Christianity continued

I have a 20-25 page paper due on Thursday. It's basically my only assignment for this class for the semester, and I'm really just getting started on it. I have resigned myself to accepting a bad grade for the class. But I'm pretty sure I'll pass, and that's what I'm really after.

The paper is supposed to be looking at the privatization of natural monopolies, or near natural monopolies, as a way of getting insight into the privatization of toll roads.

I'm interested in the degree to which private firms pose a danger of rent seeking (i.e., price gouging) behavior in situations of the privatization of natural monopoly and price inelasticity of demand. Then, I'm interested in how governments can structure concession agreements to mitigate that rent seeking.

Fascinating, I know.

I need to follow up on my Christianity post. So, Christianity is a very strong ethical philosophy of love, forgiveness, and egalitarianism.

Christianity is also a good way of understanding the human condition. That understanding is this: We are fucked.

Christianity says that reality itself is seperated from a condition of perfection. The world is fallen. The world is steeped in sin. And human beings are no exception. Human beings will suffer and die, and even worse, they will choose to do evil things, and they are totally and completely powerless over these problems. Their only hope is the Grace of God.

The modern world isn't very comfortable with sin. Think about it...when was the last time you thought to yourself, "what I did just there, that act of selfishness or that attitude of greed....that was a sin." The secular world with its Walt Disney anthropology just can't deal with the real evil that rests in people's hearts. Christianity though is great at it. The modern world is really, really, really reticent to ever admit that a problem simply cannot be solved. Have you ever heard a politician say, "sorry, there's just a certain level of crime and poverty that is inevitable in human society, and there's nothing we can really do about it." No, you haven't. Whatever answer people give for society's problems, it's almost never, "we're fucked."

I love that Christianity can look these dark truths in the eye. Now, as far as it's solution to these problems, I think that's somewhat less profound. But I think it's diagnosis of the basic human condition and the basic human problems is excellent.