02-20-2006, 12:38 PM
:-) Mohsie, no problem. I am far beyond the point where I take offense on anything someone says. (Such is the life of a heretic - a person who sees first what others cannot see.)
Gold and silver are just colored dirt. Why should it hold such value in our minds? Trade is about how we treat one another. It is based on relationships, not product. The economic theory of Marx and Smith describe how products move, and what determines price, etc. But "price" is a fiction based on the fiction that gold (colored dirt) has special value more than how we value each other. Secondarily, inflation makes the idea of price (and product) even more meaningless, since we are responding to the marketplace idea, and not to one another.
I call the American dollar 'green paper fascists.' Why? Because it is green paper with pictures of fascists on it. Why do we accept one piece of green paper as "real" and not another piece of green paper? The whole think is absurd. People kill people to rob them of their green paper. They allow people to starve or die from illness if they don't have green paper. People feel "safe" if they have green paper.
Money is an intellectual agreement. If we don't "think" about what we are doing with it, then conflict and misery is inevitable.
It is no surprise that God told us how to treat one another, but he also told us how we should treat money, too. We are not doing too good on either count, regardless of ones religion.
In the battle between God and the Devil, the best place for the Devil to get an advantage is in faith communitiies, which is why all religions seem to make exceptions for the commandments. Some build idols, others profit and take interest, some kill, others covet, etc. Of course, all these choices are made by individuals, not by the group.