Meta-Reflections upon a Travesty, with Reference to Left/Right Hegelianist Propaganda, Implied Capitalist Exploitation, and Redemption in Judeo-Christian Soteriology – with Three Concomitant Corollaries.

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http://lightbox.time.com/2013/05/08/a-final-embrace-the-most-haunting-photograph-from-bangladesh/#1
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I think that it is important that these pictures be seen for what they are -and not for what certain politico-ideological elites would want them to ‘be’. It is a *narrative*/ongoing project in leftist propaganda to grasp at examples of industrial-‘capitalist’ exploitation (Howard Zinn, for example, typically embodies a storehouse of this archetypical argumentation) and then make tremendous ‘hay’ out of them: ‘see here, look at these god-awful people and what capitalism does! Now here is your Che T-Shirt. Join the movement! Down with Fat Cat Capitalists!!!’

In my opinion, when you do this – you further denigrate these people, and what happened to them, by only caring about them ** insofar as their ‘story’ is convenient to your political persuasion. ** And that is just gross.

I think it takes a lot of effort (especially in today’s hypersonically-driven & perpetually-propagandistic media culture to actually be able to responsibly ‘deconstruct’ and authentically ‘contextualize’ these events.

An example of this – is understanding that this is less about the ‘industrial-capitalist syndicate’ and more about cultural values in a given region/culture. If a culture values human dignity and self-determination – then degradation and exploitation are harder to exert upon a populace. Capitalism is potentially exploitative, not because of what it is, but because of the people that use it. ** The same must absolutely be said of any alternative economic systems . **

Put more simply, people want to frame this and argue for a shift in economic systems (capitalism vs. socialism/communism), when a much more meaningful and authentic understanding is taking place on a ‘meta’ level of cultural values. If you change the values – then you change the system, regardless of whether you are capitalist or socialist-communist.

Corollary One:
a lot of people will say philosophy does not matter. If you understand Left/Right Hegelianism then you understand where the whole capitalist vs.dialectial materialism dichotomy comes from and how we are *still* emersed in the shadow of Hegel, and still fighting this battles between the two directions his thought went in. However, to borrow from Hegel’s own pedagogic metaphor, the ‘Owl of Minerva’ has long ago ‘flown’ on this issue. But we are still re-arguing it and re-experiencing it, yet in different contexts. Another generation is falling for philosophical interpretations that have been rightfully consigned to the dustbin of political history, because they are more vulnerable to the emotional propaganda (as typified by the narrative here) then probably ever before in history.

Corollary Two:
when you read in Isaiah 6:5, when Isaiah is confronted with the holiness of God, he cries out “Woe to Me! I am a man of unclean lips” He immediately follows this by saying “…and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty”. We are connected to the culture around us – in both an economic and soteriological way. It isn’t just about us – though the change comes through us individually. (“Who shall I send?” “Send me!!! [Isaiah 6:8])

Corollary Three:
if you *authentically* understand the Gospel, then you understand that you will always be tracing ‘brokenness back to Redemption’ and there, a Cross, and an act behind it. ‘Redemption’ necessarily implies ‘transformation’ and a ‘new creation’ out of what was once destructive. The snake (that was biting & killing people) becomes the serpent on the staff, the people were to look to to be healed. If you really immerse yourself in this mindset, and apply it socio-politically, it has immense implications both historically (understand ‘The Weber Thesis’) and the future.

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