We really aren’t running out of resources!

Meanwhile, poorer nations of the earth are becoming wealthier precisely because wealthier nations buy their goods and services from them. The oil America buys, for example, is often a crucial source of revenue to those living in poverty. If America were to suddenly burn less oil, the impoverished would suffer the worst.

I am emphathetic towards a charitable attitude. We should be charitable wherever possible and encourage this in others. Focusing on the disparaty between the rich and poor (which is almost always utilizes the zero sum fallacy, with the erroneous idea that the rich become rich by stealing from the poor) rarely gives us any meaningful solutions to the problem.

I read that and immediately thought of Derrida’s “Force of Law.” Whether one takes the law of consecration as a law in the sense Derrida means or more in line with what Derrida calls justice is an interesting question. As is the place of violence (broadly speaking – micro aggressions not excluded) in all of this.

We are stewards, but what does that mean as we act? This relationship between violence (inherent in the force part of law) is always difficult. If waste is itself violence, as you and Spencer suggest, what does that mean? Likewise, the reduction of “every grace of the earth to an image” again recalls Derrida. What is the relationship of law (the image, the representation, the force) to justice (the origin, the grace)? I think there is something more tricky here than it appears.