World, Flesh and Development

A couple of thousand years ago, in Palestine, an infamous rabbi had an equally infamous disciple (at least, from a modern day perspective, for he was the one who gave us the modern sense of a Greek word that used to mean 'unveiling') who said, "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world."

Today I was sitting in a place in Somerset, watching the world go by, when the Meme said to me, "Y'know, the whole world depends on people spending a lot of money on what they don't need. If people only spent money on what they needed, everyone would be poor and the world would fall apart."

It makes a terrible kind of logical sense. And trying to reverse this pattern is not possible unless there is some sort of apocalypse first. Perhaps in 2012? Heh.