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| Giving a leg up, not a hand out. |
The last presidential
election was won by the Democrats by their campaigning on the ideas of envy and
empathy. It was Bill Clinton's "I feel your pain" writ large. It was
the tipping point where feeling trumped information, knowledge, and from that,
who was most likely able to address those issues effectively, was tossed out.
This nation rejected a man with a proven track record of
personal and business financial success, of organizational success, to a
man-child with a knack of getting others covering for him even with a record of failure.
This nation decided to go with the guy who says
he cares about people when he's never done anything to show that. We rejected
the guy who through his actions, personally and professionally, has helped
thousands, if not millions of people.
In my job, mostly customer service, the idea of
"empathy" for the customer is emphasized; not sympathy. This is a
huge misuse of the word, and irritates me to no end. It's become a double down
term for sympathy. Empathy is the complete
substitution of one's emotions\feelings into another. The idea comes from the
German "einfuhlund", where one projects one's own feelings onto
inanimate objects, i.e., how a painting or sculpture makes you feel. That grew
into the usage of entering into another's experience to understand them, which
is okay, but now it has become a political tool.
By using it, the Democrats portray themselves as the party
of compassion, even though their policies create more poor, more dependence on
the State, and diminishes liberty. George Bush II created the term
"compassionate conservatism" to counter that notion, and it became
something to be mocked by the Left, and refuted by Conservatives.
Making people dependant is not compassionate. It's the old
saw about teaching a person to fish rather than giving him fish. What Obama is
doing reflects what Libertarian Harry Browne has said, "Government is good
at one thing: It knows how to break your legs, hand you a crutch, and say,
'See, if it weren't for government you wouldn't be able to walk'."
Conservatives must continue to guide the RINO controlled
Republican Party to the original ideas of sympathy and compassion. Earl
of Shaftesbury [18th century] on compassion: “To compassionate, i.e., to
join with in passion,” ... “ . . . to commiserate, i.e., to join with
in misery. . . . This in one order of life is right and good; nothing more
harmonious; and to be without this, or not to feel this, is unnatural, horrid,
immane [inhuman].” Adam Smith pointed out what we all have in common, rich and
poor alike, is “the propensity to truck, barter, and exchange”; and through
that better themselves.
The earliest charities, a Christian, not government or pagan
idea, were based on the idea both the provider and the recipient of help
benefitted. There were a lot of "societies" and "associations" to help the
poor, most notably in England.
The poor, abandoned children, the sick and dispossessed, the invalids. There
were corruption and exploitation to be sure, but overall many were helped, and
both the givers and receivers benefited.
Then governments decided to offer insurances against
hardship, usurping the helping hand and replacing it with the giving hand.
Welcome to Marxism, where the State, not caring people help each other; the
Christian ideal where both bodies and souls benefit. It all becomes about
things, the material. Obama and the Democrats can claim they
"empathize" so they give
people in trouble stuff. Republicans
must re-present themselves as the Party that can show people how to get stuff
for themselves, and from that help others to do the same, and their spirits are
better for it too.
From Augustine's (The City of God, Book XIV, Chapter 28):
Accordingly, two cities have been formed by two loves: the
earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the
love of God, even to the contempt of self. The former, in a word, glories in
itself, the latter in the Lord. For the one seeks glory from men; but the
greatest glory of the other is God, the witness of conscience. The one lifts up
its head in its own glory; the other says to its God, You are my glory, and the
lifter up of mine head. In the one, the princes and the nations it subdues are
ruled by the love of ruling; in the other, the princes and the subjects serve
one another in love, the latter obeying, while the former take thought for all.
The one delights in its own strength, represented in the persons of its rulers;
the other says to its God, I will love You, O Lord, my strength. And therefore
the wise men of the one city, living according to man, have sought for profit
to their own bodies or souls, or both, and those who have known God glorified
Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations,
and their foolish heart was darkened; professing themselves to be wise,— that
is, glorying in their own wisdom, and being possessed by pride—they became
fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like
to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.
For they were either leaders or followers of the people in adoring images, and
worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for
ever. [Romans 1:21-25] But in the other city there is no human wisdom, but only
godliness, which offers due worship to the true God, and looks for its reward
in the society of the saints, of holy angels as well as holy men, that God may
be all in all. [1 Corinthians 15:28]
I'm convinced this country is degrading and becoming
increasingly uncivil and barbaric because, like ancient Israel, we've turned our back on
God.
And in the Literal Commentary on Genesis (XI, 15,20)
Augustine writes:
These are the two loves: the first is holy, the second foul;
the first is social, the second selfish; the first consults the common welfare
for the sake of a celestial society, the second grasps at a selfish control of
social affairs for the sake of arrogant domination; the first is submissive to
God, the second tries to rival God; the first is quiet, the second restless;
the first is peaceful, the second trouble-making; the first prefers truth to
the praises of those who are in error, the second is greedy for praise, however
it may be obtained; the first is friendly, the second envious; the first
desires for its neighbor what it wishes for itself, the second desires to
subjugate its neighbor; the first rules its neighbor for the good of its
neighbor, the second for its own advantage; and these two loves produce a
distinction among the angels: the first love belongs to the good angels, the
second to the bad angels; and they also separate the two cities founded among
the race of men, under the wonderful and ineffable Providence of God,
administering and ordering all things that have been created: the first city is
that of the just, the second is that of the wicked. Although they are now,
during the course of time, intermingled, they shall be divided at the last
judgment; the first, being joined by the good angels under its King, shall
attain eternal life; the second, in union with the bad angels under its king,
shall be sent into eternal fire. Perhaps, we shall treat, God willing, of these
two cities more fully in another place.
Obviously the second city are the Leftist\Democrats of the
second love. Conservatives and Christians must talk about and show they are for
the common welfare, to provide peacefulness and truthfulness, to offer those
things that are important to them, to others. This is politics too, and there must be some hard hitting at the same time.
Conservatives and Republicans must talk about what caring
and charity are, what empathy and sympathy are, invoke those Christian values,
while at the same time avoid directly mentioning them. Look at what
Leftists/Democrats have done by changing the language and using that as the
foundation for creating a mindset for a majority of citizens that being
dependant on the State is not only a good thing, but something desirable. Under
the guise of Empathy they demean the human spirit and create dependency and a majority
are okay with that. That, without once mentioning their totalitarian intent.
If those that put self above others, exploit them, diminish
them, enslave them and convince citizens this is a good thing for them, why
can't those that put the common good first, convince citizens that helping
themselves and others is to their benefit? Christians and Conservatives, by putting God
first, will have the winning hand again.
