Sometimes there is nothing positive to say because nothing positive is going on.
Still, one needs to cultivate a positive attitude, and detect and celebrate the good things that are happening. If nothing good is going on, engage in random acts of kindness. Write a poem. Give money to charity. Pray. Then you can honestly say some good things are happening.
Sunday, March 9, 2014
The Courage To Face The World As It Is
I am smart, not because I am a genius--I am intelligent enough but am no genius--but because God has blessed me with the gift of courage to face the world as it is. Once one overcomes that hurdle, then one begins to inspect, study, classify, categorize and provide generalizations and theories to explain emerging patterns evincing themselves from the available data.
Ruminating about data, sensing the importance emerging trends, and detecting the conclusions to be derived from all this mental activity, can make one smarter about how the world works.
I ave never felt that people lacked intelligence or ability. I have always known that they were dumbed down by their lack of courage to face facts, by their unwillingness to leave their groups to think and live on their own. Group life is where what people feel is more important than what is logical. Group life is where the popular lie holds sway for an unpopular truth held by a lonely outsider.
To be a good person is to lead a decent and holy life. One must be smart and int ouch with God and the truth to know how to proceed as an ethical and spiritual person. The courage to be and to think makes all of that possible.
I Rejoined
I gave the Minnesota Tea Party $20 so I could re-register and rejoin them. They are great people doing fine work. They are the future of America, and can serve as a conduit for conservative reforms coming down the pike.
Jason Lewis For US Senator
I wish Jason Lewis would run against Al Franken. We hae to many Leftists in Congress from Minnesota.
I would never run for elected office. My personality is very polarizing. People tune me out instantaneously, I would kill the advancement of any cause that I represented.
If I ever ran for office and won, the stress from the haters and critics would make my tenure miserable and intolerable. It is better if the cause of conservativism is advanced in the public arena by less controversial figures.
I would never run for elected office. My personality is very polarizing. People tune me out instantaneously, I would kill the advancement of any cause that I represented.
If I ever ran for office and won, the stress from the haters and critics would make my tenure miserable and intolerable. It is better if the cause of conservativism is advanced in the public arena by less controversial figures.
Thorough-Going Mind Control
Eric Hoffer chillingly describes the fanatic functionary that goes to ultimate ends to own the mind and soul of every citizen already obedient on the surface to what the mass movement prescribes as conforming behavior.
Such superficial compiance is not enough to satisfy the insatiable desire for control that consumes this functionary. The compliant individual must come to love the oppresor and actually believe that the oppressor is benevolent. They will reach the point where they proclaim to the world and themselves that their oppressors are the sum of all things, always right, always to be obeyed and hail their Big Brother as an annoited messiah.
That a functionary would use terror, punishment and torture, going to such extreme lengths, to own each citizen in body and soul is almost impossible for a sane, rational person to envision. If they were alive, one could interrogate the victims of the Nazi and Communist efforts to extract total submission from victims, and realize that such methods were widely used, and worked. It did happen then, and could well happen again.
Such superficial compiance is not enough to satisfy the insatiable desire for control that consumes this functionary. The compliant individual must come to love the oppresor and actually believe that the oppressor is benevolent. They will reach the point where they proclaim to the world and themselves that their oppressors are the sum of all things, always right, always to be obeyed and hail their Big Brother as an annoited messiah.
That a functionary would use terror, punishment and torture, going to such extreme lengths, to own each citizen in body and soul is almost impossible for a sane, rational person to envision. If they were alive, one could interrogate the victims of the Nazi and Communist efforts to extract total submission from victims, and realize that such methods were widely used, and worked. It did happen then, and could well happen again.
The Gentle Intellectual
Every idealist imagines that her plan for improving the world is the cure-all for every affliction. The idealism of this passionate reformer is humane in motive and outcome as long as it is but a freely offered proposal. Were she to seek to use force, especially government force legally coercing citizens to live by her plan, then she is a wicked, cruel intellectual who is now part of the ruling class, impressing its totalitarian will upon reluctant, resistant citizens.
Bad means always corrupt good ends. An intellectual must be a gentle intellectual to be and remain a good person who does no harm in the world.
Bad means always corrupt good ends. An intellectual must be a gentle intellectual to be and remain a good person who does no harm in the world.
Naysayers
The crepe-hangers on the Left are out in full force again this morning. Star-Tribune reporter Adam Belz has a front-page article today (3-9-3014) stating that young people are starting from behind and cannot get ahead.
How is this for a suggestion? How about the young man, Gabe Ciuraru, pick up an inexpensive Class A driver's license and go out to the Bakken Oil fields and drive truck for two years. He can save $100, 000, enough to pay for his degree.
How about Democrats joining Republicans in repealing Obamacare; that way young people will not have to pay an expensive fine yearly for not having coverage. That way employers can hire more employees that can work more than 30 hours a week without the employers going broke. That would ripple out as jobs and opportunities for millions of young people.
How about young people borrow enough to go one year at a time, and then get out an work and pay that off. Then they can borrow to go the second year, etc. Until they graduate. It is slow but life is not easy. They must find a way to get it done, and quit whining about how bad things are today. Many in the middle class started off poor with little opportunity.
Democrats, Millennials and Independents should unite to get the government out of the marketplace, and lower taxes and spending. Then, as business picks up, that is the tide that will lift all boats.
This is still the best country in the world. Those that are confident, smart, resilient, hard-working and optimistic will rise to the top and prosper despite hard times.
Young people need to ignore the nay-sayers lamenting that are best days are behind us. These young people need to get going, and go after their dream no matter how long it takes, or how tough the sledding. Each young person must live and work as a yeah-sayer, and where he believes he will succeed, it will happen.
How is this for a suggestion? How about the young man, Gabe Ciuraru, pick up an inexpensive Class A driver's license and go out to the Bakken Oil fields and drive truck for two years. He can save $100, 000, enough to pay for his degree.
How about Democrats joining Republicans in repealing Obamacare; that way young people will not have to pay an expensive fine yearly for not having coverage. That way employers can hire more employees that can work more than 30 hours a week without the employers going broke. That would ripple out as jobs and opportunities for millions of young people.
How about young people borrow enough to go one year at a time, and then get out an work and pay that off. Then they can borrow to go the second year, etc. Until they graduate. It is slow but life is not easy. They must find a way to get it done, and quit whining about how bad things are today. Many in the middle class started off poor with little opportunity.
Democrats, Millennials and Independents should unite to get the government out of the marketplace, and lower taxes and spending. Then, as business picks up, that is the tide that will lift all boats.
This is still the best country in the world. Those that are confident, smart, resilient, hard-working and optimistic will rise to the top and prosper despite hard times.
Young people need to ignore the nay-sayers lamenting that are best days are behind us. These young people need to get going, and go after their dream no matter how long it takes, or how tough the sledding. Each young person must live and work as a yeah-sayer, and where he believes he will succeed, it will happen.
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