. I don't see any conflict there. You help an old lady across the street, you rescue a kitten from a drain, you risk your own life to pull someone from a crashed vehicle, because it's the right thing to do in the most basic definition of human.
Yeah, there's nihilist atheists, but they're boring and depressing. I don't know any personally. They have no purpose.
In my experience, what I call actual Christians go by the idea of "good deeds are best done unseen". The only sort of religious sorts I, personally, don't get along with are the ones who only do "good deeds" when under the spotlight for everyone to see, or, in their own minds, in hopes of a shinier afterlife. Thankfully, I don't meet too many of those, the "church of the holy rolex" sort one sees on televangelist programs. I've met a few, and I was repulsed...crucifixes on every non-mobile surface in their home, but seemingly more as an excuse than a symbol of anything to aspire to...truly mean, small people. I don't consider that sort to be Christians, really.
Most good Christians of the sort I know are just good, quiet family people who do good deeds out the kindess of their own hearts. So are good people of other religions. I went to a lot of Passover seders as a kid, family friends and such. And I get along with them quite well. They want to raise their family with morals, whether the basis of that is their scripture or, in the case of good atheists and agnostics, the basic laws of human decency and civilization...they're pretty much the same laws. Any civilization that's lasted long at all has learned to live by them.
And I get along with that sort far better than I do with selfish leftists, who are usually absolute and complete hypocrites in every sense of the word.
I guess that works, until you consider the atheist only needs do what he judges is right. Must be nice.
It is nice not to have to be following some preacher-person giving us his (or her, can't be sexist here ) interpretation of right/wrong. Or do you judge for yourself what your scriptures mean?
Besides, what is the big difference between the "non-aggression principle" and "treating your neighbor as you would be treated" ? (the latter of which I fully agree with anyway - doesn't matter who the quote is attributed to)
BTW, I guess I now would be called an "agnostic" rather than an "atheist." I've never really believed that the visible is all there is, although it's mostly all we have to work with. This of course puts me in the unique position of being equally derided by both the strict scientific atheist and the believers.