Lesson 47 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

You have heard the teaching that if your neighbor slaps your cheek you should offer him the other one. Some people have interpreted to mean that you should accept violence without recourse. This is untrue. If your neighbor balls up his fist and punches your nose you are well advised to return the favor immediately.

You say to me that returning violence for violence just escalates violence. I say that the appearance of weakness encourages violence. Most times it is possible to accept an insult (though to some people even accepting an insult can will be viewed as weakness) without injury; however when insult escalates to assault it is generally no longer wise to accept it.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 46 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

There is no time when you are not making a choice. You may choose to stay where you are or you may chose to move from where you are. The most important thing to remember is that in either case you're making a choice.

Being able to understand this principle can help you to recognize when you have made a choice. This is because many times we fail to recognize that attempting to not make a choice is impossible because the only time you are not making a choice is when you are dead.

© 2011 Vic Jones

 

Lesson 45 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

The only way that everyone can (or will) have the same amount of goods and services is if no one has any goods or services.

Of course even in the most aggressively socialistic or communistic countries it is evident that not everyone has the same things or the same services rendered to them. For example consider North Korea. Most of the population of North Korea lives in abject poverty while the ruler of the country (an absolute dictator) lives in luxury that would embarrass anyone with a sense of morality. The same can be seen in Cuba where the Castro brothers have lived in luxury while their people starved. Thus when anyone puts forth the idea that fairness consists of everyone having the same amount of goods and services it is well to ask whether he is willing to divest himself of his goods so that he can live up to his rhetoric.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 44 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Lies are like acid corroding or corrupting any society that permits them to permeate its fabric.

What more needs to be said about this? Yet there seem to be some people who would rather hear a pleasant sounding lie for the moment than to hear an unpleasant truth. A pleasant lie for example is that when everyone has the same amount of stuff that society is fair. This is a most childish belief that leads at the very least to mass misery. We may have equal value to God but we do not have equal talents and it is certain that we have not all applied our talents with equal vigor to gaining stuff. Therefore it is actually unfair to assume that everyone having the same stuff is fairness!

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 43 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

The truth must be defended; that includes debunking lies whenever you hear them!

It may seem oxymoronic that allowing a lie to stand can cause much evil but since lies are one of the basic units of evil every person who aspires to goodness must work continually to expose any lies they discover. Thus anyone who says that the truth can stand without being defended is expressing at the very least moral incompetence. However it is my contention such a person is very likely is asking that whatever lies he has told not be exposed.

© 2011 Vic Jones