Alan: A common "religious" reflex holds that total submission to Impeccably Pure Principles evokes The Favor of God so dependably - and so providentially - that there is no need to "do" anything but wait for "The Invisible Hand" to trickle blessing upon everyone.
"Pope Francis Links"
Whether "sacred" or "secular," The Invisible Hand will take care of "everything" in the best possible way.
Indeed, the only impediment to universal blessing is "doing something" -- doing anything! -- that might obstruct the free operation of providential Deity.
Not only must we subscribe to "Impossibly Pure Principles," we must do nothing else - make no conscious attempt - to improve the well-being of The Body Politic.
The practical upshot of prostrating ourselves before the sola fide idol of Deity-Providence-Invisible Hand?
The political collapse whose rubble surrounds us.
Notably, "Islam" is the Arabic word for "surrender."
Austerity, Economic Anorexia And The Advisability of Vigorous Infrastructure Spending
"The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease with which theories can be put into practice. The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is their realization. We are at last beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times, in primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound up with imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections, errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal. Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good. The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.”
"Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander,” by Trappist monk, Father Thomas Merton
More Merton Quotes
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