{"id":496,"date":"2012-03-31T13:57:28","date_gmt":"2012-03-31T18:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/?p=496"},"modified":"2012-03-31T13:59:16","modified_gmt":"2012-03-31T18:59:16","slug":"poem-financial-wizardry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/31\/poem-financial-wizardry\/","title":{"rendered":"POEM: Financial Wizardry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steal from one<\/span>
\nYou are called a thief<\/span>
\nSteal from many<\/span>
\nYou are called a financial wizard<\/span><\/p>\n

I like this short poem because it plays with the idea of how we interpret personal or individual acts versus impersonal and large-scale actions.\u00a0 This poem fits the same format and tone as:\u00a0 kill one and they call it murder, kill many and they call it foreign policy.\u00a0 Each of these highlights the apparent bias that we have against individual or personal harmful acts, and our apparent bias in favor of impersonal and distance actions.\u00a0 On the one hand, this makes sense since you can more easily see and connect the dots to the harmfulness of someone stealing directly from you in person, or assaulting you in person.\u00a0 Yet, on the other hand, by stealing little bits from many, many people in an impersonal fashion and across great distances, Western civilization has frequently decided to term this financial wizardry or good foreign policy protecting our national interest.\u00a0 It seems to me that much of the so-called success of Western civilization has been a drive toward maximizing impersonal and large-scale relationships to avoid accountability.\u00a0 However, beyond avoiding accountability, such crimes actually become laudable and bring many benefits, such as wealth, control, and status.\u00a0 An alternative to this facet of Western civilization would be to move toward and value more highly personal, local, and more organic human relationships.\u00a0 Some of us might call this anarchism, the free association of individuals to come together and determine their common destiny.\u00a0 This concept of anarchism is less about individualism than is about maintaining the ability to forge a common destiny, mediated by a shared reality.\u00a0 Community is necessary since we have a shared reality.\u00a0 This type of anarchism is democratic, but is skeptical of so-called representation by others, and favors direct democracy where people represent themselves.\u00a0 This poem is a quick way to highlight the dangerously wrong direction that scale and impersonality or dehumanization can bring.\u00a0 My own view is that if we don’t humanize so-called civilization, then so-called civilization will dehumanize us.\u00a0 Most importantly, a humane world will not need a lot of financial wizards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steal from one You are called a thief Steal from many You are called a financial wizard I like this short poem because it plays with the idea of how we interpret personal or individual acts versus impersonal and large-scale … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,55],"tags":[251,189,331,341,88,272,41,620,213,454,766,601,423,406,470,111,85],"class_list":["post-496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political-and-philosophical-musings","category-top-pun-design-commentaries","tag-accountability","tag-anarchism","tag-community","tag-control","tag-dehumanizing","tag-democracy","tag-direct-democracy","tag-impersonal","tag-individualism","tag-murder","tag-national","tag-reality","tag-relationships","tag-status","tag-success","tag-wealth","tag-western-civilization"],"yoast_head":"\nPOEM: Financial Wizardry | Political and Philosophical Musings, Top Pun Design Commentaries | Top Pun's Poetry, Funny Puns, Free Posters, Public Health Radio Show! 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