Industrial Revolution Religion
When the things you own end up owning you: Politics, Religion and the Revolution of Values
Every major faith tradition and spiritual practice on earth teaches about the wisdom of moderation and balance between the material and the immaterial worlds. Many theist and non-theists religions alike have warned of the dangers of excess, extravagance, and unrestrained desire. Buddha called greed a defilement of the mind. Jesus declared that it was more likely for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for the rich to enter heaven. Prophet Muhammad taught that “if a man had money equal to a valley, then he will wish for another similar to it, for nothing can satisfy the eye of Adam 's son except dust.”
The Founding Fathers of the United States, …show more content…
Still, the American body politic demonstrated enough restraint not to be consumed by its own greed. This began to change at the turn of the 20th century. The economy had evolved significantly during the first and second industrial revolutions, giving rise to modern capitalism — a touchstone of which is division of labor. The foundation of modern capitalism, however, goes back further to the pre-modern capitalist slave economy—the touchstone of which was the commodification of slave labor. Using the enormous wealth generated from the cotton industry, Americans sought to avoid the pitfalls of a mercantile economy and experimented with creating a new economic system (Beckert & Rockman, 2012) (Miller, …show more content…
When machines and computers, profit and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered. A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look easily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: This is not just" (King,
Every major faith tradition and spiritual practice on earth teaches about the wisdom of moderation and balance between the material and the immaterial worlds. Many theist and non-theists religions alike have warned of the dangers of excess, extravagance, and unrestrained desire. Buddha called greed a defilement of the mind. Jesus declared that it was more likely for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for the rich to enter heaven. Prophet Muhammad taught that “if a man had money equal to a valley, then he will wish for another similar to it, for nothing can satisfy the eye of Adam 's son except dust.”
The Founding Fathers of the United States, …show more content…
Still, the American body politic demonstrated enough restraint not to be consumed by its own greed. This began to change at the turn of the 20th century. The economy had evolved significantly during the first and second industrial revolutions, giving rise to modern capitalism — a touchstone of which is division of labor. The foundation of modern capitalism, however, goes back further to the pre-modern capitalist slave economy—the touchstone of which was the commodification of slave labor. Using the enormous wealth generated from the cotton industry, Americans sought to avoid the pitfalls of a mercantile economy and experimented with creating a new economic system (Beckert & Rockman, 2012) (Miller, …show more content…
When machines and computers, profit and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered. A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look easily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: This is not just" (King,