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Profit and Loss: Business as a Higher Moral Value Email Print

By profmarcus
11/27/2005 02:02:31 PM EST

oh, man... although he's writing in the context of the the likely suicide death of Col. Ted Westhusing in Baghdad, arthur cuts right to the heart of not only iraq but also of the soul-deadening that has been taking place in this country for a very long time... money and stuff, thanks to the very hard work of those who profit the most from them, have replaced truth, meaning, and noble higher purpose...

   Life and death, torture, suffering, unendurable loss and agony -- it's all a matter of profit and loss. Anything that improves the bottom line is permitted -- even the slaughter of innocents. We are a nation of mercenaries -- and we have lost our soul, perhaps for good. Col. Westhusing finally concluded that honor was no longer possible, and he saw no way to stop the horror. Do you wonder at what he did? We created a situation where he felt he no longer had any meaningful choices -- but he refused to give up his conviction that you do "the right thing because it was the right thing to do."

    And yet, we insist on finding fault with him. How did we reach such a dark and terrible place?

    So I must respectfully disagree with Col. Westhusing's wife in one respect. Iraq didn't kill her husband.

    Bush and all those who support this unnecessary, illegitimate and immoral war killed him. It is a war that can only be fought by immoral means, since it is completely sundered from any moral foundation.

    And if you supported and still support this war, you helped to kill him.

    How much longer are we going to permit this to go on? A year? Two years? Five years? How many more people have to die? How many more people will lose their sight, or their legs, or their minds? Why aren't we marching in the streets to end this madness?

    I despair for my country. We tolerate all these horrors, and we barely protest. I think we are beyond forgiveness now. Forgiveness is not possible for what we have let ourselves become.

yes, indeed... "How did we reach such a dark and terrible place?"

And, yes, I DO take it personally

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Profit and Loss: Business as a Higher Moral Value | 2 comments (2 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
It's common lingo (none / 0)
And not just in regards to the war.  Listen to the arguments over the Endangered Species Act and see how many times someone says "you're valuing the rights of some animal over mine."  What they're really saying is "my right to make a profit exceeds any creature's right to exist."

Once you've accepted that, it's a small step to extend the profits > life argument to those unimpotant brown savages half a world a way who don't even worship the right god.  Why should the lives of a few hundred thousand Iraqis stop us from raking in a decent payday?

by Devilstower on 11/27/2005 08:52:04 PM EST

yep (none / 0)
i toiled in the corporate world for some years... i would probably still be there, slowing losing my sanity and my soul, if united airlines hadn't kicked me out the door after 9/11... even then, it took me another full year in a dysfunctional organization to get it through my thick skull that it doesn't really matter what kind of organization you're part of in this country - for-profit, non-profit, educational, health care, you name it... most if not all organizations in the u.s. are sick... it's a reflection of the society, the milieu, the priorities and values we profess (or don't profess)... it just hearkens back to the old notion that society and culture together form a hologram - you cut off one piece and you have the whole in microcosm... or, to paraphrase, "it's the SYSTEM, stupid..." well, at least i'm out and, even if i end up pushing a shopping cart down the street with all my worldly possessions, i ain't never going back...

How do I get a transfer out of this chickenshit outfit?

by profmarcus on 11/27/2005 09:49:04 PM EST

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Profit and Loss: Business as a Higher Moral Value | 2 comments (2 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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