Traditional Historic American Values - Part 8: Perspective
28/October/2009 10:08 Filed in: Weekly
Column
Volume 11, Issue 42
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In nine short months we have learned the USA is not a theocracy, not the shining city on the hill. The church is not the sole author and administrator of moral law especially in common grace. So now for the first time, perhaps in all of human history, the whole world is Ichabod (God has departed).
However two thousand years ago, God saved His chosen remnant of all humanity from their sins, through Jesus Christ alone. So there still is some timeless good news. Furthermore, Americans, God’s common frozen prosperous chosen, have awakened from their debt-induced slumber in this brief timeframe and are beginning to actively participate in a world that passed them by. Definitely a temporal miracle!
Old Testament Israel was conquered through Natural Law by pagans for Israel’s judgment and destruction, because she neglected not only God’s specific revelation, but also Natural Law and common grace. If you invoke law to form an earthly paradise, then you must understand that God’s judgment applies not only to pagan sinners, but also the self-righteous sinners. The United States of America has become no longer a nation of humble grace, but individual, corporate, and community greed and power.
These thoughts provide just a little bit of perspective from history to show that whatever happens as time unfolds in our world, we pretty much have it coming. In the due course of time those societies that think they can prosper with human wisdom alone and without God - quickly learn their folly.
Perspective, along with dithering, are new buzzwords that in the last few weeks have become important for the short-term discussion of America’s future. Dithering was used by former Vice-President Cheney to describe the lack of decision for the Obama Administration concerning sending more troops to Afghanistan. Perspective is the term used by the Obama Administration to describe Fox News, rather than call it a legitimate news organization.
The Wonder Springs Chronicle is not a news organization but it is our job to give perspective on what is happening in our world without dithering around with any depth of journalistic investigation, simply because we really have no resources to do that job with integrity.
So that leads us to ask the question, “Why is the Obama Administration dithering around the minor issues and neglecting the important?”
As we pointed out last week Afghanistan is a war without a clearly defined mission or what has now become called an exit strategy. However instead of dithering around why not just state the truth that we are looking at our mission in Afghanistan and refocusing our goals to accomplish that mission. Here are some steps we have looked at and these are the unclassified results of our discussions. If that is not what they are currently doing, then Vice President Cheney was right, they are dithering on other secondary issues, which really don’t relate to solving the Afghan situation.
Furthermore with the economy still in declining flux, healthcare reform being reconstructed in secret, and deficit spending on a continuing exponential growth curve, why pick a fight with Fox News, when all it will do is to enhance the “enemy’s” already sound ratings?
Some pundits have suggested that this dithering with the unimportant is really to change the focus from the important to the trivial. Thereby the Obama team can slip through their agenda when most people are looking the other way; simply it is magic, or illusion.
Probably a better reason comes from Chicago and Chicago politics’ link to community organizer Saul Alinsky. In that light using Alinsky’s techniques it is possible to organize the community against the establishment. As we have pointed out since the beginning of the Obama ascendancy this is a very different skill set than being the establishment and running it effectively.
Bluntly put, in the words of Rahm Emanuel “never let of good crisis go to waste” needs to be discarded so that you can “work effectively before a crisis develops.” You don’t do that by picking a fight with the dominant power in cable news. It also seems that you are trying to create chaos where none exists. So is that true leadership, or a decision to promote a revolution, which in a center-right nation liberals definitely won’t win without some sort of collusion?
President Obama has discussed at length the concept of redistribution of wealth. That begins with a couple of assumptions. First of all this assumes that there is some wealth to redistribute. Beyond that it assumes that your motives are on the high moral ground. In the United States we have a two hundred and twenty year history of a constitutional republic based first upon the rights of the individual, secondarily on the rights of the states, and finally upon a very limited federal government.
Many of those individual and state powers have been ceded to the federal government during the twentieth century by legislation and judicial fiat, but just like with the fight with Fox News it is important to realize that by promoting the unfettered growth of the federal government you are picking a fight, with the American culture in which your odds of winning are quite remote. A recent Gallop poll released Monday show that only twenty percent of the American population considers itself liberal. Furthermore most Americans now consider President Obama to be more liberal than they thought he was when elected.
Now some commentators on Fox News and elsewhere in the conservative media have pointed out that redistribution of wealth is a communist concept. Adding fuel to this blaze are many White House advisors using Mao Tse Tung as one of their favorite luminaries. The same could be said about their admiration of Fidel Castro. So this points to a conclusion that Barack Obama may not be a socialist, but a communist.
In this perspective article, that conclusion may be way too simple or too complex depending upon your personal perspective. I do not know if this perspective exists elsewhere in journalism, spin, blog, analysis, or with pundits, but it is the Wonder Springs perspective that what some would call evil communism, or others progressive emancipation, may simply be a result of non-Traditional Historic American Values.
Barrack Obama is the offspring of an African student that came to this country from Kenya to get a good education. Here he met and married an American girl and Barack was the result of that union. At that time this must have been a relatively harmonious union or Barack might have been named, John, or Sam, or Harry. In today’s culture we would consider this couple liberal by traditional American standards, because anthropologists don’t normally marry capitalist stockbrokers, nor do political science buffs marry daughters of business moguls.
In our context of perspective, both father and mother believed in some sort of service to the greater good of all society. One of those perspectives of service was much more academic, the other much more applied. In that light Barack’s father was pulled back to help politically in his native country. Barack’s mother pursued those academic interests by heading west to Indonesia.
Probably because Barack senior had spent a great deal of time in the United States compared to his Kenyan counter parts he had absorbed and-or adsorbed a basic understanding of the merits of the strength of the American system. Consequently those more liberal concepts of personal freedom and liberty did not fit well with the Marxist leaders trying to remake Kenya into a communist state. Hence Barack’s father was forced out of the government and eventually died before his time, rejected by those he basically tried to help.
Now sons have a deep relationship with their fathers, even if those fathers are distant physically or emotionally. The old saying “An apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” is especially true for sons and their fathers. Perhaps that stems from the creation of mankind and our understanding of our Heavenly Father. In any event boys look up to their dads as a role model. Sometimes that is good and positive sometimes it is very negative.
Because Barack as a youth only knew his father from a distance, perhaps even in just stories told to him by his mother and grandparents, he unconsciously understood that apple tree analogy. He wanted and wants to succeed in the arena where his father was unjustly treated. Since that would be impossible in Kenya, it would be possible to some extent in the United States, where his father truly had achieved his measure of greatness.
So now Barack Obama is the forty-forth President of the United States of America. It truly is the American Dream, which states anyone can grow up to be President. However Barack carries a similar skill set that eventually proved to be the downfall of his father in Kenya, that being the management reliance on specialization. In Kenya his father was sidelined because his worldview was broader than those leaders in the Kenyan regime, as a consequence he made others above him uncomfortable because of his superior education and outlook.
This reliance on others that share your worldview and skills is the classic small business management faux pas. In order to grow the company the now boss hires those who share similar skills and personality traits rather than a true diverse management team. Then when things become more complex and difficult the tendency in meetings is to sit around and blame others for the problems they themselves created by their narrow focus. You see this to the utmost in Obama’s current White House staff and cabinet.
When you contrast this with America’s last messianic presidential figure, Ronald Reagan, the differences become disturbingly apparent. While I do not share my more conservative friends reverence for Reagan’s mystique, I do see him as probably one of the most competent managers in Presidential history. He simply hired the best people in their field to do their job and then let them do it. Reagan didn’t spend his time micromanaging his Administration.
As a consequence a symbiotic synergy was created that actually was able to accomplish probably more than his fans can understand. Some of those planted seeds have taken root and were contributors to our current financial crisis, but that is another story. Much of Reagan’s success came because he knew what he believed and those beliefs had been tested and refined over a lifetime of living. Those beliefs were what we have called in this series Traditional Historic American Values.
My dad used to tell the story that he sold his chance to be President to another for fifty cents. In that story was the reality that he had at least considered the opportunity briefly and had determined that it was not worth the cost that seeking such an office would require. Instead he desired to become a schoolteacher and eventually a school principal.
Even though he died thirty-five years ago, I still run across people who say, “Are you Wally Bannon’s son?” After I acknowledge the truth of their question, they launch into a story or stories of what my dad did for them. Most of the times contrasted with the storyteller’s relationship with their parents and father. In a way it is an awesome legacy to not fall too far from that tree.
As I reached adulthood, my father told me about his decision to try to be a relatively big duck in a small pond rather than a medium sized duck in a larger lake. It seems that being a little duck in the ocean was not all that attractive, because along the way he had learned that this cost was more than he wished to pay to receive just money or fame.
As I have matured I have learned that I have been gifted with blessings well beyond my parent’s genetics. Through athletics and my time in the Army I have learned not to be intimidated by anyone, and that is continually reinforced in this Wonder Springs opportunity. The best way to infuriate many pompous people is most of the time to ignore their shallowness. Many times it is to point out that sincerity can be many times sincerely wrong. Also there is a Creator God, who had sustained and trained me for this task today. I didn’t choose Him, He chose me. It is His responsibility to get me where he wants me to be tomorrow, and I am immortal in this world until he is done with my service.
When dealing with other people, seek out people of integrity and teach and allow them to overcome their current limitations. Leadership occurs when you believe that others can achieve more than they currently imagine and then help them to understand and accomplish that vision. Many times reality must be accepted with humor, because we are all too weak to accept it any other way. Finally this world is not all there is and it is but a training regimen for an everlasting opportunity.
This is just a short perspective on why there is a Wonder Springs Chronicle with a Biblical Creation Worldview. Definitely not someplace where the pious self-righteous will find much to float their boat or sail their shallow seas.
Podcast
>>PDF copy
>>Print view
In nine short months we have learned the USA is not a theocracy, not the shining city on the hill. The church is not the sole author and administrator of moral law especially in common grace. So now for the first time, perhaps in all of human history, the whole world is Ichabod (God has departed).
However two thousand years ago, God saved His chosen remnant of all humanity from their sins, through Jesus Christ alone. So there still is some timeless good news. Furthermore, Americans, God’s common frozen prosperous chosen, have awakened from their debt-induced slumber in this brief timeframe and are beginning to actively participate in a world that passed them by. Definitely a temporal miracle!
Old Testament Israel was conquered through Natural Law by pagans for Israel’s judgment and destruction, because she neglected not only God’s specific revelation, but also Natural Law and common grace. If you invoke law to form an earthly paradise, then you must understand that God’s judgment applies not only to pagan sinners, but also the self-righteous sinners. The United States of America has become no longer a nation of humble grace, but individual, corporate, and community greed and power.
These thoughts provide just a little bit of perspective from history to show that whatever happens as time unfolds in our world, we pretty much have it coming. In the due course of time those societies that think they can prosper with human wisdom alone and without God - quickly learn their folly.
Perspective, along with dithering, are new buzzwords that in the last few weeks have become important for the short-term discussion of America’s future. Dithering was used by former Vice-President Cheney to describe the lack of decision for the Obama Administration concerning sending more troops to Afghanistan. Perspective is the term used by the Obama Administration to describe Fox News, rather than call it a legitimate news organization.
The Wonder Springs Chronicle is not a news organization but it is our job to give perspective on what is happening in our world without dithering around with any depth of journalistic investigation, simply because we really have no resources to do that job with integrity.
So that leads us to ask the question, “Why is the Obama Administration dithering around the minor issues and neglecting the important?”
As we pointed out last week Afghanistan is a war without a clearly defined mission or what has now become called an exit strategy. However instead of dithering around why not just state the truth that we are looking at our mission in Afghanistan and refocusing our goals to accomplish that mission. Here are some steps we have looked at and these are the unclassified results of our discussions. If that is not what they are currently doing, then Vice President Cheney was right, they are dithering on other secondary issues, which really don’t relate to solving the Afghan situation.
Furthermore with the economy still in declining flux, healthcare reform being reconstructed in secret, and deficit spending on a continuing exponential growth curve, why pick a fight with Fox News, when all it will do is to enhance the “enemy’s” already sound ratings?
Some pundits have suggested that this dithering with the unimportant is really to change the focus from the important to the trivial. Thereby the Obama team can slip through their agenda when most people are looking the other way; simply it is magic, or illusion.
Probably a better reason comes from Chicago and Chicago politics’ link to community organizer Saul Alinsky. In that light using Alinsky’s techniques it is possible to organize the community against the establishment. As we have pointed out since the beginning of the Obama ascendancy this is a very different skill set than being the establishment and running it effectively.
Bluntly put, in the words of Rahm Emanuel “never let of good crisis go to waste” needs to be discarded so that you can “work effectively before a crisis develops.” You don’t do that by picking a fight with the dominant power in cable news. It also seems that you are trying to create chaos where none exists. So is that true leadership, or a decision to promote a revolution, which in a center-right nation liberals definitely won’t win without some sort of collusion?
President Obama has discussed at length the concept of redistribution of wealth. That begins with a couple of assumptions. First of all this assumes that there is some wealth to redistribute. Beyond that it assumes that your motives are on the high moral ground. In the United States we have a two hundred and twenty year history of a constitutional republic based first upon the rights of the individual, secondarily on the rights of the states, and finally upon a very limited federal government.
Many of those individual and state powers have been ceded to the federal government during the twentieth century by legislation and judicial fiat, but just like with the fight with Fox News it is important to realize that by promoting the unfettered growth of the federal government you are picking a fight, with the American culture in which your odds of winning are quite remote. A recent Gallop poll released Monday show that only twenty percent of the American population considers itself liberal. Furthermore most Americans now consider President Obama to be more liberal than they thought he was when elected.
Now some commentators on Fox News and elsewhere in the conservative media have pointed out that redistribution of wealth is a communist concept. Adding fuel to this blaze are many White House advisors using Mao Tse Tung as one of their favorite luminaries. The same could be said about their admiration of Fidel Castro. So this points to a conclusion that Barack Obama may not be a socialist, but a communist.
In this perspective article, that conclusion may be way too simple or too complex depending upon your personal perspective. I do not know if this perspective exists elsewhere in journalism, spin, blog, analysis, or with pundits, but it is the Wonder Springs perspective that what some would call evil communism, or others progressive emancipation, may simply be a result of non-Traditional Historic American Values.
Barrack Obama is the offspring of an African student that came to this country from Kenya to get a good education. Here he met and married an American girl and Barack was the result of that union. At that time this must have been a relatively harmonious union or Barack might have been named, John, or Sam, or Harry. In today’s culture we would consider this couple liberal by traditional American standards, because anthropologists don’t normally marry capitalist stockbrokers, nor do political science buffs marry daughters of business moguls.
In our context of perspective, both father and mother believed in some sort of service to the greater good of all society. One of those perspectives of service was much more academic, the other much more applied. In that light Barack’s father was pulled back to help politically in his native country. Barack’s mother pursued those academic interests by heading west to Indonesia.
Probably because Barack senior had spent a great deal of time in the United States compared to his Kenyan counter parts he had absorbed and-or adsorbed a basic understanding of the merits of the strength of the American system. Consequently those more liberal concepts of personal freedom and liberty did not fit well with the Marxist leaders trying to remake Kenya into a communist state. Hence Barack’s father was forced out of the government and eventually died before his time, rejected by those he basically tried to help.
Now sons have a deep relationship with their fathers, even if those fathers are distant physically or emotionally. The old saying “An apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” is especially true for sons and their fathers. Perhaps that stems from the creation of mankind and our understanding of our Heavenly Father. In any event boys look up to their dads as a role model. Sometimes that is good and positive sometimes it is very negative.
Because Barack as a youth only knew his father from a distance, perhaps even in just stories told to him by his mother and grandparents, he unconsciously understood that apple tree analogy. He wanted and wants to succeed in the arena where his father was unjustly treated. Since that would be impossible in Kenya, it would be possible to some extent in the United States, where his father truly had achieved his measure of greatness.
So now Barack Obama is the forty-forth President of the United States of America. It truly is the American Dream, which states anyone can grow up to be President. However Barack carries a similar skill set that eventually proved to be the downfall of his father in Kenya, that being the management reliance on specialization. In Kenya his father was sidelined because his worldview was broader than those leaders in the Kenyan regime, as a consequence he made others above him uncomfortable because of his superior education and outlook.
This reliance on others that share your worldview and skills is the classic small business management faux pas. In order to grow the company the now boss hires those who share similar skills and personality traits rather than a true diverse management team. Then when things become more complex and difficult the tendency in meetings is to sit around and blame others for the problems they themselves created by their narrow focus. You see this to the utmost in Obama’s current White House staff and cabinet.
When you contrast this with America’s last messianic presidential figure, Ronald Reagan, the differences become disturbingly apparent. While I do not share my more conservative friends reverence for Reagan’s mystique, I do see him as probably one of the most competent managers in Presidential history. He simply hired the best people in their field to do their job and then let them do it. Reagan didn’t spend his time micromanaging his Administration.
As a consequence a symbiotic synergy was created that actually was able to accomplish probably more than his fans can understand. Some of those planted seeds have taken root and were contributors to our current financial crisis, but that is another story. Much of Reagan’s success came because he knew what he believed and those beliefs had been tested and refined over a lifetime of living. Those beliefs were what we have called in this series Traditional Historic American Values.
My dad used to tell the story that he sold his chance to be President to another for fifty cents. In that story was the reality that he had at least considered the opportunity briefly and had determined that it was not worth the cost that seeking such an office would require. Instead he desired to become a schoolteacher and eventually a school principal.
Even though he died thirty-five years ago, I still run across people who say, “Are you Wally Bannon’s son?” After I acknowledge the truth of their question, they launch into a story or stories of what my dad did for them. Most of the times contrasted with the storyteller’s relationship with their parents and father. In a way it is an awesome legacy to not fall too far from that tree.
As I reached adulthood, my father told me about his decision to try to be a relatively big duck in a small pond rather than a medium sized duck in a larger lake. It seems that being a little duck in the ocean was not all that attractive, because along the way he had learned that this cost was more than he wished to pay to receive just money or fame.
As I have matured I have learned that I have been gifted with blessings well beyond my parent’s genetics. Through athletics and my time in the Army I have learned not to be intimidated by anyone, and that is continually reinforced in this Wonder Springs opportunity. The best way to infuriate many pompous people is most of the time to ignore their shallowness. Many times it is to point out that sincerity can be many times sincerely wrong. Also there is a Creator God, who had sustained and trained me for this task today. I didn’t choose Him, He chose me. It is His responsibility to get me where he wants me to be tomorrow, and I am immortal in this world until he is done with my service.
When dealing with other people, seek out people of integrity and teach and allow them to overcome their current limitations. Leadership occurs when you believe that others can achieve more than they currently imagine and then help them to understand and accomplish that vision. Many times reality must be accepted with humor, because we are all too weak to accept it any other way. Finally this world is not all there is and it is but a training regimen for an everlasting opportunity.
This is just a short perspective on why there is a Wonder Springs Chronicle with a Biblical Creation Worldview. Definitely not someplace where the pious self-righteous will find much to float their boat or sail their shallow seas.
Podcast