Tag: truth

Utopia? Or the Truth Working Its Power?

Roger Mitchell7 Comments

“A free republic requires citizens who can restrain themselves, tolerate disagreement, act with integrity, and recognize right from wrong. Without that, laws become hollow and institutions brittle.” — https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/americas-real-crisis-collapse-citizen

This quote was taken from an article cautioning us to not put our full trust in AI as a means of solving our problems. It is good as far as it goes, but I am going to rip it entirely out of context and address the deeper philosophical meaning buried in these two sentences. A free republic allows this and no one can complain that I did not recognize the author because you can click on the link and read it for yourself. If you want to.

Consider.

Isn’t the first part of this question a paraphrase of the Great Commandment and the one which is its equal?

“Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?’ Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second one is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.'” — Matthew 22:35-40 (NKJV)

If citizens restrain themselves, tolerate disagreement, act with integrity, and recognize right from wrong, then what need is there for laws, especially laws which are intended to control and regulate behavior according to what someone else thinks? Literally, every single law that has ever been promulgated has been enacted for one purpose–to control someone’s behavior in some way, yet Jesus says that the structure and foundation of these laws throughout history, myriads of myriads, is encapsulated in two short sentences: Love God with everything you have. Love your neighbor as if he were you.

So, I ask again, if citizens restrain themselves, tolerate disagreement, act with integrity, and recognize right from wrong, what need is there for laws? What need is there for governments which do not make people free by their rules, but seek to enslave them by constantly passing more laws which restrict human liberty?

Of course, some will say that this is only a theoretical exercise and people will push back declaring that I am trying to create an unworkable Utopian future, yet the fact remains that I, personally, do not need laws to tell me how to restrain myself, to tolerate disagreement, to act with integrity, to recognize right and wrong. I do not personally need government to order my life, to keep me under control, to keep my neighbor “safe” from my depredations and aggressions against him. Further, I do not need government nor laws to protect me from my neighbor who also keeps himself under control and recognizes right from wrong. Neither do you.

Let me ask you a question. Do you have need to be told how to live, how to restrain yourself, how to discern what is right, how to be known as a person of integrity, how to disagree with others? Well, do you? The point I am trying to make is that if you and I can live according to the Two Great Commands, then so can anyone. Everyone has the potential for doing so.

But, but, but…I can hear the sputtering now. We might be able to live that way with God’s help, but others won’t and they are the ones who need to be controlled and ordered. Imagine what the world would look like if criminals and wrongdoers were allowed to run amok without any fear of punishment or retribution, to which I would respond, like the world we live in today? And, of course, we could go back and forth in this argument forever without ever coming to some agreement, so I will just leave it there and move on.

What would be the condition of the world in 100 years (or 1000, the length of time doesn’t matter) if those who understand what the first sentence of this article really means AND spent their time, effort, and resources developing those traits and characteristics in themselves instead of working to pass laws to control someone else? Instead of trying to keep others down, what would happen if we actually lived the life as described in Jesus’ answer to the lawyer? Didn’t Jesus also say that, “You shall know the truth and the truth will make you free.”? And, isn’t it true that one of the things we are set free from is fear–fear of the unknown, the future, our fellow man, our own sinful nature, inclinations, and actions? If we truly wanted to be free, wouldn’t we work harder on ourselves to conform to His Image and less on a political party or ideology that we support and believe in? Isn’t it likely that the more we become like Jesus, the less we will conform to the world system, perhaps eventually abandoning it altogether?

Theory. All theory, you say. Pie in the sky by and by and completely impossible in this world. Yet, that is the way I am living now and, as time goes on and my life becomes more in tune with His Spirit, I fully expect to become more and more consistent with what I am promoting. Whether anyone joins me or not is irrelevant. I know my path and I will travel it unafraid, alone if necessary, and without any need or desire to exercise power and control over anyone else. But, then, I do not have to walk alone because the Spirit of God walks with me.

This is not to say I have arrived at sinless perfection because I haven’t. I won’t as long as I am alive. There will always be corrections to make, sins to overcome, hard places to smooth out, transgressions to be repented of and forgiven. However, I have put my trust and faith in the Word, which rules supreme over all law and I refuse to believe in the actions and institutions of Man.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such, there is no law.” — Galatians 5:22-23 (NKJV)

I repeat, against such, there is no law.

Final answer.

Coming of the Light: The Next Four Years

Roger Mitchell3 Comments

Today, December 21, 2024, is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. In my latitude, that means daylight arrives only a few minutes before 8:00 a.m. and darkness falls shortly after 5:00 p.m., for a total of about nine hours of light sufficient that I don’t need to rely on artificial illumination. From here on out, for the next six months, the daylight spans will become increasingly longer, until June 21, 2025, when the cycle will reverse.

Also looking forward, not necessarily toward more light, on January 20, 2025, just 30 days from now, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the next President of the United States. This will make many people absolutely giddy with delight and euphoria as they expect that he (and his cohorts) will transform the current System of Governance into one in which justice is reached at last, (at least for those on our side), governments actually protect their citizens from harm of all kinds, money is once more made valuable, wars are fought and won decisively against “our” adversaries, and everyone’s life becomes more free and prosperous as long as they are not drug dealers, illegal immigrants, anti-Semites, Democrats, and progressive Utopian zealots who do not know the difference between a boy and a girl.

Ah, yes. Good times, good times!

I watch what is happening today and I don’t know if I should laugh or cry, because it is evident to me that the American Empire is thrashing about in its death throes and the next four years under Trump will not resurrect it to vigorous life again. It was bad under Biden, it will not improve under Trump. In all likelihood, more people will be worse off then than they are now and, what is just as likely is that most of them will remain clueless as to why this happened. For many of them, the ignorance will be deliberate. As Bionic Mosquito (see here or here), one of my correspondents, commented recently,

“People don’t want to open the door on one false belief because they are afraid (or maybe know) that once one false belief falls, their entire worldview will crumble. It scares most people to consider that their house is built on sand. So they defend, no matter the evidence.”

Yes, once the foundations of a system crumble, the entire worldview changes. Those who believe the notion that The State, The System, is the natural order of things and that everything will be lost without it will do anything and everything to avoid coming to the conclusion that they have believed in a veritable fountain of lies. Instead, they will cling desperately to the sinking ship, dancing upon its increasingly steep decks, refusing to jump into the icy cold water of political, social, and economic reality, or the lifeboat that is personally responsible life. True believers will go down with the ship and, in the US, there are millions of them. The nostrum that Trump will make the bad things go away is delusional, but it is one which will be held tightly and, when it fails, will be explained away in the manner of all excuses which are adamantly opposed to the truth–“If only we had tried harder…”

Be careful what you wish for. You might get it.