You know that winter is officially over, when the cruise ships return to Vancouver.
These colossal ships are a sight to behold: as big as a building, holding as many people as any small village. There's endless eye-candy to enjoy as you stroll from one end to the other.
My timing was a bit off for this visit, since I was not aware that the ship was visiting this weekend; but usually I like to head over to this area to watch these behemoths set out to sea. Every occasion follows the same ritual: everybody waves, ship to shore and back again, whether we know each other or not. All are simply caught up in the moment, as exciting to the many adults present as it is to their kids, all prompted to wave in a moment of shared humanity, all silently agreeing that human ingenuity is a wonderful thing, even more colossal than the physical achievements left in its wake. Who can witness such accomplishments, and not be moved by them?
2 comments:
Your post reminds me of visiting the Boeing plant in Everett and watching them put together 747s with I can't remember how many million parts from thousands of suppliers. The mammoth building and assembly line are impressive. But it wasn't the thought of engineers (or even just one) coming up with the vision of how to design and assemble such machines in such a building that was the most impressive. It was the thought of how many thousands if not millions of people had to be organized by no one in particular, according to free market practices, to finance, build, transport, and assemble the parts that made the whole, that was so outstanding.
When I write about Modernity I write intuitively, not knowing much at all about economics, but having a sense that it is a market free of control by minders that makes people free to do what they will with their own lives. And what they do is make things so grand that the cathedral builders of the Middle Ages would weep for joy at the sight of such creations as cruise ships and the World Trade Center towers.
Poverty creates the slavery that comes from ignorance, a vicious cirle. money in pocket gives people the freedome to walk from here to there and to choose what they will do with their lives, uusing the money they have to do as they will with it, promisory notes all acccept regardless of the qualities of the peerson, of wheerer he's from, of what he believes, and so on. Money is the great equalizer.
Free exchange markets create a money economy. Money creates Human freedom. Sail away, live as you will. And know that all others are free to do the same thanks to money. As well, and even more important, perhaps, is that like language, no one can have it all to himself, it only being worth anything if others have it too. whaht a great system. What a great thing is Man.
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