Leadership needs
03/September/2008 11:08 Filed in: Weekly Column
Volume 10, Issue 35
PDF copy
Life is good, if you don’t weaken.
Millie Sphuler (My neighbor’s grandmother)
Well John McCain sure shook up the American political landscape with the selection of Sarah Palin, Alaska’s Governor as his Vice Presidential running mate. As of this writing the news is popping about the Palin’s 17-year-old daughter’s pregnancy. Looking at the bigger picture however McCain picked another maverick to focus the country on his vision of change for the United States. Whether this will energize the independent voters needed for him to win the Presidency, we will see over the next couple of months.
Here in Nowhere, I returned last week after an extended family reunion and other errands in Spokane, to find that both my cellular phone and Internet had disappeared during a significant storm the afternoon I left. When I reported the outage to the two Verizon wireless dealers in the area and Verizon, ten days later, they informed me that they were unaware of the problem. No one else who I talked to after I got back, even took the opportunity to report the change, only to whine about the problem to others. Things are somewhat better, I can now get some coverage here and there within seven miles, rather than the previous seventeen, but this makes continued Wonder Springs operations from here virtually impossible.
During that trip to Colville in which I reported the cellular outage, I picked up an audio copy of Bill O’Reilly’s “Culture Warrior” at the library. After listening to that recording I again understood that I too am a warrior in what he calls the “Culture War” raging in America. Bill defined the two sides as the minority “Secular Progressives” (SPs) in contrast with the “Traditionalists.” In Wonder Springs we would define those two sides as “Atheistic Evolutionists” contrasted with “Benevolent Deists” but both of our dogmas and theologies for the definitions are essentially identical.
Bill’s book deals with SPs in urban warfare and does not touch on the chasm between rural and urban Americans. In politics of course we call this the red and the blue states, but again contrary to urban spin, the differences are much more significant than mere politics. In outward culture the differences are profound and in many cases extremely hostile.
The current extreme SP liberal criticism of Sarah Palin stems from their fear that they are chosen to fight the war for the future of human civilization in the swamps of human depravity. Much of that depravity caused by ineffective security of urban development to address the God created uniqueness of the human personality.
For the term of this ministry, we have attempted to deal with these issues and will continue the crusade as long as God gives me this life. However after listening to the “Culture Warrior” I was impressed with the current need to become even more active in the battle.
As a military man, I realize that effective revolutionary campaigns are really insurgency actions. In lay terms that means that you take over the country and then lay siege to the cities. In that light the “Culture War” will not be won by battling paper tiger actions within the urban sphere, but by first controlling the rural landscape. To prove my point there are currently virtually no SPs in rural America, they don’t have either the skill set, or the moral strength to deal with real diversity nor the common revelation of God’s creation.
As I have discussed over the last couple of weeks, the real problem in western culture and especially in the United States is the lack of leadership and the gap, chasm, canyon, between those who claim leadership authority and the power that can only be gained from those people they mistakenly claim as their power base.
Now this Culture War is really, at least at this current level, a battle of words and ideas. Traditionalist or Benevolent Deists, not only are the majority in both urban and rural settings, they also control the moral high ground. Therefore the only way that Secular Progressives or Atheistic Evolutionist can win is for good people to do nothing. Nothing, except perhaps, getting materialistic stuff, is now all the Traditionalist - Benevolent Deists, modus of operation. Stuff is the infantile pacifier of most humans in western culture and especially in the United States. As long as material prosperity can be maintained by hook or crook, most people will play along.
We are told that the human enlightenment worldview will solve all of humanities problems (if we only believe). Furthermore if there is a God, which is really a somewhat primitive concept, from our pre-enlightenment past, He is not active in the current affairs of humanity. As Ben Franklin said so plainly, “God helps those who help themselves.” To do otherwise would be uncivilized and especially today un-American.
To begin this discussion we have prepared a list of “Leadership Needs,” and a couple irrelevant noise issues. Overtime we will develop specifics from our Wonder Springs perspective. We believe that those who want to be leaders or claim to be leaders need to do the same. This is especially true as we hear spin of those politicians who say they believe in human democracy as the highest and best form of human government. As long as these politicians can talk in generalized hyperbola they are not leaders at all, but in O’Reilly terms they bloviate or in more generally recognized they are known as blowhards. This list is in alphabetical order, not necessarily in order of importance.
Necessary list:
Arbitrary and Capricious Regulations are one of the biggest hindrances to economic growth. This is brought about not by big or limited government, but government without oversight. Career bureaucrats that never have had a job outside of government attempt to bring their perception of required order out of what they perceive as the chaos without. As a result they design systems of extreme limits and equality of outcomes rather than equalities of opportunity.
Education, especially public education, has long been out of touch with reality. Teachers teach to the lowest common denominator in primary and secondary education, and self esteem as a means to illusionary opportunity. In higher education there is no attempt to create an atmosphere of unity in diversity thought, but only a biased view of human enlightenment through government as the hope for humanity.
Energy rules the development of human civilization. The United States over the last 30 - 40 years has done nothing on the energy front, while her wealth has been exported to other countries, most of them with significantly different and hostile worldviews. Now all the spin says they have the easy fix and everything will be fine. Not so. Hard work, difficult, scientifically relevant choices, and competent leadership will be required. Don Quixote windmills and blowhard confrontations have zero energetic value.
Faith & Service have too long looked to material prosperity as the highest calling of mankind. As the late Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, the pursuit of material wealth, as the prime purpose of humanity is the most pointless life conceivable. The prime purpose of mankind has been stated as “To know God and enjoy Him forever.” That is surely a revolutionary thought in today’s culture.
Health Care currently consumes 20% of the United States GDP. The government – private argument is again Don Quixote windmills. Health Care costs are a definite tax on the enterprise potential the United States. To start the discussion we could begin with catastrophic national insurance for everyone, and require – allow private insurance companies to fill the gap to the benefit of the needs of the specific individual.
Infrastructure development has been replaced with government pork barrel spending. As a result there is no planning for the development of specific needs to build new or even maintain required infrastructure. As shocking as that may seem to many, that infrastructure will require taxes, specific and standardized taxes, to pay for those required and needed projects.
Leadership fundamentals are not generally obtained by enlightenment from on high, especially when one does not believe in a Supreme Deity. The military trains individuals to lead other individuals. There is really no other source of leadership training in society. Therefore there are really no leaders in current civilization. It isn’t rocket science, but it seems if universal military service is not an option, other leadership-training venues are required for a civilized community.
Limits of Materialism needs to be addressed by leadership. He or she, who dies with the most toys, does not win anything. The real problem is that we have created a culture where there is no other outlet for human capacity or monetary affluence.
Monetary Policy and Wealth Creation is, along with energy, one of the two greatest challenges facing the United States. Creating money out of nothing (ex nihilo) cannot maintain any human economy. Currently the world’s monetary system has too much money chasing too little true wealth. Wealth creation requires risky long-term investment in people, ideas, and real opportunities. Passive investments and continued speculation will only exacerbate the problem and eliminate entrepreneurial opportunities.
Military Security will continue to be required to maintain a viable national sovereignty. Personally I believe that history will show in the not too distant future the fallacy of the “All volunteer military” was one of the greatest national blunders created by the lack of leadership in 20th century America.
Rural - Urban Chasm is extremely destructive to the continued existence of the United States. It is not just a difference in politics, it stems from a deep fear that urban people have for common natural law and Nature’s God. As a consequence they have the desire to force everyone to live in cities and return creation into a wilderness area. The basis for these developments really lie in the total depravity of human enlightenment and the realization that as John Muir, Thoreau, and all indigenous people groups realize, that mankind is a created being and not the supreme god we would like to believe we are or are evolving into.
Water, fresh water is required for all life and limits the development of human activities in much of the world. A lot of the potential energy developments, so promoted to secure energy independence will be limited by the availability of water. Mining of aquifer irrigation water will also bring limits to food production and urban development in arid and semiarid regions. Fresh water, not energy is the world’s limiting factor for enterprise and human development.
Blowhard List: get us nowhere and need to be ignored because they have no human controllable energetic value.
Globalization - Free trade
Global Warming - Climate Change
PDF copy
Life is good, if you don’t weaken.
Millie Sphuler (My neighbor’s grandmother)
Well John McCain sure shook up the American political landscape with the selection of Sarah Palin, Alaska’s Governor as his Vice Presidential running mate. As of this writing the news is popping about the Palin’s 17-year-old daughter’s pregnancy. Looking at the bigger picture however McCain picked another maverick to focus the country on his vision of change for the United States. Whether this will energize the independent voters needed for him to win the Presidency, we will see over the next couple of months.
Here in Nowhere, I returned last week after an extended family reunion and other errands in Spokane, to find that both my cellular phone and Internet had disappeared during a significant storm the afternoon I left. When I reported the outage to the two Verizon wireless dealers in the area and Verizon, ten days later, they informed me that they were unaware of the problem. No one else who I talked to after I got back, even took the opportunity to report the change, only to whine about the problem to others. Things are somewhat better, I can now get some coverage here and there within seven miles, rather than the previous seventeen, but this makes continued Wonder Springs operations from here virtually impossible.
During that trip to Colville in which I reported the cellular outage, I picked up an audio copy of Bill O’Reilly’s “Culture Warrior” at the library. After listening to that recording I again understood that I too am a warrior in what he calls the “Culture War” raging in America. Bill defined the two sides as the minority “Secular Progressives” (SPs) in contrast with the “Traditionalists.” In Wonder Springs we would define those two sides as “Atheistic Evolutionists” contrasted with “Benevolent Deists” but both of our dogmas and theologies for the definitions are essentially identical.
Bill’s book deals with SPs in urban warfare and does not touch on the chasm between rural and urban Americans. In politics of course we call this the red and the blue states, but again contrary to urban spin, the differences are much more significant than mere politics. In outward culture the differences are profound and in many cases extremely hostile.
The current extreme SP liberal criticism of Sarah Palin stems from their fear that they are chosen to fight the war for the future of human civilization in the swamps of human depravity. Much of that depravity caused by ineffective security of urban development to address the God created uniqueness of the human personality.
For the term of this ministry, we have attempted to deal with these issues and will continue the crusade as long as God gives me this life. However after listening to the “Culture Warrior” I was impressed with the current need to become even more active in the battle.
As a military man, I realize that effective revolutionary campaigns are really insurgency actions. In lay terms that means that you take over the country and then lay siege to the cities. In that light the “Culture War” will not be won by battling paper tiger actions within the urban sphere, but by first controlling the rural landscape. To prove my point there are currently virtually no SPs in rural America, they don’t have either the skill set, or the moral strength to deal with real diversity nor the common revelation of God’s creation.
As I have discussed over the last couple of weeks, the real problem in western culture and especially in the United States is the lack of leadership and the gap, chasm, canyon, between those who claim leadership authority and the power that can only be gained from those people they mistakenly claim as their power base.
Now this Culture War is really, at least at this current level, a battle of words and ideas. Traditionalist or Benevolent Deists, not only are the majority in both urban and rural settings, they also control the moral high ground. Therefore the only way that Secular Progressives or Atheistic Evolutionist can win is for good people to do nothing. Nothing, except perhaps, getting materialistic stuff, is now all the Traditionalist - Benevolent Deists, modus of operation. Stuff is the infantile pacifier of most humans in western culture and especially in the United States. As long as material prosperity can be maintained by hook or crook, most people will play along.
We are told that the human enlightenment worldview will solve all of humanities problems (if we only believe). Furthermore if there is a God, which is really a somewhat primitive concept, from our pre-enlightenment past, He is not active in the current affairs of humanity. As Ben Franklin said so plainly, “God helps those who help themselves.” To do otherwise would be uncivilized and especially today un-American.
To begin this discussion we have prepared a list of “Leadership Needs,” and a couple irrelevant noise issues. Overtime we will develop specifics from our Wonder Springs perspective. We believe that those who want to be leaders or claim to be leaders need to do the same. This is especially true as we hear spin of those politicians who say they believe in human democracy as the highest and best form of human government. As long as these politicians can talk in generalized hyperbola they are not leaders at all, but in O’Reilly terms they bloviate or in more generally recognized they are known as blowhards. This list is in alphabetical order, not necessarily in order of importance.
Necessary list:
Arbitrary and Capricious Regulations are one of the biggest hindrances to economic growth. This is brought about not by big or limited government, but government without oversight. Career bureaucrats that never have had a job outside of government attempt to bring their perception of required order out of what they perceive as the chaos without. As a result they design systems of extreme limits and equality of outcomes rather than equalities of opportunity.
Education, especially public education, has long been out of touch with reality. Teachers teach to the lowest common denominator in primary and secondary education, and self esteem as a means to illusionary opportunity. In higher education there is no attempt to create an atmosphere of unity in diversity thought, but only a biased view of human enlightenment through government as the hope for humanity.
Energy rules the development of human civilization. The United States over the last 30 - 40 years has done nothing on the energy front, while her wealth has been exported to other countries, most of them with significantly different and hostile worldviews. Now all the spin says they have the easy fix and everything will be fine. Not so. Hard work, difficult, scientifically relevant choices, and competent leadership will be required. Don Quixote windmills and blowhard confrontations have zero energetic value.
Faith & Service have too long looked to material prosperity as the highest calling of mankind. As the late Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, the pursuit of material wealth, as the prime purpose of humanity is the most pointless life conceivable. The prime purpose of mankind has been stated as “To know God and enjoy Him forever.” That is surely a revolutionary thought in today’s culture.
Health Care currently consumes 20% of the United States GDP. The government – private argument is again Don Quixote windmills. Health Care costs are a definite tax on the enterprise potential the United States. To start the discussion we could begin with catastrophic national insurance for everyone, and require – allow private insurance companies to fill the gap to the benefit of the needs of the specific individual.
Infrastructure development has been replaced with government pork barrel spending. As a result there is no planning for the development of specific needs to build new or even maintain required infrastructure. As shocking as that may seem to many, that infrastructure will require taxes, specific and standardized taxes, to pay for those required and needed projects.
Leadership fundamentals are not generally obtained by enlightenment from on high, especially when one does not believe in a Supreme Deity. The military trains individuals to lead other individuals. There is really no other source of leadership training in society. Therefore there are really no leaders in current civilization. It isn’t rocket science, but it seems if universal military service is not an option, other leadership-training venues are required for a civilized community.
Limits of Materialism needs to be addressed by leadership. He or she, who dies with the most toys, does not win anything. The real problem is that we have created a culture where there is no other outlet for human capacity or monetary affluence.
Monetary Policy and Wealth Creation is, along with energy, one of the two greatest challenges facing the United States. Creating money out of nothing (ex nihilo) cannot maintain any human economy. Currently the world’s monetary system has too much money chasing too little true wealth. Wealth creation requires risky long-term investment in people, ideas, and real opportunities. Passive investments and continued speculation will only exacerbate the problem and eliminate entrepreneurial opportunities.
Military Security will continue to be required to maintain a viable national sovereignty. Personally I believe that history will show in the not too distant future the fallacy of the “All volunteer military” was one of the greatest national blunders created by the lack of leadership in 20th century America.
Rural - Urban Chasm is extremely destructive to the continued existence of the United States. It is not just a difference in politics, it stems from a deep fear that urban people have for common natural law and Nature’s God. As a consequence they have the desire to force everyone to live in cities and return creation into a wilderness area. The basis for these developments really lie in the total depravity of human enlightenment and the realization that as John Muir, Thoreau, and all indigenous people groups realize, that mankind is a created being and not the supreme god we would like to believe we are or are evolving into.
Water, fresh water is required for all life and limits the development of human activities in much of the world. A lot of the potential energy developments, so promoted to secure energy independence will be limited by the availability of water. Mining of aquifer irrigation water will also bring limits to food production and urban development in arid and semiarid regions. Fresh water, not energy is the world’s limiting factor for enterprise and human development.
Blowhard List: get us nowhere and need to be ignored because they have no human controllable energetic value.
Globalization - Free trade
Global Warming - Climate Change