Who Do You Identify With? And Who Do You Condemn?

Liberals such as myself readily condemn the rich for taking advantage of the middle and lower classes to feather their own nests at the expense of those folk.

There are conservatives that condemn the poor for being be poor, lazy, ignorant folk who deserve their condition and they will not change so why bother with them? These conservatives may be rich or middle class or even poor but see themselves as superior to others they see as below them. The entitlement generation is a good example of this point of view. They have done little but because their parents have taken care of them well, they believe they are entitled more than others whether they have proved their abilities to produce or not.

There is a similar group who see the benefits of those in a similar class to themselves but have an advantage they see over them. An example of this is the unions versus small business folk. Both sides can resent the advantages the other side receives from the government. And the truly rich love to encourage this battle because it takes their eyes off the real inequality in our society.

Then there are the mighty individualists, how a great many American see themselves who tell Horatio Alger stories of how they have raised themselves up by their own bootstraps and make the successes in lives all by themselves. Elizabeth Warren debunks this type of thinking better than anyone I know. We are all dependent upon other to achieve whatever successes we have attained. We are dependent upon the teachers who taught us skills, we are dependent upon police and military to keep us safe. We are dependent upon all those involved in the infrastructure that enables us to sell and receive goods, services and products we have. There are no self made people!

Some of the people in our society we admire most, that have made great achievements, could equally be defined as mentally ill. There are folk driven to attain a particular skills or income level, or a spiritual level or whatever completely out of proportion to all other things. Are professional athletes’ modern heroes or just fanatical whackos? Likely some are and some aren’t, all you have to do is just listen to them as to whether they consider family and relationships as more important than their professional lives. Or examine all those folk who poured their entire lives and energies into the work lives then retire and die because they have nothing else to do; they lose the meaning and purpose in life. Sad. That is certainly true in my profession where we are actively encouraged to leave those folk who we have dedicated our lives to serve. So I golf, but more importantly try to continue some prophetic work in writing this blog. Maybe many don’t read it, maybe folk will disagree with what I say; that has been true in my career, but it keeps me thinking I’m producing something.

What all this is driving towards is that we should all be more tolerant and accepting of each other and look at the issues, important issues that face our lives. That is why I write about religion and politics as those are the most important issues that affect our lives.

There are many who want to drive artificial wedges between us and treat politics and religion as an arena game where one must lose and another win and then we celebrate the winner and condemn the loser. But there is a big difference between games and life. And those who bring the important down to the unimportant manipulate and do us a great disservice. Democrats and Republicans, Conservatives and Liberals should have a common agenda. And that is not just what is best for me, individualism at its worst, but what is good for the human community. In this country we used to have structures in place that worked to build up the middle class and promote the dreams that if you worked reasonably hard in our society, you would have a good life, a better life each generation. That dream has been lost. The structures now work for the good of the few at the expense of the many.

Perhaps we need to remember the Spook, Captain Kirk statements, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” And “The needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many.” Both are true though opposite. Liberals and Conservatives are both right in their fashion.

For me, all things come back to religion and today we need to particularly aware of the teachings of the prophets who warned the people of their selfish way that would lead them to destruction if not changed. Or as Micah said in chapter 6 verse 8 ,

“⁸But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do,

what God is looking for in men and women.

It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor,

be compassionate and loyal in your love,

And don’t take yourself too seriously—

take God seriously.