[MD] A Place for the Principled Person

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Ham]
I'm flabbergasted that anyone could think we are trending in the direction 
of individualism.  I guess this just goes to prove that, given sufficient 
indoctrination, people can believe almost anything.

[Arlo]
I'd say Ham's beliefs that we are trending in the direction of (the big, 
bad boogeyman) collectivism are, instead, the product of "sufficient 
indoctrination". Gene and Case have it right, the malady of our time is the 
mercantilistic language trumpeted by charlatans such as Ayn Rand, the 
commodification of people, and the death of community. Add to this the 
neocon belief that people are so stupid as to need cheap myths (like 
fundamentalism, and the absurd inverting of Judeo-Christian values) with 
which they can be controlled, and the ever-trumpeted fixation on wealth as 
a measure of all things, and its easy to see why America is in decline. We 
are, as Pirsig rightly points out, limping back to Victorianism (indeed, 
being pushed by people like Ham and Platt and neocon apologists), with 
nothing to do but thump our Morally Righteous Chests about how the world 
"would be so much better if everyone held MY values". Yes, yes, we know Ham 
and Platt feel so morally superior to the riff-raff that surrounds them, 
they are Mighty Heroes of Morality waging a war against the Evil 
Collectivist, a myth-monster of their own making, to satiate their own 
Righteous Egos. Righteous "conservatives" battling villainous "liberals". 
Yes, I guess Ham was right, "given sufficient indoctrination, people can 
believe almost anything".