Sunday, June 6, 2010

The biggest failure of governments

This comes from an unlikely essay A RELIGION FOR ATHEISTS written by Alain de Botton for Forbes. Sharing a part of it here. Botton says,

Most contemporary governments and even private bodies are devoted to a liberal conception of help, they have no 'content'. they want to help people to stay alive and yet they make no suggestions about what these people might do with their lives. This is the opposite of what religions have traditionally done, which is to teach people about how to live, about good (or not so good) ways of imagining human condition and about what to strive for and to esteem. Modern charities and governments seek to provide opportunities but are not very thoughtful about, or excited by what people might do with those opportunities.

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