tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post594623637342866629..comments2024-03-28T21:32:26.550+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: Gambling and the corruption of modern BritainBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-54316130224268283632015-06-18T14:16:15.940+01:002015-06-18T14:16:15.940+01:00@A - My point was that while much is written conce...@A - My point was that while much is written concerning the topics you list - I have not read anything critical of gambling that goes further than asserting it is (mostly) a 'waste of money'. but this surely applies to most expenditure nowadays; and if that was the only problem about gambling, then there would indeed by no need to condemn gambling - after all, gambling is economically reducible to a calculated risk, which is not irrational per se. I am saying that aside from economic considerations, there is a Christian tradition that gambling is intrinsically prone to lead to wrong.Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-35947594412993825102015-06-17T13:28:14.313+01:002015-06-17T13:28:14.313+01:00You write, "… to be hostile to gambling, to c...You write, "… to be hostile to gambling, to criticize the pervasive culture of betting, is seen as an aggressive, kill-joy form of uptight, repressed, freedom-limitation."<br /><br />Isn't this is the typical attitude toward anyone today who points out any obvious fact such as that massive debt is unsustainable, divorce is a disaster, sodomy is pathological, drug use leads to enslavement, the lottery is a tax on foolishness and so on?Albrechtnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-72684358938158662482015-06-16T16:40:48.971+01:002015-06-16T16:40:48.971+01:00The 'lottery money' - very large amounts o...<i>The 'lottery money' - very large amounts of it, in chunks of tens to hundreds of thousands of pounds - was being allocated to 'good causes', and the 'goodness' of causes and the subsequent allocations were being made by committees appointed by 'the great and good' and was, mostly, being shared-out among this same group as mutual favours. </i><br /><br />"Environmentalism" works the same way - a "good cause" provides a fig leaf for the Great and Good to funnel taxpayer money to their friends. Doubtless we could easily come up with other examples.JPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-62619773318513679732015-06-16T16:14:14.562+01:002015-06-16T16:14:14.562+01:00@as - Thank you for persisting! Blogging daily I c...@as - Thank you for persisting! Blogging daily I cannot stick to one subject, or one style - but write whatever is on my mind. Sometimes I am deliberately abstract, because the environment of political correctness makes this necessary. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-7696444449796656562015-06-16T15:22:26.195+01:002015-06-16T15:22:26.195+01:00I like and appreciate posts like this which use de...I like and appreciate posts like this which use detailed concrete examples. They are much easier for me to understand than the abstract philosophical posts. <br /><br />asnoreply@blogger.com