RE: Post-Kyoto globalization

["David Shemano" <dshemano@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Ian Murray posted:

"Nevertheless, the much misrepresented Adam Smith, far from defending a
conscienceless capitalism, thought that given enough time, our behaviour
towards each other could gradually improve, citing the decline, though not
yet the disappearance, of slavery and infanticide, both accepted without a
qualm by the ancient Greeks and Hebrews."

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If I may interject a personal pet peeve, with respect to the ancient
Hebrews, this is historical nonsense.  The notion that the ancient Hebrews
accepted infanticide without qualm is preposterous.  In fact, attitudes
concerning infanticide were a major difference from the Greco-Romans and the
Hebrews.  The following is from Tacitus, who, as the passage shows, was no
lover of the Hebrews:

"This worship, however introduced, is upheld by its antiquity; all their
other customs, which are at once perverse and disgusting, owe their strength
to their very badness. The most degraded out of other races, scorning their
national beliefs, brought to them their contributions and presents. This
augmented the wealth of the Jews, as also did the fact, that among
themselves they are inflexibly honest and ever ready to shew compassion,
though they regard the rest of mankind with all the hatred of enemies. They
sit apart at meals, they sleep apart, and though, as a nation, they are
singularly prone to lust, they abstain from intercourse with foreign women;
among themselves nothing is unlawful. Circumcision was adopted by them as a
mark of difference from other men. Those who come over to their religion
adopt the practice, and have this lesson first instilled into them, to
despise all gods, to disown their country, and set at nought parents,
children, and brethren. Still they provide for the increase of their
numbers. It is a crime among them to kill any newly-born infant. They hold
that the souls of all who perish in battle or by the hands of the
executioner are immortal. Hence a passion for propagating their race and a
contempt for death. They are wont to bury rather than to burn their dead,
following in this the Egyptian custom; they bestow the same care on the
dead, and they hold the same belief about the lower world."

With respect to slavery, the Old Testament is filled with regulations of
slavery that demonstrate a "qualm" or two.  For instance, Jewish slaves
could not be kept for more than 6 years.  Runaway slaves could not be
returned to the master.  Slaves could not be worked on the Sabbath.  It was
a crime to beat a slave to death.  Certain physical harm resulted in the
slave being freed.  There were no comparable laws in the Greco-Roman world.

David Shemano