 Real equality is immensely difficult to achieve, it needs continual revision and monitoring of distributions. And it does not provide buffers between members, so they are continually colliding or frustrating each other. |
| The theory of cultural bias... is the idea that a culture is based on a particular form of organization. It can't be transplanted except to another variant of that organization. |
| Since 1970, relationships can be more volatile, jobs more ephemeral, geographical mobility more intensified, stability of marriage weaker. |
| Hierarchy is is much reviled in the present day. |
| Religion can make it worse. Are you supposing that if people were encouraged to believe in a transcendent reality, and to be encouraged by grand rituals and music and preaching, to love their neighbors, then they would put jealousy and frustration aside? |
| Yes, disappointment over perceived unfairness, injustice, promises not kept, tends to go hand in hand with increasing prosperity. Expectations are dashed. What can I say! |
| It seems true that the growth of science and secularism made organized Christianity feel under threat. |
| Our technological infrastructure alienates us from each other. No need to form a workplace community, everybody there will be out in a year or two, and so will you, looking for a better place. |
| The natural response of the old-timers is to build a strong moral wall against the outside. This is where the world starts to be painted in black and white, saints inside, and sinners outside the wall. |
| If you want to change the culture, you will have to start by changing the organization. |
| Islam is in principle egalitarian, and has always had problems with power. |
| I am convinced that living in an enclave shapes the personality, and living alone shapes the personality too. |
| I have increasingly, over the years, felt that religion today does our civilization more harm than good. |
| Every year the progress of advanced capitalist society makes our population consist of more and more isolates. This is because of the infrastructure of the economy, especially electronic communications. |
