http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/200...itain-Archbishop-Economics.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
"LONDON (AP) -- Thoughtless adherence to economic theories can be as dangerous as blind obedience to political ideology, the head of the Church of the England said Monday, drawing parallels with **** Germany.
In an article published in Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams warned of the dangers of forgetting the costs to individuals in the rush to defend a system.
''We're bound to be uncomfortably aware at the moment that what looked like a principled defense of some our economic assumptions ... seems more ragged and vulnerable than it once did,'' he said.
If society doesn't consider the impact of its policies, ''we've lost the essential moral compass,'' he wrote.
Williams did not specify which assumptions he was referring to, although he has been sharply critical of advocates for unrestrained free markets. He has called the push to banish restrictions on trade and investment ''a sort of fundamentalism'' and described ''unbridled capitalism'' as a form of idolatry.
In his article, Williams mentioned the erosion of pensions, job losses, and the impact of the financial crisis on the Third World as some of the consequences of unswerving loyalty to economic dogma.
Williams drew a parallel with the Nazis, who he said had created a system of principles that ignored ''the human face of suffering.''
While he said the Western world had not seen anything like the horrors of the Nazis in a long time, he warned that ''we are not completely immune from appealing to 'principles' in order to help us avoid some of the harsher consequences of our policies and preferences.''
Williams is the spiritual leader of the 77 million-member Anglican Communion -- the third-largest group of churches in the world, behind Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians."
Even as an atheist I need to give him credit for speaking out and being right in his assesment IMO.
Thoughts?
"LONDON (AP) -- Thoughtless adherence to economic theories can be as dangerous as blind obedience to political ideology, the head of the Church of the England said Monday, drawing parallels with **** Germany.
In an article published in Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams warned of the dangers of forgetting the costs to individuals in the rush to defend a system.
''We're bound to be uncomfortably aware at the moment that what looked like a principled defense of some our economic assumptions ... seems more ragged and vulnerable than it once did,'' he said.
If society doesn't consider the impact of its policies, ''we've lost the essential moral compass,'' he wrote.
Williams did not specify which assumptions he was referring to, although he has been sharply critical of advocates for unrestrained free markets. He has called the push to banish restrictions on trade and investment ''a sort of fundamentalism'' and described ''unbridled capitalism'' as a form of idolatry.
In his article, Williams mentioned the erosion of pensions, job losses, and the impact of the financial crisis on the Third World as some of the consequences of unswerving loyalty to economic dogma.
Williams drew a parallel with the Nazis, who he said had created a system of principles that ignored ''the human face of suffering.''
While he said the Western world had not seen anything like the horrors of the Nazis in a long time, he warned that ''we are not completely immune from appealing to 'principles' in order to help us avoid some of the harsher consequences of our policies and preferences.''
Williams is the spiritual leader of the 77 million-member Anglican Communion -- the third-largest group of churches in the world, behind Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians."
Even as an atheist I need to give him credit for speaking out and being right in his assesment IMO.
Thoughts?
