A Few Observations
Humans are one of the smartest and dumbest creatures. The majority of animals on this planet live free and wild.
They do have the advantage of not being what we would consider intelligent. Disclaimer here, before pet lovers become incensed, I'm not saying animals aren't smart.
That doesn't even mean that some animals aren't smarter than people. They have instincts—and something else. But they can't do algebra...yes, I'm laughing here.
Here are some thoughts from an article from Seth Godin. It is a short article, and I don't want to 'plagiarize', so I'll try to keep it short and give him credit where due. These interesting concepts piqued my little grey cells, as Agatha Christie's 'Poirot' calls them.
Seth Godin calls it the Spiderman Paradox:
Godin quotes: "With great power comes great responsibility."
The essence of the rule is that once you have great power, you need to take the responsibility that goes with it.
And yet, it’s backfiring.
It’s backfiring because so many walk away from their great power. They walk away because they don’t want the responsibility.
*We have the power to vote, but decide to stay home and whine.
*The power to lead, but follow meekly.
*The power to innovate, but ask for rules of thumb instead.
*The power to lend a hand, but walk away.
In a democracy, we each have more power to speak up and to connect than we imagine.
But most people don’t publish their best work or seek to organize people who care. Most of the time, it’s far easier to avert our eyes or blame the system or the tech or the dominant power structure.
There are millions who insist we’d be better of with a monarchy. The main reason: what happens after that is no longer their responsibility. Go work for the man, it saves you from having to be responsible.
When the local business disappears, it’s because we didn’t shop there. When the local arts program fades away, it’s because we watched Netflix instead. And when the local school persists in churning out barely competent cogs for the industrial system, it’s because we didn’t speak up.
Culture is what we build, and that’s powerful.
……
Those were some of Mr. Godin's thoughts, and most are spot on. We aren't a democracy, we are a Representative Republic, even if it is a dwindling one. People have the ability to live lives of freedom. Mostly people choose to live mediocre lives of enslavement because that's easy.
For this generation, they don't want to grow up. Everyone is equal—like children. No thought, no responsibility, that's all on someone else's shoulders.
However, no matter how much a person wants or tries to move the responsibility onto someone else, there comes a time when it won't move to someone else.
In other words there is a point when we are held responsible. A classic example would be the Nuremberg Trials held between 1945 and 1949.
Many who were on trial for the Nazis atrocities used the 'I was only taking orders, so I'm not liable', plea. It was determined that this plea was subject to the idea that we are all under a 'higher power' law. A moral law of right and wrong.
"The World Wars lead the world community to pledge that “never again” would anything similar occur. But the shocking acts of the Nazis were not isolated incidents, which we have since consigned to history."
https://www.roberthjackson.org/speech-and-writing/the-influence-of-the-nuremberg-trial-on-international-criminal-law/
What I'm saying here is individuals can't claim they aren't responsible and get by with it. Why would we want to?
It's easier, when you can do algebra, to let someone else lead. People who have been enslaved in a fixed society are comfortable there.
Think of the freedoms we've lost! It makes me dizzy to imagine what life would be like if we could return to a life where government wasn't the gun toting
bully shooting at our feet.
Galatians 5:13 "For ye, brethren, were called for freedom; only use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh, but through love be servants one to another. 14) For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 15) But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. 16) But I say, walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh."
