[Buddha-l] Karma and capitalism

[curt]

Chan Fu wrote:

>I beg to differ.
>Capitalism is no more than a revitalization
>and reorganization of the feudal system. I believe
>Vic Stenger (http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/vstenger/)
>in one of his papers referred to the "self"ishness that's
>inherent in it.
>
Stenger is one of those intellectual midgets who tries to make a name 
for himself by cranking out cartoonish critiques of ideas that were more 
than adequately dealt with already by Voltaire some time ago. He is 
obsessed with critiquing religion - about which he knows absolutely 
nothing. His notion of Religion is narrowly defined by 
worst-case-scenario Christianity. In other words, the man wouldn't know 
subtely if it bit him in the arse. Why anyone would take his views on 
economics seriously is beyond me. In fact, I seriously doubt that anyone 
does.

Besides, I never claimed that there weren't ninkompoops who peddled 
theories according to which Capitalism is nothing new. My claim was that 
the newness of Capitalism was not an idea of my own invention (and that 
simply to score debating points against Dan Lusthaus) but that it is 
rather an old idea quite clearly espoused by both Karl Marx and Adam Smith.

- Curt