Since Russia invaded Ukraine, no longer is the truth able to hide; America has been pursuing easy things, making America weak! Several years ago, I was in a used book store and found “Flashes from the Eternal Semaphore” by Leo J. Muir. I count myself extremely blessed to have found and purchased this treasured book! Mr. Muir explains that a semaphore is a means of using flags to send messages, and people have been using flags to send messages for a lot of the earth’s recorded history. The author declared that regardless of religion, certain truths are timeless, ageless, and failure to learn and live these truths brings destruction to civilization.
The first flash/truth is that pursuing easy things makes people weak. Consider for a moment a German proverb, “The hard is the good.” Work is an eternal principle; it does not change if you believe, or do not believe in, God, god, or gods. The need to work, to pursue difficult tasks makes boys into Men, girls into Women, and at the end of life reflects honor and dignity in a life well-lived. Yet, what do we find daily as the life to pursue, playing games, rest, recreation, and all the waste this involves.
I know not the source, but as a kid, I heard someone complain that the hardest and most difficult job in the world is being a person of leisure. As a kid, I had worked my fingers to the bone every day, going to bed bone-weary and mind tired. To hear this man talk blew my mind, for I would have given anything to have less work to do. Yet, during periods of unemployment, I have wept in frustration for not having a job that tasked my mind and body. In employment right now, I often look around and ask what else is there to do, for I feel like I am cheating my employer. Some call this a work ethic, I call is being responsible, professional, and honest in my dealings with my fellow-man.
A friend informed me that most people do not think similarly, and I wonder why. My friend said it was a “First-World Nation Problem.” He explained that in first-world nations, you have to go a long distance to find anyone who works like I do and thinks work is necessary. Mr. Muir reminds us, “There is no immunity from the penalty of indolence and irresponsibility.” Think of that, too much idleness, too many video games, not enough personal responsibility builds weak people, and there is no social or personal immunity, no vaccination, from the consequences.
What’s worse, First-World nations are passing this malady around the globe. We are sick from the disease of not working, akin to catching polio, leprosy, or a fatal case of pneumonia; the disease can be treated, but the effects are life-changing. You cannot achieve for your ability is curtailed. We have forgotten that “There is NO excellence WITHOUT labor” [emphasis added]. I remember assignments from K-12 that left me physically drained from the mental exertions, and I remember lazing my way through lessons; in both situations, the grade I earned was of my own creation! Believe me, my parents were exercised to see my low grades, and I had my school and home work increased to new levels to achieve learning that one lesson, “There is NO excellence WITHOUT labor.”
What do we see today? Students are allowed to graduate who cannot read, do simple math, and write their names. We see lowering standards for scholastic performance in K-12, which produces a slug of a student who expects to graduate college. Woefully unprepared people who were abused and allowed to abuse themselves during K-12 due to their skin color, economic situation, or English as a second language. What teachers do you remember from school, those who allowed you to slide, or those who believed in you, challenged you, setting high standards, and then teaching you how to meet those high standards?
I told my friend, and dear reader, I am telling you, the principle of work should not be sacrificed to “Leave no child behind.” If a person sets out to leave no one behind, they get to know their charges, work their charges, set high standards, teach how to reach those high standards, and then urge them on to new growth opportunities. Why did the school boards lower standards; they believe in growing a class of citizenry that can be controlled! Since the late 1800s, this has been the government’s intentional actions in America. Some will use their weakened minds and claim this is the dastardly work of a single political party, but the reality is that both political parties are neck-deep in the responsibility they have shirked and promoted by lower standards, and they call this “helping.”
No, do not for one second believe that this is a “First-World nation problem,” it is a problem made by conspiring men (and women) for the overthrow and destruction of freedom. They have been carefully creating a class of people who can be counted on to be controlled for personal political gain. Independent people, strong-bodied and minded people, scare those who desire to be a ruling class. Consider Putin in Russia; he wanted to rule, he has planned, crafted, killed, lied, and cajoled to rule, and he is a strong person ruling a weak people who have gotten sick on the pursuit of easy things.
Look at Cuba and North Korea; the people have had to be beaten and starved to weaken them into submission and keep them dependent on a strong leader. Yet, how quickly could those strong people throw off their oppressive governments if they had even 1/100th of the opportunities their poorest neighbors enjoy. What happens in countries oppressed, the leaders become weak pursuing easy things, the people get stronger, and then the government is backed against a wall, and either the people overthrow the government, or the government is killed. Then the cycle begins again until the population is consumed by a neighbor (Ukraine being consumed by Russia) or democracy and capitalism are tried and found to be valuable. But democracy is only powerful if the law is held sacrosanct! Capitalism is only useful and helpful when the society employing it has morals, values, and is educated.
What is weakening every oppressive regime around the globe; is a failure to honor the rule of law. The leaders pursuing easy things become weak, and their choices inevitably lead them into problems with the law. Think back a couple of years to the Chinese baby food or dog food scandals. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) blamed mid-level leaders for their roles in the scandals, but were these people really to blame or merely useful tools to help deflect blame from the flagrant and profligate rule-breaking of someone higher?
Pursuing easy things makes people weak! There is no escaping the damage pursuing easy things does to an individual and a society. Yet, how big are the entertainment industries? How expansive has the lure of taking it easy become? How prevalent have games become? An entire new technological industry sprung up to feed the appetites of those pursuing games? For a truth, Muir quotes Franklin for the following flash, “Laziness travels slowly and is soon overtaken by poverty.” How expensive have cellular phones become? How soon do those phones wear out and need to be replaced? Worse, how many politicians, Hollywood “influencers,” and hundreds of other sources exemplify not working, hide behind a “work-life balance,” or employ social media to display a life of plenty and ease without working? The only way to keep the American dream alive is through hard work!
King Solomon provided the only instruction that offers a modicum of relief and is quoted as the final flash, “In all, they getting, get understanding.” I know many people’s childhood was full of abusive relationships. From parents to teachers, to peers and government officials, you have been robbed, plundered, and the abuse is real. For all that, you remain an eternal being suffering a mortal existence. Thus, you have the choice to get understanding. You possess the power to throw off the abusers. Learn to learn. Learn to read. Learn math. Learn how to write. You hold the power, choose to exercise that power, and you will bless your life and the lives of those around you!
© Copyright 2022 – M. Dave Salisbury
The author holds no claims for the art used herein, the pictures were obtained in the public domain, and the intellectual property belongs to those who created the images. Quoted materials remain the property of the original author.
Let me be clear, upfront, and personal; I am not here to tell you what to think, how to think when to think, or where to think. I will not force my opinions and ideas upon you as the global corporate media does. I will offer ideas and suggestions and how you proceed is your affair. Your choices will determine your destiny. I aim to aid you in understanding and viewing the world a little differently to improve your destination.
For example, Speaker Pelosi tore up President Trump’s State of the Union speech record on live, national TV as a knee-jerk response to the sitting US President. Of all the US President’s Speaker Pelosi has experienced, her behavior to President Trump was the most toddler-like, and people quickly excused this behavior as “Trump-Derangement Syndrome (TDS).” Thus, we can drop the “knee” in knee-jerk responses and describe the activity aptly as being a jerk. No thought, not intentional activity (even though the action has intention, the brain does not register cognitive effort), and the reaction to the stimulus is mono-synaptic.
Macro-aggression is the complete opposite and are “obvious, intentional, above-board insults, where there is no chance of a mistake on the part of the transgressor to be provoking, insulting, or otherwise discourteous.” But, again, the definition does not include the fact that the person claiming another person’s activities are macro-aggressive is a personal choice, a judgment, and a socially powered decision.
Micro- and macro-aggression are often claimed to be “triggered” by specific words, colors, foods, waters, fruits, and a host of other items. Essentially using fear and envy to demand people act differently or the consequences are toddler-like fits and fussing, picketing, rioting, looting, e.g., acting like a terrorist. Thus, micro- and macro- aggression is nothing but the toddler throwing a temper tantrum because they are not getting what they want at that moment. While claiming their aggression is on behalf of someone else, and their acts of terrorism are excusable because the aggression was triggered by someone or something else. This is like the eight-year-old older brother or sister throwing a fit that the toddler was punished and claiming they are behaving irrationally in support of the toddler’s tantrum. How many parents will buy this logic; I do not!
Love them or hate them, comedians have changed since I was a kid sneaking peaks of comic relief on cable while washing dishes late into the night. Comedians now carefully pick their materials based upon their perceptions of the audience. Thus, we have classes of comedians, including “Shock Comedians,” who try to be as offensive as possible and still get laughs. We have political comedians; some come down equally on both sides of the political aisle, others are as cemented to a political agenda as they can be and use their “comedy” as a tool to influence their audiences towards that political agenda. We have a host of comedians dedicated to helping people laugh and others who see themselves as able to influence, regardless of consequences.
As a kid, the USSR loomed as an ever-present force that could at anytime wipe America off the map with a pre-emptive nuclear strike. Of course, America would retaliate with nuclear weapons, and this would create MAD or “mutually assured destruction.” People understood MAD was bad, but the communists among us were more insidious about portraying communism. The news media showed bread lines, soap lines, and the bitter pictures of enslavement under communism. Thus, socialism was the way to go, and the communists were selling socialism as the better way to government.
Envy has been one of the seven deadliest sins for a reason; it breeds violence and discontent. Webster shines a light on envy describing it this way, “A feeling of discontent and resentment aroused by and in conjunction with desire for the possessions or qualities of another.” Fear is disgust and envy paired for the weak to overcome the powerful. The disease of envy includes admiration, jealousy, discontent, disbelief, lies, and a host of emotions that overwhelm a person’s mind to the point where they become irrational and hostile. Another resource claims envy (from Latin invidia) is an emotion that occurs when a person lacks another’s superior quality, achievement, or possession and either desire it or wishes that the other lacked it. Aristotle defined envy as pain at the sight of another’s good fortune, stirred by “those who have what we ought to have.”
There is a reason why envy is a deadly sin in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, mentioned in all the ancient books as a problem, and continues to infect people who refuse to learn. Unbridled emotions are captivity, not freedom! There is danger in the extremes of everything. Envy is in the extremes and imitates a minimal issue to capture the mind and control the person. Consider this, capitalism is the best, and envious people implement socialism to chain capitalism while rooting for communism to come in a takeover, thinking they will be better off and the “rich will finally pay their fair share.” Reality is always disappointing for envious people, and the result will be that everyone detests them when their plans come to fruition.
A colleague said I should read a book, “The School of Darkness,” by Bella V. Dodd. As an immigrant in the early 1900s, the book is discussing coming to America, losing one’s belief structure with its tenets, traditions, and ties that bind, and discovering the emptiness of society, which tried desperately to replace the family and religion. The author only discovers this emptiness and the need for family and religion after a lifetime of fighting against the influence.
Which religions lift the soul, I do not speculate; however, I can tell how you can tell. The answer is the same from generation to generation, first know yourself. Second, research the religion’s works. Finally, seek religions that bring light to the world sickened mind. I have known great and good people in all the different sects of religion in this world. The key I have found comes in living the religion, not just professing that religion. As one lives that religion the tenets of that religion will either inspire, uplift, edify, and grow the spirit and the soul, or it is time to find a new religious structure. Regardless, before the traditions of religion, the traditions of the family must be understood and cemented together.
The Jewish religious tenets are deeply respected by this author for the blend of family and religion that is born from the belief structure. Some Catholic tenets speak to the same family and religious mixture, several Christian religions also speak to this mixture of home-based family-centered religion. The Muslim faith tends to support a community based around the mosque, and not as much on the individual family. The religious foundations and actions of The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-Day Saints are very like the Jewish religious beliefs, the Amish, Quakers, Dutch Calvinists, and more who also carry a strong family first, religion second, approach to building strong communities through strong religious traditions, by first focusing upon the family and home-based religious practices, building into strong religious communities, and then to strong and morally upright citizens. Yet, I have witnessed the same in Atheist communities, where the beliefs of non-belief led to strong families asking questions, seeking truth and developing the person through strong familial bonds.
Why is Communism doomed; because it attempts to replace the family with the government. Why is Socialism doomed; it expands the power of government until the government becomes Communist and tries to replace the family with the government. Why has Capitalism been such a breath of fresh air to the world through the American Republic; because it leaves the family alone from the fingers of government intrusion. Government intrusion, which chokes the agency of man for the mind control of the government. Fascism was doomed to failure, for it worked hard to replace the family with social groups, social families, and corroded the human spirit until nothing but violence and rage remained. Does this sound familiar; it should, for this is the same path being used in education in 2020, learned in the early 1900s, and dedicated to the eradication of America through slow corrosion.
As an older child in a large family, with a large extended family, I once asked, “Why do we gather as an extended family with all the expense, the work, the travel, the hard feelings, etc.?” The answer never made sense to me then, and makes less sense now; yet, there is a truth in the answer that is more felt than understood, “We do it for family.” In the movie “Fiddler on the Roof,” Tevye sings about “
Having traveled across America for the last 25years, and ¾’s of the way around the world, I have a few observations that can strengthen the family. I share the following as a warning, for if the family is not supported, the actions seen by the domestic terrorists in recent days, as evidenced by the riotings and lootings will only grow until America is lost forever.
America needs strong families, which possess a core of religious traditions, practiced in the home, and acted upon in society. The days of allowing truancy due to race, the communist teachings in schools and the lies that society can replace the family must be fought and won by families informed. America can survive the current attacks but needs every citizen fighting for the survival of this set of ideals embodied in the US Constitution. We need morality and religion to return as the core that motivates people to action for America to survive. It is possible to win against the forces arrayed against America domestically and foreign, but we need nuclear families, and those families need a religious core; there is no other way.
DNC-Consulting 