Does it shock you that comments like the above don’t much shock anymore? It does me. Bible study is for sissies, it seems. Real men do as they please, screw the consequences. Winning equals worthy. Which would you rather be – a winner or a choirboy?

It’s not that Rep. Crane and I have different opinions that dazzles me; it’s that we come from different planets. Who you are doesn’t matter, only what you do? Choirboys are pretty, scrubbed, docile… impotent… maybe they deserve to be molested (if you can get away with it!).

How did we come to be so inured to decency? Whatever happened to right and wrong? Without an idea of right or wrong, how do you find your way?

I blame capitalism. For three centuries capitalism has strutted the world’s stage, begetting wonders. Look around you – there’s no gainsaying its achievements. Capitalism transformed individuals into giants, by arming them with wealth. Every new arrival wanted in on the game. Who yearned to be good anymore? Do the right thing? – hah! Saints were saps – losers – whimpering to their “father” in heaven. What counted was goodies, not goodness.

Capitalism in its formative years was tempered by moral doctrine. Everybody agreed slavery and the privation of the poor were undesirable but, hey, you can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs. We needed an underclass – so we could have an over-class. No princes without paupers.

During my lifetime, morality dwindled into a punchline. Trump embodied this transformation, swaggering, gloating, cheating, raping, lying, and getting away with it. Anyone who lost was a loser, even the war dead. Choirboys!

Capitalism claims to be amoral, but there’s no such thing. Anything we do affects others. If we harm others deliberately or even inadvertently, it’s wrong – that is, immoral. The logic of profit is no excuse for perfidy.

Plenty of souls inveighed against the evils of capitalism but its benefits were too enticing to constrain it, at least for long. World wars and devastating depressions reminded us that some things mattered more than money, but these lessons were forgotten during periods of prosperity and peace. Rich meant great, no matter how you got there. What halfwit argues with success?

Moralists became a fringe group, cringing, shrinking, apologetic, ineffective. No Isaiahs or Lincolns thundering anymore. When Jimmy Carter tried to preach to us, he was laughed off the rostrum. Choirboy! Capitalists controlled everything – politicians, means of production, even preachers. All bowed before the Golden Calf.

For those who still believe in virtue, it’s tempting to throw in the towel. Let Trump and Rep. Crane have it their way – the Sermon on the Mount is a joke – let the world go crash. Who cares if Elon Musk is worth a trillion dollars – nothing you can do about it. Slam the door, turn up the music, party, pop a pill.

I often feel that way these days. I export my mind into poems, where the air’s serene. I waste hours playing online backgammon, which precludes thinking. I’m getting the hang of cooking with my new wok.

I’d prefer not to ponder – only I can’t help myself. And when I do, I mourn. What a denuded, futile world without goodness, grace, beauty, truth, justice, fairness, right and wrong! Why bother being if one can’t be better? Is net worth really our worth, our stuff our all?

Pathetic, such pouting. The choirboy in me, I suppose.