Government

These are stand-alone ideas about government and society.  These may not be popular or even accurate.  If I am wrong, show me how.   

Capitalism can only be effective when there is adequate education in society – a well-informed public.  The model of capitalism is to arrange itself around whatever the people want through how the money is spent.  If people want cheaper things, then the model of how that society will be geared towards providing what the people want.  But if that cheapness compromises human rights – for example, in a sweat shop in China – then morally, the value should move from “cheapest” to “cheapest, without compromising human rights.”  The reason human rights are compromised is because people are either ignorant of the true cost of their cheap products, or they value their convenience over someone else’s life.  Ignorance is curable.  So is evil, but it’s a harder battle.

If the people want self-destructive things then capitalism must necessarily provide it.  But a society which values freedom – even when that freedom is poorly executed – will stand a better chance of survival than a society which values well-intentioned control.  When one person’s freedom to make poor decisions affects another person’s freedom to make good decisions, then control must be exercised by the government.

No government should engage in a practice that is unsustainable to the environment.  This is not sentiment or morality speaking – it is simple economics.  You take care of the cow that you get milk from. 

No government should mistreat their poor.  The French Revolution should teach us this.  Even the French found reason to riot in the streets.  Do not underestimate the power of the people – even, and especially when, those people are poor, uneducated, and have nothing to lose. 

Even though our country was founded on a principal of separation of church and state, it seems that at some point, there will be a value system which will pervade the government.  This value system might intersect with a religion or faith.  The point is to not restrict people from the freedom to practice the faith they choose, and to not force people to practice a faith they would not have otherwise chosen. 

For a government to thrive, power must not grow to be too central or controlled by too few – even if those few are elected by the people.  Those few will naturally, due to human nature, create an environment that protects their own interests.  If few must lead, let it be for a limited duration for limited times.  Career politicians will destroy us.  The people must be in power, but no one for too long.  The common person is not jaded and has the passion to evoke real change.  Some will say that common people are too inexperienced to affect change in our complex system of government – to this, I say, make your government simple enough for the common man to rule, or you have already signed your own government’s death sentence.

Those in power must be constantly filtered to avoid the stagnant, putrid portion of our society to become corrupt by the intoxicating taste of power.  These position must be seen as duty – not a career.  This will destroy the separation between “the people” and “the people who rule the people.” 

We have become everything we once rebelled against.  Our country is fat and slow – quick to anger and provocation – proud without cause.  

Poetry and Fiction Blogs

I've created separate blogs for my poetry and fiction, with links in the navigation bar above.  I felt that this main blog was a bit fractured in style, with too much spread.

I've uploaded 11 poems to start out, and I'll gauge the traffic to see if it should stay up.  The fiction is currently empty, but the link still works to the site.

Thanks to all my readers (both of you)!  This is an enjoyable past-time for me, but it means a lot when I hear how a particular piece helped to change the way you thought about something or how you're going to act.  At work today, a coworker came up to me and said that she read every single post on here, all the way back to 2007 or so - and really loved it all.  That made my day!

If there are questions you have that you'd like to see me write about, you are more than welcome to shoot me an email at sfreeman90@gmail.com.

KBO

Playing Well With Others

      Regardless of any job you find yourself in, or any means of unemployment for that matter, you will most likely find that you need to work with other people.  If you are one of those individuals who hates working with incompetent people and actually dies a little bit every time you are forced to cooperate with people who you think are morons, congratulations, you are just like everyone else in the entire world.  Thinking that you are the victim is the most defining thread between everyone in the American workforce.  Like it or not, it is very advantageous for you to play well with your coworkers, so I, as a kindness to you, have created this cheatsheet for everything you need to know for making money while cooperating with morons.  By the way, believing that everyone else is a moron makes you just like everyone else.  A moron.

Number one: Gossip.  I never, ever make absolute statements about anything or anyone, but this one time, I’ll make an exception.  Never, ever gossip.  Honestly, the moment those nasty thoughts are in your brain there starts a countdown on a bomb – you can either throw it out as nonsense, or let it spew out your mouth.  And when I say “spew,” I don’t want you to imagine a garden hose, or a pretty waterfall.  I want you to imagine a fire hydrant of diarrhea coming out of your mouth, because that is exactly how useful and beautiful gossip is.  As soon as those thoughts enter your mind, throw them out as nonsense or take your problems to the person it concerns in a rational, adult manner.  The bottom line is that gossip is childish.  And since child labor was outlawed in 1938, you are probably not a child.  So don’t act like one.

Number two: Enjoy the Good Times.  Have you ever noticed that when you have a canker sore it is the only thing you can think about, but when you don’t have one, you never think:

“Gee, I sure am grateful to the cosmos that I don’t have a canker sore right now…see…I can run my tongue all around the inside of my lip and it feels right as rain!”  

It seems that at work, no matter what is going on, there is always someone unhappy.  If it’s slow, people are complaining.  If it’s busy, people are complaining.  If it’s a normal, manageable amount of business, people are complaining.  To counteract this, make it a point to look for the moments you can enjoy.  When you are busy, think “I will probably make a lot of money today.”  When it’s slow, think “it’s so nice that I’m not rushed right now…who can I help?”   If you are unhappy in every single circumstance you find yourself in, you should realize that the common denominator is you.  So you should probably focus on fixing that instead of everything else.  So go ahead - run your tongue around the inside of your lip now and then, and be grateful you don't have a canker sore. 

Number three: Realize that just because you don’t like someone does not mean that you have to be enemies.  Everyone is forced to work with people they don’t like – and if you don’t know who that person is, it’s probably you.  But just because you wouldn't go get a beer with that person or invite them to meet your family, does not mean that you cannot work well with them in a professional environment.  It’s called “work” for a reason – you don’t have to like everyone, but you do have to work with them. 

Number four: Pray for the people who drive you nuts at work.  It may seem like an old-fashioned idea, but it seems to me that certain ideas stick around that long because they have some merit.  This doesn't have to be a faith-based activity, though if you want it to be, it can.  The point is to choose to control your thoughts and hope for the best for the people who drive you crazy the most.  If you are invested in someone’s good, it’s very hard to resent them for being jerks.  You suddenly see that they are probably jerks because they've been treated like crap their entire lives and genuinely do not see their own worth as a person.  Angry people are almost always hurt people.  Just remember that what you think about affects your emotions – and your emotions feed back into your thought life.  Control your thoughts and you control your emotions.  Think well of people and you've just poured water on the fire.  Think badly of people and you are trying to put out a fire with a box of matches. 

Number five: Assume that whatever offense your coworker committed against you that has now gripped your mind was not done as a malicious attempt to offend you.  Have you ever noticed when you’re driving and someone cuts you off, you immediately think that they are ignorant, unaware, self-absorbed jerks with no consideration for anyone else – but when that person is in your blind spot and you accidentally change lanes without seeing them, well that was an honest mistake and they can’t possibly expect you to be perfect all the time, and how dare they lay on their horn like that.  Why are they so important?   The long and short of it is that if you give others the same amount of grace and forgiveness you give yourself, you will start to see other people in a new, less blood-pressure-raising way. 

Here is a time-proven recipe for success: Avoid getting involved in the affairs of fools, for they are tricky and will hurt your brain.  Help them, care for them, of course, but avoid trying to reason with them – the mind is a labyrinth of illogical justifications of one's own inherent rightness.  Just, stay away from that Wonderland of Weirdness.

Loving Your Enemies

I feel like most people don't have enemies - we just know people who annoy us.  But the root of this annoyance is that we would rather view someone in terms of how they affect us, rather than how they are affected by us.  

Viewing someone as "the enemy" objectifies them.  It steals away their heart and their fears, their insecurities and their victories.  It only leaves whatever behavior you don't like about them.  It takes the humanness away from people and leaves them, in your mind, less than human.  They become the sum total of their actions towards you.  

It's easier to hate (dislike, not prefer, avoid, be bothered by - pick your minced word of choice) someone than it is to understand them.  Loving your enemies restores their humanity.  It says that given similar circumstances, I might be just like them.  

Here's the hard truth: everybody is hurt.

Angry people have been tremendously hurt, and protect themselves from being hurt again by bristling up to keep people at bay.  Angry people are hurt people.  Selfish people are hurt people.  Sad people are hurt people.  Lonely people are hurt people.  Spiteful people are hurt people.

Hurt people do not need more hurt - they don't need to be destroyed - they don't need to be avoided.  They need to be loved.  When someone "pushes your buttons" and gets under your skin, that should be the bright flashing light in your head that says "this person needs love SO badly."

Mathew 5: 43-46

"But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?"

My Eight Things

Ask anyone.  I am not known for my consistency.  I am a whirring ball of ideas, intentions, attempts, and failures.  I even tried knitting a scarf once (and by "once", I mean "this year") and made it about two inches before I was over it.  It's now a very inadequate hot pad, which makes Caroline smile.

I've started something that kind of excites me.  I call it my "Eight Things."  There are eight things that I've written on a list, and post at my desk.  Things that I want to be consistent with and want to form habits around.  I used to think that if I got into a habit about something, it might be "legalistic" and I wouldn't actually get anything good out of it.  But as I was watering my plants one morning, I realized that giving life-sustaining nutrients to something that needs it, is not legalism - it's food.  Sometimes I eat out of legalism (that is, I know I should, even if I don't feel hungry) and sometimes I drink water out of legalism (before I'm thirsty, because I know I ought) but my consistency does not negate the benefit.  If I read my Bible, and mediate on a verse, I might not be hungry for it, but it will still do me good.

So I made a list of good things I should be doing every day, in no particular order.

1) Read your Bible
2) Find a verse to mediate on throughout the day.
3) Spend time in prayer
4) Pray for Caroline
5) Exercise
6) Drink water
7) Journal
8) Eat breakfast.

There are times that I think that any kind of routine or habit will be completely abandoned in three days, never to be seen again.  But it's been eight days, and I'm still doing my "Eight Things" every morning.  If that doesn't sound like a lot, the exchange rate for "Stephen keeping up with something" to "anyone else keeping up with something" is about 4 to 1, so I'm on fire!

I've been able to repeat this each day, because I think to myself, "treat today like it's the blueprint you want every other day to be based on."  You only live one day at a time anyway, so this is a perfect model.  What kind of habits do you want to form in your life?  What are you going to do today to achieve that habit?  That is the only question that really matters - what are you going to do today?  Yesterday is as far away from you as the beginning of time - and when tomorrow gets here, it turns out, it's just today.  So what habit, today, are you going to form?  Ask yourself that question every morning.

Dualism

I think we think of God in dualistic terms without even realizing it, and this is a great disservice to His greatness.

Dualism is basically the two sides to a coin.  When asked about opposites, a conversation might go something like this:

-What is the opposite of black?  - White.
-What is the opposite of good?  - Bad.
-What is the opposite of left?  - Right.
-What is the opposite of up?  - Down.
-What is the opposite of God?  -Satan.

The problem with this is not that they are opposites, but that these are all considered equal opposites.  Jeremiah 10:6 says "No one is like you Lord; you are great, and your name is mighty in power."  All Satan ever wanted was to be like God, to be on equal footing with Him.  We too often believe the lie that Satan is God's equal opposite, when in fact, there is none like God, good or bad.

In fact, Satan's equal opposite is more likely to be Michael, an archangel.  We are doing God a great disservice when we buy into the dualistic idea that God's opposite is Satan.  There is no God like our God.