Free Market Jesus Speaks!
Welcome to Free Market Jesus! This is a new Top Pun series of comics that will run on Sundays, featuring Free Market Jesus, Country Club Jesus, Gen. Jesus, Comedian Jesus, and who knows what other incarnations!
This week’s comic captures the amorality and sociopathy of the free market. People are moral agents, or least people should be moral agents. Free markets are not moral agents. Unfortunately, though, people who function with the amoral boundaries of the so-called free market relinquish their moral agency to other human beings, or worse yet, to inert matter. Further, moral agents really don’t get the choice of being amoral. The vain hope of amorality distinctly falls into the category of immorality. I see the near religious attachment to the idea of a free market primarily as a way to avoid personal responsibility for one’s actions and how they may affect others. Part of being a human being is taking responsibility for one’s actions. You can’t outsource your personal responsibility, no matter how hard you try, or how little you try, as the case may be. This lack of free choice in whether we are responsible for our own actions, is what Jean-Paul Sartre termed “condemned to be free.” Free will is a part of human existence; though, free will is subject to much debate, mostly running along the lines of either how mysterious free will is, or how absurd free will is. Either way we seem to be stuck with free will, however ironic that maybe. Of course, you run across the occasional person who doesn’t believe in free will. Though, apparently, they are forced to believe this, so don’t be too hard on them. Some days it’s difficult to be complicated dirt, especially when another mistakes us for human!
The Jesus graphic is modified from the famous Sacred Heart painting that will be recognized by many, particularly those who are Roman Catholic. Please note that the inscription on Jesus’ heart, “Greed is God,” is a slight takeoff on the proverbial “greed is good.” While this is technically a pun, the root word for God and good are so close that it barely counts. Hopefully, this elicits what I would consider a simple definition of God which would be that which is of the good. This doesn’t necessarily require a traditional view of God, but may provide some common ground between more traditionally religious people and those who have trouble with the word or concept of God. I hope that those readers who are more traditionally religious will not find my parodying of Jesus offensive. My parodies are actually intended to cut through the bull shit of what passes for conventional wisdom, morality, or religious truth these days, and reveal the seed of truth that is often overlooked or under-appreciated. I think Jesus would approve. Any honest reading of what words are attributed to Jesus, and you have to admit that Jesus had a sense of humor. For those of you who aren’t really big on God, I hope that these Jesus parodies make some truths more accessible.
We can’t afford the free market! The free market is the bane of Western Civilization and the nadir of scientific reductionism.
So, until next Sunday, with the next edition of Free Market Jesus, talk amongst yourselves or let me know what you think.
