Will We Go The Way Of The Romans?

Journal Entry: 12-27-2011 A friend and I were discussing the famous analogy between modern America and ancient Rome: Will our moral decline and decay lead to our demise as a people similarly to how moral decadence led the to fall of the Roman nation and empire? Now historical analogies are always a little tricky, but there appear to be true parallels at work here between the two societies. Both the Romans and the Americans were practical peoples, utilitarian and enterprising. Both peoples were and are can-doers capable of engineering roads, public works, plumbing infrastructure and expanding their empires through conquest. One similarity that occurs to me is that Greeks were considered culturally superior to the Romans as Euro-philes regard Europeans as superior to crass, vulgar, grasping and materialistic Yankees. We are looked down upon as philistine upstarts. American influence extends all over the world, like earlier Greek and Roman influence were transmitted all over the world through the growth of the Roman Empire. It may be that the superior culture is the one that comes out on top, predominating and wide spread. American mass culture, with its material abundance, economic success, capitalism, constitutional democracy and bourgeois values are exactly the core values upon which to build that highest culture, the Mavellonialist culture. This gift should be offered to the world. The American culture is profoundly individualist, where each individuators' entire effort is to serve his interests as an enlightened person. The hate-America first, Obama-loving crowd polarize people, divide people, promote division, class envy, and class warfare with a Marxist tinge to it. They want ever more and expanding government with more and more people dependent on it. If the people believe that government is inherently good (it is inherently evil) and that free market economy is bad (it is inherently good), then the Leftists that dream of setting up a one world socialist government are a bit closer to their ultimate goal. Their primary ambition is to misdirect and work up the masses making them envy and hate, not admire and emulate the successful. The industrious and prosperous are made to feel guilty, not proud of themselves for acquiring and enjoying the legitimate fruit of their hard work. These statist, self-appointed, would-be rulers of the masses like to characterize themselves as caring, noble and driven by higher motives than what impels mere money-grubbers. Their only motive is centralizing power, and the evil that they have exacted upon helpless humanity is a terrible evil, all done in the name of saving humanity. Each life counts. Each person should be treated with dignity and respect. The government and economy should be arranged to facilitate affirmation of each citizen's worth and signifcance as an individual. The system must augment, not detract from his humanity. They must get out of the way so he can work assiduously to be all that he can be before he perishes. The end product will be that the cultural gift that he gives back to society at the end of his life will. this impressive gift will leave his presence here immortalized as well as putting him in good stead in the after life in terms of the destination for his immortal soul. In the actualizing of their talents while here while caring for their families, working and maintaining their suburban homes and life-styles while leading their lives as Super-Moms, Super-Dads and Super-Kids, this citizenry will be the model for the rise of bourgeois middle classes and constitutional democracy for all people and nations across the globe. This should prevent Romanesque collapse of our way of life. The masses will find happiness and gratification in living this way as a people that upholds a strong moral code. They will run society and conduct their lives with moral insight, shared meaning, clarity of vision and direction, a framework a certainty about how to manage is laid out for them. They know what direction to go to stave off decay and decline so historically devastating.

Civil Unions

Journal Entry: 12-26-2011 I am for civil unions for gays and lesbians. I think marriage, procreation and the family are the biological bases for establishing human society, as well as a legal and social institution. God has ordained that marriage is a religious sacrament only between a man and a woman, and all else flows from this divine decree. This religious and biological heritage, the core of religious traditions bestowed upon struggling humanity from benevolent God at least 100,000 years ago. Should such divinely originated mores be inverted and stood on their heads? I think not. Humans are guilty of hubris and rebellion against divine will in 2011 as secular societies rewrite the mores, alleging at same-sex marriage is acceptable, even preferable. Gays and lesbians should not be bothered in any way, but there is a reality that they need to accept and go along with. God loves them and cherishes them equally as De's children, but 97% of society is heterosexual. Marriage is meant to remain between a man and a woman. Gays and lesbians should have full rights up to and including very generous civil unions. But that is far enough for society to go. The rights of this militant and vocal minority must not squash the rights and needs of the silent majority being bullied into guilt and silence if they defend traditional marriage. Their stance is moral, not homophobic, wicked and prejudiced. If liberals and homosexuals push too hard on this, and they are, they reveal their naked, dictatorial need to tell the middle class what to do, how to live and what to accept. Liberals and non-straight minorities are guilty of heterophobia reverse prejudice and their advocacy is sinful when it is this extreme and uncompromising. They have already got about everything they want, but marriage is a God-granted sacrament which they cannot enjoy (even if legally sanctioned). Marriage is not meant for non-straights unless they choose to marry an opposite gender person. I believe God has enlightened me on this point, and I am not bigoted but in the right. To accuse me of being homophobic and bigoted is a spiteful, sinful tactic, as the Left attempts to intimidate the traditonalists into silence.

Spring Is The Season of Eternal Hope

Mom died over two months ago. Dad has been gone for two years. I will be 59 in 7 weeks and my back aches a little this morning. Thoughts of mortality and oncoming old age permeate my thinking this morning. Yet, I am not in a bad mood. I am not in a bad place. Jane is editing two of my e-books that should be published in the next month. I saw a brave little hermit thrush bouncing across the front lawn yesterday. I watched a wood thrush perch in the red maple in the back yard this morning. Not too far away the ruby crown kinglet was searching for breakfast. The robins are worm-hunting. The juncos are thick, and the male cardinals are setting up their territories. The house finches already have nested and are laying eggs. It has been a late spring. We had 5 inches of snow two days ago and a doe had run between the houses, the tracks indicating the need to forage and find food to survive this very late spring. But spring is here. It uplifts the spirits. This is that yearly gift from God, that season of renewal. There is nothing like it. I am rather enjoying it.

Astrophysics

Journal Entry: 12-26-2011: I know very little about astrophysics, astronomy or the current, scientific status of the celestial study of the universe. Nonetheless, I can't help urging philosophers and theologians that they would open up access for themselves to a marvelous plethora of new theories and insights by becoming versed followers of astrophysics, as well as participating in observation of, research about and experimentation on celestial bodies and forces. Fascinating, novel results of up-to-date research, if compared and contrasted with traditional philosophy and theology, would trigger new ways of studying religion and metaphysics. Thinkers must avail themselves to input from the latest efforts to understand the universe, the large and small aspects of it included. Any self-respecting cosmologist must make a credible, competitive effort to stay abreast of all the rapidly introduced discoveries revealed weekly. He must know how to wield, gather and interpret data acquired through the latest technology, novel experimental knowledge and incredible astronomical theories being floated about. If secular scientists would only do their astronomy and astrophysics with orientation and critical interpretation provided by advising theologians and philosophers, their theories and experiments will be cleaner, more focused, sharper, more productive and more informative. One's cosmological stance can only be strengthened as tested against current secular thinking. The truth will set us free even if we have to revise our personal philosophy, and our personal theology. We must eagerly await and delve into this intellectual adventure to look, learn and enjoy what is coming down the pike.

Roman Catholic

Journal Entry: 12-26-2011 I was raised Roman Catholic and have long been a lapsed Catholic. I am a religious anarchist as well as a free market anarchist and political anarchist. In ecclesiastical terms, decentralization of religious authority distributes power and floods dank, secretive hierarchies with cleansing light and fresh air. By contrast, monolithic, centralized religious hierarchies, administered by a prince like the Pope, often degenerates into a dark, corrupt, anti-progressive institution where local control, independent thought and open inquiry are suppressed. The anarchized religious institutions of tomorrow will be tailor-made for a society of individuator-worshippers. They demand and will be granted complete individual freedom of religion to believe, not to believe, or to chose to what extent or how they will believe, and will select the deity or deities adored by them. Theological investigation and supplication practices must remain private affairs. To survive and remain relevant, American churches must allow believers enormous latitude to pick when and to what degree that they will join or leave the selected denomination. The papacy to the contrary, the future trend is radical democratization of worship, the flattening of ecclesiastical hierarchies, and utter local control of the theology of faith and morals. That is the direction that things are headed and self-rule by the local church council or individuators in that vicinity is the way to go.

To Thrive In A Tough World

Journal Entry: 12-26-2011 We need to be worldly, bold, assertive and on the make to acquire and hold onto our share of the world's goodies. This acquisition process plays out in the daily work jungle where much lying, cheating, stealing, peer-grouping, price gouging and broken promises are justified by the scoundrels utilizing them as legitimate means of doing business by gaining the upper hand. These illegitimate and in some cases illegal practices are abundantly present in governmental and business arenas. One must not go for the quick profit, but make steady, reputable, slower gains in wages and profits that are honorably earned and acquired. Being forewarned that one will brush continually up against creepy connivers, dishonest deceivers, and treacherous double-dealers is to be armed against their insincere machinations. One can still make a living and a decent profit, by doing business as an honest, square-dealer. One must proceed as a prudent, cautious and on guard survivor. One must neutralizer the crooks and con men without becoming tainted by them. One must not be tempted to beat them at their own game. One must not become a thief, dishonest, cynical, bitter, callous, grasping, calculating, utterly untrustworthy and distrusting all. One must remain optimistic. One, as much as possible, must work for and do business with honest, honorable workers and business people. One needs to marginalize and eliminate disreputable four-flushers from one's business circle.

General Patton

Journal Entry: 12-25-2011 For Christmas evening entertainment we watched the movie Patton with actor George C. Scott as General Patton. Patton was a brilliant, accomplished individuator if there ever was one. But his megalomania, ruthlessness, rash actions and intemperate mouth wiped out the good will engendered by many of his truly heroic, ingenious military campaigns and career accomplishments. The trick for the individuator is to soar as high as she can without undermining her impressive, remarkable feats by terrible lapses in judgment, bad habits indulged in and misbehavior enjoyed. To be esteemed and regarded as worthy, exemplary and worthwhile, she requires the common touch and a good ear to detect early and accurately how she comes off to bosses, peers, neighbors and family. Her caution and temperate hesitating before thinking and acting will often head off committing any gargantuan, Patton-like missteps so easy to anticipate and not step into. Staying out of trouble is almost as important as achieving magnificent feats.

Gabby Gifford

One of the saddest things happening in America today is that unfortunate people like Gabby Gifford are used as pawns by misguided idealists and gun-haters to stoke public opinion in favor of infringing upon our 2nd amendment rights. We need more liberty in this country, not less. Too many people would use government fiat to wipe out our rights and shred the Constitution.

Maggie Thatcher

If only her kind of woman would run for and be elected president in 2016. Maggie Thatcher. Irrepressible.

Uninfringed Constitutional Rights

Liberty is defended by gun owners exercising their right to bears arms, uninfringed by universal back ground checks, leading to a national registry and gun confiscation.

Women Shaping Our Lives

It is almost impossible to overstate how powerful is the impact emanating from the women in our lives as they influence us in wrenching, lasting ways. As sisters, daughters, wives, mothers, coworkers, voters and citizens, women shape and redirect society in their own image. My concern is that that image be one of being women that are individualistic and being individuators with a conservative worldview. It is politically incorrect to say this and I will be demonized and belittled as a caveman for saying so, but in the 19th century, women more than men were characterized as making decisions often based more on feelings and passions than on logic. I believe this is how it is. Tjis is how women are wired. Women are smarter than men on average, but they are also more emotional and less rational. They are also joiners more than men are. Being emotional and being a joiner can lead to unwise, unhealthy choices that negatively affect all. We need our women to be very self-conscious about adopting values and behaviors that are not so often chosen based on feelings. We need our women to make decisions as seen through an individualist prism, not a group window. Emotional people are more fanatical and unable to grow and evolve, so we need our women to be a bit more practical, temperate an logical, so ideology is put aside in favor of behaviors and policies that benefit all. The philosophy of Mavellonialism can only take hold if our women are on board.

The Right Ingredients

We must chide ourselves each day to make something of our lives. We have impressive ability to unfold, display, test and refine our abilities. It will amount to nothing unless we are resolute, disciplined, imaginative, focused and work very hard to realize our targeted end. No matter what country that we reside in, no matter our race or orientation, no matter our education or income level, there is no practical limit to what we can gain and achieve. We just need to look around us and make it up as we go along, transforming the materials, finances and technology at our fingertips into a life statement that transmits that we are on the make, and making something of our lives.

Bad Natures Result In Bad Service

An acquaintance of mine went to Sears in St. Paul this past weekend to buy a lawn mower. He brushed aside our suggestions, for buying a cheaper ($150) but reliable Honda lawn mower at Sam's club, in favor of buying American, and in favor of going with the good Sears brand name and extended warranty. He and his family had worked with Sears for years and were very happy with them. He was ready to spend $400 to $500 dollars this past weekend. He did not need selling; he just needed service and some instruction. He was at the store for 15 minutes actively looking the lawn mower over while between 3 to 5 employees watched but did not approach him to see if they could help. There were no other customers in that area of the store. He finally approached one woman in an adjacent department to see if she would help him. He directly asked for assistance. She pointed to where the lawn mowers were and then walked away. He was so furious that he left the store without buying anything. As he left, one employee finally asked him if he wanted anything. He said no. What can we learn from this train-wreck example of terrible, discourteous customer service? If we checked deep, we would likely find employees that are not paid that well. Under-compensated employees do not perform that well. In most business organizations, like any institution, there is a pecking order ruled by a dictator at the top. Enslaved people suffer from unhappiness and low self-esteem, so they do not make good employees. Crap rolls down hill, so the front line sales associates, at the bottom of the pecking order, dealing with customers, often, routinely are beat up and humiliated by their superiors. They suffer low morale as their suggestions are often ignored. Anyone, that is dumped on, will find someone to vent on. It is almost like a law of thermodynamics. If the employer beats the crap out of disrespected, non-cherished employees, they will dump on customers, the life blood of the business. Getting enthused customers in the Sears store to buy their products and services are the only reasons that the doors are open at all, providing employment for all that work there. These lazy, hostile, rude, sullen employees still have free will and should unionize and fight back against Management if they feel slighted. If they hate their job, they should take another. The customer is king and should be treated with respect and kindness. There is no excuse for how my acquaintance was mistreated. Sadly, it happens all the time. All those ill-mannered employees should be let go. I state repeatedly that we are basically evil. Many bosses, managers and supervisors are cruel because, they enjoy hurting others--not just because that is how the company wants them to supervise that way. Many of them are slave-drivers that enjoy inflicting pain, exploitation and squeezing workers to overwork for the sake of attacking a captive audience that cannot fight back without being terminated. Employees are basically evil too. They enjoy being abused, overworked, exploited and enslaved. Most of their personal lives a a mess too, leading non-individuated lives of quiet desperation. It is no wonder that a pack of these malcontents working together on the sales floor are unhappy and performing poorly. Maybe my acquaintance was lucky that they did not hurl the lawnmower manual at him, or throw him out of the store, or call the police and falsely accuse him of alleged shoplifting. Where people work and exist in packs as non-individuators, where they lead trapped, unhappy lives in which they inflict pain and endure without meaningful protest or fighting back against pain inflicted upon them, it will be customary that their public behavior will default to the apathetic, sullen, non-welcoming kind of disgraceful customer service endured by this customer. Where people as individuals lead liberated, rewarding lives, and are ethical persons, and work for a warm, humane employer, then the employees will transcend this basic nature of theirs, and provide inviting, excellent customer service.

Rise Up!

Tea Partyers: rise up and take back this greatest nation.

The Left: Just Say No To Liberty

The Left is all for equality and fraternity, government enforced--liberty be damned.

Home-Made Gifts

Journal Entry: 12-14-2011 In today's Star & Tribune there was a variety section article on the Crandall family whose members make homemade gifts for each other for no more than two dollars spent. A side effect of this long tradition is that many family members took arts and crafts classes that resulted in at least five family members becoming artists. That caught my eye. I have long espoused that each person is positively loaded with talent and creativity, on tap to be unleashed, worked and perfected into some gorgeous, startling final product. Like the many young boys from the Dominican Republic that end up as professional baseball players, where youth are taught that they can succeed at something, and the community supports the honing of such skills, thereat a high percentage of "gifted" individuals are discovered and make it to the big leagues. In actuality, anyone can flourish, if they community supports its emphasized goal, and works to make it happen. Returning to the Crandall family example, suppose that the conservative, nuclear family of tomorrow commences raising its children by Judeo-Christian family values, to which is added a homemade tradition where kids are pushed, nudged, encouraged, praised and rewarded to learn to make, paint and invent things for themselves. They should be introduced to gaining skill at all types of arts and crafts, all the handyman trades, computer and electronic skills, the classical great books education, yard care, gardening, home economic skills, etc. This training should apply to both boys and girls. We should be educating children on how to go outdoors and play, invent games and become skilled woodsman like the Seals, the Boy Scouts and survivalists: hunting, fishing, proficiency with fire arms, camping, hiking, sailing, birding, etc. Couple this education with a strong family bond and working together. Give kids almost full access to modern electronic equipment. Children are to be loved and taught moral values. They are to be brought up immersed in the psychology, ethics and religion of individuation.

Gender Selection

Last week I was listening to the Dennis Prager show. He mentioned that kindergartners in Sweden are being allowed to or manipulated to pick what bathroom they choose to use, based on their gender preference, rather than being instructed to use the bathroom matching their gender given them by nature. I need to inventory why this is a very bad practice. First, the great majority of youngsters are likely, naturally heterosexual, so no good can come from confusing them about their gender orientation. The small minority of children that are gay, bisexual or transgender in orientation likely too are that way from birth, so again, no good comes from practicing gender selection in school. The majority of children are straight so we need them reared as they are clearly and distinctly, so they will act appropriately as adults to further the race, and run society as it should be run. We should remain sensitive and caring of the minority of children with alternative gender orientations, but not at the expense of the majority. It is outrageous that the majority would not be attacked, downgraded and misdirected from some disastrous, misguided motive to upgrade the minority by downgrading the majority. This is wrong way to treat each child as an individual, and for society as a whole. Second, society is built upon strong family units. The family is comprised of a married mother and married father who procreate. This requires a mother that are womanly and nurturing. This requires a father that that is strong, protective and manly. We want our heterosexual girls unequivocably to be girls, with deep, abiding female gender orientation. We want our heterosexual boys undeniably to be and act masculine, brought up as boys with enduring, rugged qualities of leadership and command. Third, I would like to introduce the concept that self-actualization has a gender component to it. For each girl and each boy to be all she/he can be, she/he must live authentically, building her/his life quest as an offshoot and consequence of her/his gender orientation. This orientation ordinarily will not be a boundary and obstacle. Rather it is a framework or ground from which the tree of her/his life will grow and develop. She/he can do most anything she/he wanted to do within this framework. For example, if a boy grown to manhood desires to work in a day care or be a nurse, he can do so. If a girl wants to be an auto mechanic or farmer, she can do so. The conflict between her career selection and her gender orientation will drive her to find new resolutions to the conflict which contribute to her happiness and society's advancement This can all be worked out without sacrificing her natural gender assignation.