Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Unconsidered Luxuries

Americans enjoy many luxuries; this is true, but what kind of luxuries are they? When we hear that word, luxury, we generally think of something generated by material wealth, like big houses, boats, and cars.  But I contend that we take for granted luxuries that have nothing to do with wealth. Consider a few of them:
  1. Not having to bother to vote.
  2. The ability to abandon a wife or husband with ease.
  3. The security, real or imagined, that comes from the government's bottomless bucket of deficit spending and social programs.
  4. To live and conduct our affairs, official and personal, as if there were no God.
  5. The ability to craft a God that aligns him/her self as with our desires.
  6. The denial of absolute morality.
  7. The conflation of compassion to an occasional trip to the ballot box to cast a vote for the politician who promises to give more of your neighbor's stuff to the poor .
  8. An education system that trashes it's own country, including the tax payers who are footing its enormous and bloated bill.
  9. Unlimited and anonymous access to any pornography the wicked mind can conceive of.
  10. Promiscuity without the consequence of shame.
  11. Ignorance of the Constitution.
  12. The denial of the existence of borders.
  13. Ignorance of history.
  14. Pacifism without fear of harm.
  15. No-expense-too-high-for-someone-else-to-pay environmentalism.
  16. The ability to borrow seemingly endless amounts of cash from those who can't refuse... the unborn.
  17. The pretension that evil doesn't exist.
  18. The belief that this world could be perfect, and will be some day once the right people are in charge and have unlimited power.

Of course, there are costs for these luxuries, including material costs, that eventually come due and must be paid... one way or the other. There are also many ways the reaper may reap his due, paid in ways that are unassociated with materal "wealth". Here are just a few examples:

Opportunity-- Commerce depends on morality. You expect that whatever it is that you've exchanged your wealth for will operate, perform of be whatever you were told. As morality increases, trust decreases. As trust decreases, the ability to do business becomes more cumbersome. And, as the ability of business becomes more cumbersome, it not only becomes more expensive. And by business I don't mean large corporations. No, I mean you making a simple purchase.

Government Solvency--Our governing bodies at every level are bankrupt. We have thus far enjoyed the luxury of passing off the trial of compassion to government. But people in the governments are not interested in compassion. What they are interested in is keeping their jobs and foisting the cost of their "new" ideas and social experiments gone bad onto a yet born generation. But these governments are now on a collision course with reality. The payday for these promises of security is now looming large. Still, any attempt to make a course correction or to apply a little common sense are met with howls from the sedated populace as we discover that masses of people have become compassionees.

Unraveling of Society--Single parent families, for one, are taking their toll on the social fabric. Social institutions that once provided a nurturing environment for offspring that would be productive members of society have been impugned and dismantled. Now, any insinuation that out of wedlock births, or behavior that leads to them, is a moral issue are met with contempt and the offered solution of killing the child. Suggestions of real solutions are called extremism.  You can't impose your morality on others we are told. But still, morality is imposed, by way of payroll deductions as financial payments are made to fund some of the luxuries listed above.

There is also the luxury of expectation. We now have an expectation of these luxuries as a given, like the air we breath, along with the luxury of prosperity.

This brings me to the last luxury worth mentioning. This luxury will be ever persistent; exacting payment long after the other luxuries have been paid for and are collecting dust on the shelf of fading memories. And that luxury is self-delusion.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Some Thoughts On Beauty

I spend a fair amount of time contemplating beauty. What is it? Why does it draw us and bring us joy? One fruit of this contemplation is the belief that beauty is not in the eyes of the beholder, even though we don't always behold the beauty that is there. The onset of relativism has tried to teach us the opposite. Yet we instinctively know that true beauty IS. Beauty is not relative, even though much of modern art screams in our faces with its ugliness that it is. Interestingly, those screams seem to be in symphony with the "no God" proclamations.

Following are three videos that depict beauty in a unique way known as a flash-mob. Performers are incognito in crowds and present themselves much to the surprise and astonishment of patrons.

The first video ends with a woman wiping tears from her eyes. My sentiments exactly.

The third, and my favorite, has the Philadelphia Opera singing the words "He [Jesus] will reign-forever, forever, forever... King of Kings... Lord of Lords... forever, forever, forever" in Macys. More tears, especially at the conclusion. Judging from the delighted faces, there appears to be a sense of Joy and peace filling the mall. It is spectacular, beautiful and wonderful; mainly I think because of the expressions on the faces of those watching. Ohhh how I wish I had been!!!!

Enjoy




In Antwerp Station Belgium








This one Hat Tip Neil at Eternity Matters.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

The End Of The Road Of Envy

Heather from The Narrow Gate left this comment on my last post concerning the election:

"On the other hand, the exposed root of "leftism" may now be obvious enough to have shaken some out of the virtual coma..."

My hope is that the last two years will have indeed pulled the curtain back and put on display for all to see, not only the connection between the leftist governing "isms" of socialism, statism and communism, and the Democratic party, but more importantly the connection between the Democratic Party, and its Anti-Christ roots in laws and policies.

But when I look at the states that have already been lost to the abyss of envy such as California and Michigan, there is some thinking that seems to prevail over the obvious problems with their current track. That thought can be expressed in one simple statement:

"Better is it for all to be twice as poor than I be half as rich as my neighbor."