What is wrong with this picture?
Is is a good thing that these people are paying our property taxes?
Plus, they could start paying more of our taxes, if we tax soft drinks (which, I admit, seems, at first blush, a great idea).
Lastly, any thoughts on this:
1 comment:
Your interest in good people doing bad things and bad people doing good things calls this old chestnut to mind:
My own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.
-- J.B.S. Haldane.
Anyway, this is the mystery of Oskar Schindler. In the entire nation of Germans, he was one of the few to stick out his neck to rescue Jews. To this end, he pretty much spent his last dime.
But, he was hardly a virtuous person. He was a war profiteer, a womanizer and totally at ease with bribery. In fact, his abilities that allowed him to game the system to his own advantage were the same qualities that enabled him to save so many Jews -- his flair for presentation, bribery, and grand gestures. A less insolent and dishonest person would not have been so successful.
This all leads me to a hypothesis about morality. Virtue can produce ordinary morality, but extraordinary morality requires a certain disdain for conventional rules and enough self-confidence to believe that one can get away with almost anything.
This, mind you, is still a hypothesis for me. But, it may be why the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of chief priests and elders.
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