All very nicely put. I even liked Andrew's joke (?):
Andrew writes:
Part of the damage--a small part--that this way of thinking has done is
to make it seem that THINKS have value by virtue of some characteristic
of physical reality, instead of by virtue of a peculiar abstract way
of thinking about other people (unequal in reality, equal in the
[emphasis added]
'Freudian or what!?
Michael W.