Guilty as sin

"Both capitalism and Marxism promised to point out the path for the creation of just structures, and they declared that these, once established, would function by themselves. And this ideological promise has proven false.” This is what the Pope said this past weekend in Brazil. He went on to say that the result of these failed systems is- “giving rise to a worrying degradation of personal dignity through drugs, alcohol and deceptive illusions of happiness.” I'm no Papist, but I got to hand it to the Pope for deciding to discuss the proverbial 800 pound gorilla in the room. Takes some guts to stand in front of a throng of thousands of people, tell them that all governments are fundamentally flawed and are consequently hurting God's children. The truly fantastic thing about him saying this is that with his Papal Infallibility some billion people on earth are obligated to believe his words. My first reaction to this speech was- 'Holy shit! 1,114,966,000 people now know for a fact that the whole world is going to Hell in a handbag!' After several seconds of euphoria/plotting/scheming I regrettably remembered that ever since 107 AD, when St. Ignatius of Antioch first coined the term Catholic, they have been training people to feel guilty. So much so that the revelation that the entire world order is nothing but a demonic dystopian disaster is just another thing to feel guilty about. "So full of artless jealousy is guilt, It spills itself in fearing to be spilt." Thus was the 265th Pontiff of Rome just spouting more pointless rhetoric to a world that soaks it up like a sponge. I can't fathom the logic of letting evil persist while you content yourself by pouring out libations to God of self-reproach and penitence for all of mankind. I do not mean to demean any faith, for it all comes down to perspective. So if someone sees the Virgin Mary in a tortilla in Mexico, well then by God they see it. But I must say this- The Catholic Church may very well be the longest running tragedy in human history. Imagine a very organized group that encompasses 1/6 of the worlds people, has the stated goal of saving all humanity, and is filthy rich. Now try and imagine anything that they couldn't accomplish if they tried. I tend to go East for my wisdom, and here is what one of the wisest had to say about guilt-

There is no calamity greater than lavish desires.

There is no greater guilt than discontentment.

And there is no greater disaster than greed.
Lao-tzu

One must wonder what it would be like if their were 1,114,966,000 Taoists insted