Would that more persons would become Christians, and would that more Christians would love one another, and realized that this loving extends to the economic 'competetive' sphere as well as to general kindness, courtesy, and mercy. Yes, we are tempted to think that economic matters are rightfully competitive, and to some extent this is true. But economic matters are not simply the clash of the titans, the corporations. They are also the subtle structure of our group conciousness, the way we develop our loyalties. Let us not just applaud the titans. Let us raise our banners to God for the victory of the little people and their little local businesses and farms. Let us raise our banners for those who work for them as well, when they overcome laziness and poor spending habits. Such little victories of little people enhance our culture. They create structural strength that is not simply 'efficiency' for stock holders, but is a kind of economic and cultural efficiency for all of us, the members of the community they share. Let us not just invest in the titans. Let us invest in the little people, to make them stronger. Consider how our environment is created out of our cultural loyalties. If we support only the big businesses, every aspect of our culture will tend toward technicalization, urban sprawl, a harried life, a yearning for escape, and a dangerous alienation of the discouraged and disenfranchised.
Consider that those who work hard or who sacrifice pleasure toward the general good deserve a reward. That reward cannot always come from the 'marketplace' immediately. It may be some have lived chastely, and have quietly prepared some invention or social insight or artistic product or theory, something that will enhance many people's lives. Such a person should be invested in, to bring their gifts to fruition in the marketplace, in time. Let not us suppose that the large structures out there can do all of the marketing. Then even our loving one another becomes 'franchised' by some corporation that croons, "We can help you start your own business!!" It is the little people who are to do the marketing, the believing in one another, the loving, the encouraging, the loaning at no interest. Only the large structures and the very tough practical products, like Rockefeller's oil, and Carnegie's steel, can make it happen with interest loans and relentless entreprenurial drive. Other products are more communal in nature, and should be invested in by the faith of those who first are blessed by them. This faith is expressed in non-interest loans, in volunteer business help, and in all sorts of non-economic gifts of love. Wash somebody's dishes. Do somebody's laundry. Bring over a hot meal. Help with a mass mailing. Put up flyers.
A Medieval idea: Give a non-interest loan to your daughter's suitor to help him start a small business. Then he can prosper within the community, and pay you back to take care of you in your old age, and you will be respected in the community. Help the poor in your community. Do not let so many of them drift from city to city. Help them achieve discipline and self respect through viable cultural roots and loving accountability.
Because of the money bottled up in corporations and the educational and cultural system that supports their de-localizing of our power, people often have to wait longer to marry. These late-in-life 'monkish' marriages lack the rhythm of a robust sexual/economic culture. The parents are too old to invest directly in their children's and community's smaller structures of commerce, and the money that would have been invested in the community is bottled up through retirment investments in mutual funds supporting long distance commerce and job dependency on the corporate big city structures, the 'rat race' of urban sprawl and the alienation of overly franchised cultural, economic, and religious structures. Yes, even the local church becomes tempted to operate as a business- to plasticize the Gospel into a 'product' to be 'marketed', to teach its ministers how to be salesmen, to can its teachings and outreach programs into franchised products cut off from the community's own insights. These 'canned' approaches grate on the soul, alienating the working class, the intellectual, the creative, and the poor, often unwittingly.
All these things are related!
Lack of Support for the Arts
Usury, Government, War
Defence of Usury
Condemnation of Usury
Usury in History
Various Views
Historical Overview
Ok, some Marxists
some anti-war stuff
Teen for Arranged Marriage
What is in store?
Teen wants to know
Relationships
Accidental? Well, you know...
Mail Order Brides
Men and their Filth
A Calvinist a-Courting
Chides Christian Men
A Teen Bride Years Later
History, Age at Marriage
Protestant Capitalism
Usury and Global Crisis
Medieval Marriage
A Woman Defends Islam