From: robohen@ocf.berkeley.edu (Henry Robertson)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Speaking of Y. MIshima
Date: 21 Jan 1993 21:53:21 GMT
Organization: U.C. Berkeley Open Computing Facility
NNTP-Posting-Host: avalanche.berkeley.edu

No. No one asked the Christ if money will make it easier to get into
Heaven. Even, they had commonsense! The only thing that comes close is
the time when the rich young man asked The Master that if he could be a
disciple and The Mighty Amen said, "Give all that you have to the poor
and then you can(be a disciple"-paraphazed). The rich young man went
away weeping for he had alot. Then a disciple asked The Lamb of God,
"Can a rich man enter into the Kingdom of Heaven?" And, The Only
Begotten of God said, " It is easier for a camel to go through the eye
of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God!"
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I don't know if this is a real parable from the bible, but anyway, the bible
is written for what the poor masses want to hear.  Jesus led an anti-rich 
movement, finding abundant support from impoverished masses, which at the same
time carried elements of Israelite nationalism.  In any case, I'd say that
the safest assumption is that greed is a universal phenomenon, not confined to
class or race.  3rd-world countries are the way they are because of greedy
governments & greedy citizens who keep having kids over & over.  They think
that having more kids will allow their genes to survive if so many people
are starving.  Less greedy people have less kids, so go extinct; consequently,
poverty is perpetuated.  The Catholic church supports people to keep having
kids, since the religion has a talent to appeal for the poor.  Keep having
kids, the rich are evil.  Ideally, the followers can control their libido so
they stop multiplying like rabbits.  Hence, a platonic clergy.  Evidence 
suggests that libido is an unextinguishable human desire, so either the
church will have to become more lenient towards birth control, or expect the
population to max out to a violent malthusian equilibrium.  The problem
with the latter notion is that in an overcrowded world, some 3rd-world countrieswill have access to nuclear bombs, and all the anguish resulting from economic 
inequality will lead to armageddon.  The church has a faith in humanity that
they can intervene to prevent this, but then do they expect to convert all
humans to their way of thinking?  Islam has many more followers than Christianity, in high-growth areas of the world.

Well, the rule of thumb goes that as people get richer, they have other pleasures, so stop having so many babies.  That Asia is economically growing so fast, is
a good sign.  Hopefully, all the economic growth can spread to other overpop.
countries of the world, to stabilize politics, warfare, society, economics,
everything else.  Human interaction is inevitably a part of all this, so
can religions espousing humanity of differing ideals learn to get along?
The forming trade blocs, breaks these problems up into parts.  Europeans
figure out how to relate to one another in the EC, Asian countries figure
it out in the Pacific Rim, while providing vital interfaces to US & Latin
America; Latin American countries will eventually devise a South American
bloc; Nafta will even out the difference between US&Mexico.  Mexico will
keep growing until they are near US, but meanwhile the big question mark is for
the US poor, what can they do?  Become a welfare state?  Immigrate to high-growth
countries?  The welfare deal, if our federal deficit keeps growing out of control, we may have to hand over ownership of the country to other countries.
Our role as a center hub of many global affairs won't change, but we may end up
having to become a nation of consultants, middlemen, and socioeconomic vegetables.  Well, if integrationism works out fully, a true meritocracy blind to 
colors may come about.  Anyway, blacks might move back to Africa in greater
numbers, provided African nations get on the growth track some day.  By then,
Asian countries will have attained stagnant prosperity, so Africa would become
the New Asia.  By then, global economics may be perfected, so the new 
commodity in demand is cybernomics, a quest for altered states of mind.  
Drugs is one solution for this, but cultures pose a much more natural solution.
.