Spencer Brown > Recent Status Updates

"Modern man's lack of reverence for Nature has led to some of the great economic evils of the day, the ruthless exploitation and exhaustion of the soil for financial gain, the heedless squandering of subterranean deposits, the almost irreparable destruction of forests...It is hardly likely that we shall see things as the creatures of God if our primary attitude to them is as things for us to do something with."

A smaller proportion of humanity is held in slavery than ever before...but, in absolute numbers, the world has never seen so many people in slavery at one time...Historians tell us that about 11 million slaves were extracted from Africa during four hundred years of the trans-Atlantic slave trade--which is as little as half of the number of people held in slavery in our world this year.

Every day there are millions of people who are raped or sexually molested as part of a commercial transaction. Every day there are many more millions who pay for these rapes and sexual assaults, and hundreds of thousands of people who facilitate it and profit from it...The conservative estimates suggest that the global business of forced prostitution generates revenues of $18.5 billion in developing world countries.

The global business of forced prostitution that victimizes 4 to 11 million people a year surely involves hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people profiting every year.

It is a hard but authentic reality that sexual violence is a very significant business in our world. Indeed, the conservative estimates suggest that...forced prostitution generates revenues of $18.5 billion in developing world countries.

"The injustice [is] inflicted on us, [and] we have to somehow accept it," Mariamma told me. "I don't know anything about the law. The cruelty--we have to take it--because we don't have money or power. The police will believe Mr. V. and not us because we are slaves to Mr. V. What he says, the police will believe...We don't look good in their eyes--if we give money, they look--otherwise no."

"The injustice [is] inflicted on us, [and] we have to somehow accept it," Mariamma told me. "I don't know anything about the law. The cruelty--we have to take it--because we don't have money or power. The police will believe Mr. V. and not us because we are slaves to Mr. V. What he says, the police will believe...We don't look good in their eyes--if we give money, they look--otherwise no."

"So savor a delicious meal, not just for itself, but as a gift from God. Be carried away by powerful music as an anticipation of the music of heaven. Be enticed by the smell of the sea, the scent of a flower. Be seduced by the caresses and kisses of your spouse. Enjoy these moments of bliss as God's gift that opens a brief glimpse of the utter ecstasy to come when we live in God's glorious presence."