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Sailing On

Howell Hurst Uncategorized

The most interesting responses to my Blog cross my desk. They seem to come primarily either from the Poor or the Wealthy, the Religious or the Secular, or the Far Left or Far Right. I don’t get too many from middle compromise points tucked somewhere comfortably in between. A recent writer kindly informs me that I write more “short term from the heart” than “longer term from the head” and am “not sufficiently mindful of the downside of too much redistribution” of wealth.

I agree with the “from the heart” classification. But, contrarily, I align that with a long-term rather than a short-term attitude. As a non-believer in invisible gods, I remain one of Jesus Christ’s most fervent admirers. I don’t think he believed he was divine, but only a practical Jewish prophet selling the truth: that caring for one’s fellow human beings is the most serious means to manage society for long term stability. [I’ve often said I am not for redistribution of wealth. Rather, I am for compassionately redistributing available work.]

My writer friend also told me his impression is, “that many of the more socialistic and more statist countries, particularly developed Western European countries, lack the vitality, willingness to work hard and take risk, and entrepreneurship of the United States.” I’ve lived in Western Europe, and am in the process [after completing a current film] of sailing there to indulge myself in a Mediterranean working retirement. I am doing so because I do not find Europeans either anti-work, anti-risk, or anti-entrepreneurship.

Rather, I find they have created a more humanely functional balance between capitalism and a more supportive stance toward one’s fellow human beings. Plus, I believe the pay off for more closely emulating JC’s philosophy of life is a better return on one’s time and money. When I drop anchor there, I’ll Blog you if I determine I’m right on the subject. If not, I’ll suffer in silence. After all: it can’t at its worst be too awfully bad, I imagine.

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