Posted on 08/02/2018 12:39:26 PM PDT by Thalean
Spectators claim that Satan himself appeared on stage during the opening performance of Christopher Marlowe’s play Doctor Faustus (1588). The grizzly specter, it was said, drove men mad with fear. Some in attendance wanted to demolish the theater, while others wanted to hang Marlowe for his occult summoning. In spite of the controversy (perhaps because of it), the play was a hit. Today Faustus remains one of the greatest works of literature. Why?
Exquisite language?—lines like “the face that launch’d a thousand ships” have haunted readers for centuries. Perhaps. But time rarely preserves art for art’s sake: what survives is useful; it serves a purpose. Doctor Faustus is no exception.
The plot is simple: Faustus sells his soul to Lucifer in exchange for demon Mephistopheles’ service for 24 years. Faustus dreams of wealth: I will “wall all Germany with brass . . . fill the public schools with silk” and “live a life of all voluptuousness.” In the end, Faustus wastes his power and Satan takes his soul.
Faustus’ fate reveals two important lessons. First, avoid asymmetrical trades—never exchange souls for silk (permanent wealth for fleeting luxury). Second, always consider time-horizons: don’t trade heaven for worldly pleasure ($2 tomorrow for $1 today).
Ironically, economists recommend precisely the opposite—which is why America’s economy is so dysfunctional.
Consider the trade deficit: America has run a deficit every year for the last 40 years. Last year alone the deficit cost $796 billion. How do we pay for deficits? We sell America’s soul. Every year, America trades billions worth of land, corporate ownership, and debt for imported “voluptuousness.”
America is Faustus—and we’re running out of soul to sell.
(Excerpt) Read more at amgreatness.com ...
It’s not Trade free or otherwise and it hasn’t been for decades.
Under these conditions it’s receiving stolen property.
sfl
“And we laughed because the early European explorers bought Manhattan Island for a few shiny baubles”
Ironically, the natives were the ones laughing after that trade. They thought they had tricked the foolish European explorers into giving them shiny baubles for land, which of course nobody can own.
Let’s not leave Goldman Sachs out of the equation.
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