Saturday, July 17, 2010

Whimsical reflections on theology and economy

Do not worry about the morrow. I won't, Jesus. I'm too busy worrying about today.

We are inclined to see the prophets of Ba'al as fools who worshipped a false god. Some of the meanings of Ba'al--as a god of weather and fertility, for example--go to the heart of the ancient agricultural economy. How different is this from our focus on the economy? The GDP is our god, and tax is the new Satan.

Our recession is resulting from an upsurge of 'collective superego.' We feel guilty about all the fun we had during the economic boom. We know we overdid it. We feel unworthy of good things. We regret what the 'collective id' led us to do. There are only separate egos, no collective egos. Our reason cannot be collective, whereas our passions and self-remonstrances can be collective. This is why Republicans will always be resurgent after a period of self-remonstrance, and why they will always play to passion.

A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when god loses his.

C'mon, America, spend. Catch a bad case of gimme now. Drive new wheels. Purchase an 80-inch plasma TV for the fifth bathroom. Refinance. Spend your negative equity again. Bundle it together in tranches. Sell them to the greedy blind bastards that are managing our retirement accounts.

Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Sounds like a program for international relations....

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