Try again!

It has been a long time since I made an entry here, which I admit is one of the problems I have with writing. And I might add most of my ideas to improve my life. That is that they are diffuse and intermittent, with great emphasis on being intermittent.

Therefore I have been thinking lately on how I can take my thinking which is diffuse (unorganized mostly but lacking concentration) and intermittent (obviously given the length of time since I’ve posted here that is given) and convert them to something that is both concentrated and consistent.

Obviously, given my lack of training in this area, most of my efforts have been at best ineffectual. That is what some of my earlier writing on issues such as outlining an organizational tools has dealt with. And to be honest I still lack even those basic tools. Which makes making the next step in the effort even more difficult for in many ways I am still in a playpen watching everyone around me run and have fun and not only do I have no way I can see to escape the playpen but there has been an active effort by some to make sure I don’t leave that playpen.

Some of my efforts here have been writing about that very issue, that is leaving the playpen, the safe space if you will. For if one were to redefine safe spaces as playpens where you never allowed yourself (for it is my experience that for all of the outside influences I fight the worst enemy I have in all of my effort is myself) to experience either victory or defeat in the hope of avoiding defeat. But I have found this: If your focus is on defeat, that is what you experience, no matter how hard you try to avoid it. So how do I who have all of my life focused on avoiding defeat change my focus to achieving victory. I mean that is terrifying! If I fail badly now while not even really crawling, what will my failures when running look and feel like.

Yet I do not any longer wish to be constrained to the prison I and others have kept me in for all of my life. Where do I go from here?

First I’m going to listen to this speach again. If you have come here from somewhere else and maybe this is the first time you’ve thought about what is in my blog, then I urge you to start arguing to 100 in your life rather than arguing to zero!

Lesson 59 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Since jealousy and greed are related closely, jealousy must obviously be a source or root of evil.

I am not so much interested in defining evil as identifying the cause of evil, these I have boiled down to greed, envy and jealousy. Indeed I believe that envy and jealousy are actually aspects of greed. Behind any behavior that could possibly be considered evil is the root of greed and its expression as naked greed, or greed disguised as envy or jealousy.

Sometimes of course greed is difficult to identify, for example when many people (including BHO in my humble opinion) start to talk about giving to the poor they rarely intend that they should give to the poor but are somewhat more like Judas Iscariot who had his hand in the money bag of Jesus. I say that even if they may not be stealing money for their own enrichment, for when they use the power of the government to take money from one person to give to another in order to appear to be generous they at minimum steal the accolade that would go with such a gift if they had not stepped between the ‘donor’ and the ‘recipient.’

However since BHO is running the money through the government chances are that at more than one level there are people who are diverting some of it to their own enrichment. This is on top of the fact that government ‘charity’ rarely does anything other than to increase the dependency of its recipient. While the increasing control this gives stokes the appetite of the government for ever greater power (which is one objective of some strains of greed) over all aspects of life.

© 2012 Vic Jones

Good Intentions

Good Intentions

Good intentions put no food on the table

Nor do they put money in the bank

Good intentions do no work

And good intentions save no lives

More often than not

Though many won’t admit

Good intentions lead to bad ends!

© 2012 Vic Jones

Lesson 55 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Evil breeds hate. Then hatred breeds violence.

Hatred sets men one against another. The father of evil (if you believe the Bible) is Satan; the one thing Satan wants more than anything else is for men to hate one another. The fact that men hating one another breeds violence and causes men to destroy one another means that we do Satan’s work for him.

Perhaps you do not believe in Satan or in objective evil. If you insist on disbelieving in Satan that is fine; but not believing that we can define evil as one man stirring hatred for another for any reason seems to be lacking in understanding. For if we hate one another we can never have peace.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 53 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Human nature is universal, people are individual.

Self interest is a matter of human nature. In every society no matter how it is organized people will generally seek their own interests over everyone else. This is one of the generalities of human nature.

People are individual (this is also a generality of human nature) in that everyone will express some form of individuality even in the most conformist culture. Also even though everyone can be expected to seek his own interest it is never wise to expect that any one person will seek his own interest even when it may seem that he has an obvious interest.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 52 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Today’s lesson is a quote from Ayn Rand the author of Atlas Shrugged. “One of the methods used by statists to destroy capitalism consists in establishing controls that tie a given industry hand and foot, making it unable to solve its problems, then declaring that freedom has failed and stronger controls are necessary.” —Ayn Rand, 1975

My first question on seeing this quote is: What is a Statist? A Statist is a person who invests the state (government) with the ability to answer all of life’s questions and needs. A person who believes this way is worshiping a false god of course but since the state has become their god you cannot do much to persuade them away from investing all of their effort into it.

In the modern era it is wise for us to remember that the statist will do his (her) best to destroy anyone who even begins to shake their faith.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 50 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Jealousy and greed are interrelated; if I am jealous of my neighbor's car I am actually practicing covetousness which is a form of greed. If I am jealous of my wife or husband it is because I think of them as possessions rather than as people.

Some people think that self-interest is the same as greed I do not think that self-interest is the same as greed nor is it (self-interest) evil. Yet because it puts your welfare above other people’s welfare it is easy to mistake self-interest as greed.

Greed (and I’ll define it more in a later lesson) is insisting that you should be the only person to have possessions. It (greed) is not wanting more possessions than you currently have unless by having more things you seek to deny possessions to your neighbor.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 48 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

The purpose of religion is the moral education of a society.

Some people may ask if moral education is necessary. Others may insist that we are unable to truly define what is moral. Whether or not a person believes that moral education is necessary children are consistently being morally educated. They may be receiving the message that if they want something that if they can take it that is a reasonable behavior or they may be receiving the message that they must respect other people in both their persons and their property.

I think though that one of the worst things I’m seeing today is the advancement of the idea that it is moral for a crowd to do things that it would be immoral for a person to do. This is a very dangerous idea. In fact a quick look at the French revolution will give a person chills when the behavior of the ‘masses’ is examined.

© 2011 Vic Jones

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 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

Lesson 42 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

If you are doing something and you are not getting the results you expected don’t continue doing what you are doing. Stop and examine what is happening and rethink your strategy, you may need to change what you are doing.

Another way of stating this is that to do the same thing the same way and expect a different result is insanity. There is little doubt that failure should lead to reexamination of what a person is doing. Therefore anything that prevents people from reexamining their behavior in the face of failure is doing them a grave disservice.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 41 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

If you seek peace through weakness you will have peace; you will also most likely be a slave! It may seem to be a contradiction that you will live a more peaceful life if you are willing to work and fight for what you have than if when threatened with violence you give whatever is demanded by the person or group issuing the threat but it is true.

Another way to express this is that bullies only pick on those they perceive as weak.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Go Fly a Kite

Take some time,
To enjoy your life,
Do somethin’,
Just ’cause it’s fun,
Sure you can’t live for fun,
But to try to eliminate it is just as bad,
Balance is the key,
To a life that is well lived,
Have some fun,
Work hard,
Love your family,
And work to love your neighbor,
For this can bring peace to the world,
Don’t expect your neighbor to love you,
For all you may do,
He may remain your enemy,
Still love is what Jesus calls us to.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 36 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

All men are of equal moral value. But all men do not have equal talents. They definitely do not have equal abilities either. Therefore to expect all men to have or acquire the same amount of goods is foolish.
I will also add that not all men will apply themselves to the development of their skills with as much vigor as other men and that also makes a difference in the amount of goods a man can or will acquire. Life is not fair. In other words no matter how much we want it to be so, different people behave differently. If you don’t believe this consider identical twins. Even between two people so nearly alike, there is a difference in temperament and interests.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 33 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Persistence is more important in the scheme of life than inspiration or brilliance.
This is one of the hardest lessons of life to learn. It therefore bears much repetition. In simple parlance practice (persistence) makes perfect. Thus the writer or artist who works at his craft every day is better than the brilliant genius who waits for inspiration to hit.

This also applies to other areas. The man who has many skills but who does not go out every day to find a job (or refuses to take a job) will not usually be as successful as the man who works every day.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Struggling

I’m still struggling with the concept that there is anything that is necessary and at the same time evil. My conclusion is yes there is and the best example I can come up with is still a government or government generically.
I’m sure you are asking how this can be possible. In order to understand that government is evil and yet necessary you have to accept the position that mankind is evil. That in general and generically we all tend toward doing things that are evil. Once you accept that and accept that government (which is made up of people) is evil as well but necessary to curtail the tendency of people to be evil then you can begin to accept that government is a necessary evil.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 30 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. -- Lord Acton.

I’ve been trying to come up with something to add to this and all I can think to say is that it means that the government is no more trust worthy than is Reynolds Tobacco, or Google, or Microsoft for that matter. Each of these organizations has worked to acquire money which translates into power. What is especially worry some though is when a large corporation like Walmart starts cooperating with the government…

© 2011 Vic Jones.

The Viper

The Viper


A foolish young miss,

Nurtured a venomous viper,

At her breast,

When one day it did bite,

She exclaimed before she expired,

Why have you treated me so,

Did I not tenderly nourish you,

And protect you,

Indeed did I not hide you in my bosom,

All that is true said the viper,

But to my nature I too must be true,

And away he did slither,

To entice another foolish miss or mister!

© 2011 Vic Jones