None of it is a question of real belief - it is all about power.
-Carol Haynes
Well, though this is off-topic (and I do try to bring t back, below), I do think it is a very interesting point.
First off, I should say that you make an interesting and potentially valid point, but you diminish it's validity by over-generalisation.
-IainB
Probably true (I am good at that).
I suppose what I was trying to say is that if you look at political systems around the world (and pretty much religious systems too - another generalisation) there are many individuals who are driven by a true belief in their cause but not all of them become totally intolerant of others. There does however seem to be an inverse relationship between passion and tolerance - the most passionate believe in almost anything usually pushes himself away from reasonable response to someone else's alternative point of view.
What I do believe is a reasonable generalisation is that by the time politics and/or religion become organised tolerance goes out of the window - especially when they start encountering success.
Certainly groups that reach the point where their influence is noticed outside their own circle seem to exhibit tendencies towards intolerance. Unfortunately it seems to be part of the human condition and a variety of xenophobia. It starts in the school playground - if you aren't one of our gang you are wrong and carries on through life with increasing unpleasant sanctions.
To get back to the original topic corporations exhibit exactly the same behaviour and become predatory/aggressive/psychopathic to protect market share - even to the point of screwing their own customers.
The thing I find very odd is that there are so many genuinely caring and considerate people within all of these organisations - it is the herd mentality that takes over and makes groups of people rail against the very things they originally agreed on.
You only have to look at your average political party - lots of people who probably started out wanting to do something useful all voting against their personal ideas and principles because the party they represent has told them to! What they all forget is that the party is supposed to represent them .... instead we get the politics and compromise of power.
I was half-listening to an interesting discussion on the radio today as I drove to a job about how the Church of England (which many consider to be a benign vaccine to - or antidote for - Christianity) needs to keep its inherited wealth so that they can serve the poorest in the community. What they seem to forget is that in early Christianity this didn't involve investing money into clergy, clergy's pensions, building etc. it involved getting out and doing something practical with the poor and needy - whether it is healing the sick, feeding the poor or helping prostitutes to get out of their 'profession'. I am sure the very clergy inhabiting those expensive buildings would actually agree with my characterisation of early Christianity but too many of them spend their entire career on maintaining the infrastructure, fund-raising etc. instead of living in poverty alongside the poor which was presumably part of their original calling!
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