Posted on 11/25/2018 9:48:50 PM PST by Lazamataz
There was a song, in the 1970's, titled "Cruel To Be Kind", performed by Nick Lowe. The lyrics, in part, read "You've gotta be cruel to be kind, in the right measure, cruel to be kind, it's a very fine line."
Recently, a relative and I happened to share a particular viewpoint about a particular issue, and I celebrated the agreement. Yet, she implied she wanted to understand me better, to understand why I hold the beliefs I do. I seek to be understood.
My spiritual life has drifted from Roman Catholicism, to an exploration of Judaism (my father coming from a Ukrainian Jewish heritage), then to New Age spiritualism, then to a generic form of Christianity. Here, in Christianity, I have found what I sought.
However, this essay is not focused on the spiritual, but more on the affairs of men. In this arena, my viewpoint is one of competitive capitalism and the favoring of willing struggle for our personal excellence and achievement.
Socialism in all its flavors, to include outright Communism, promises something it is dangerous to promise: Equality. While it seems, on its, surface a 'kinder, gentler way', it is not. The equality of results removes any goals, and kills any desire to excel. If a shoddy, poorly crafted brass ring is offered to you and every other person, why would you stretch to get the shinier, higher quality one? It turns out that competition and capitalism is the more benevolent approach.
When every individual seeks to better his financial and social position -- and, as in capitalism, when there is a point to do so! -- each person will develop his or her unique talents to offer something of value to others. The computer programmer will increase his skillset; the artist will improve his art; the tradesman will improve his craft. In contrast, the system of socialism (with the end result of one's work being the same, no matter what skill or diligence you bring to your occupation) there is no motivation to improve. There is no motivation to succeed.
It goes back to the thought-experiment of the Commons. If, say, there is a communal garden -- a Commons -- that everyone works and the harvest is split equally, the motivation of workers will be to put the least amount of work into the Commons, and still be assured of an equal share. Cut that Commons up into individual plots of land, each worked and each reaped individually, and watch as the harvest becomes bountiful.
So it is in our marketplace. We all need to compete, to offer something of value, something we uniquely bring. We sharpen our swords on other men's shields. Competition is healthy and causes us to grow.
There has been a tendency to remove competition from every arena of life. Children in sports are given 'participation trophies', for example, which teaches them that equal rewards are available, no matter the level of effort. This is an artificial, very detrimental construct. Artificial constructs are appearing everywhere. We now hear of '57 genders'. Absurd. You have the DNA of a man or a woman. Choose your sexual predilection, fine, but do not tell me that your gender is a Bi-Trans-Chicken-Pan-Wanker. It's not. It's male or female.
These artificial constructs have emerged as our society has become fat. With more wealth and ease, we have become weaker -- psychologically, physically, and spiritually. The emergence of many artificial constructs puts our race at odds with natural constructs -- the very ones that strengthen humanity.
Weakness of the very spirit of society has given rise to the Snowflake Generation. Now, today's young need 'safe spaces' and 'protection from triggering'. Ideologies are shouted down in colleges -- colleges! -- as unacceptable to even discuss. Colleges should be the very place that ideologies should be explored and put to the test.
Societies go through an ebb and flow: There are lean times, where people develop a strong work ethic and oftentimes an accompanying moral foundation. There are fat times, in which people become lazy and develop every manner of aberrant behavior. Rome saw that 'fat time', now it is ours.
Competitive capitalism will not save our society, but it will instill in us a form of strength. It propelled the United States to an unchallenged world dominance in technology and innovation. What appears, on its surface, to be cruel -- competition -- is actually kind.
Life often presents this conundrum. Mother Nature is a bitch. She is a tough-as-nails, unforgiving and relentless woman. She will kill you quickly and without remorse, if you make mistakes in the wild. Yet it is this very cruelty which turns out to be kind, because it forges a better person, a better species. I have seen this conundrum myself, in my personal affairs. What I thought I wanted would have killed me; what I thought was a tragedy turned out to be the best thing to ever happen to me.
Just like the song says, "You've gotta be cruel to be kind, in the right measure." Just as those lyrics state, in the arenas in which we have influence, we can measure the "kind cruelty". We can temper it with a little compassion. Competitive capitalism creates wealth, so we are able to afford to help those who simply cannot provide for themselves -- such as the truly disabled -- and to be able undertake efforts to mitigate the most toxic effects of pollution.
A good time for music, kind of a mini-British invasion in the late 70s with the likes of Elvis Costello, and Squeeze.
Well, I love you, too. :)
Yabut I love you more.
Impossible!
Okay, I just worked through it quickly between calls.
Yes, when I changed that e(pi) to the minus-second power to e(pi) to the minus 20th power, it worked fine. Just a decimal error, it seems. Understandable in such a complicated equation. You’ll get it right next time, I am sure. :)
Classy laz, I’M MELTING!!!!
She has many opportunities to choose from because she is pretty exceptional BUT, when I read such things as this I wish she would just not compete in this competition.
To me the question is to find out just how indoctrinated into the Leftist vain of thought she is.
She is struggling with the question because it is just not her.
In my opinion she is way beyond this tripe.
I delete the name just because.
It is framed and stated as follows:
“The essay is required for consideration of the Presidential Scholarships. It should be of sufficient length to demonstrate your writing ability to the Scholarship Committee and to do justice to the topic:”
“’Insert Liberal University here’ is committed to diversity, justice and sustainability. Our faculty seek to engage students in linking all three of these values through thoughtful involvement in academics and through service activities. Which aspects of diversity, justice and sustainability most appeal to you? How will you try to connect those three when you join the campus community?”
This use to be a Christian university BTW. To me this points way left of what the target should be. She is interested in the medical field. This...just gives me a funny vibe and upsets my stomach. “Diversity, justice and sustainability” to me mean denial of realities of life, hate whitey, worship the false god of eviromentalism. They want my daughters mind! No! Hell no! She is smarter than that, I’m not so worried about her but this generation...it’s bad.
Most FReepers are into politics. So how do we be cruel to be kind to the nation? To the Republican Party? To Leftists?
HOORAY Laz! BUMP!
Bump for later!
Thank you Laz!
*groan*
Yeah, but there ain’t no oxygen there. We could send them there and keep Earf.
Luckily, WE won't have to.
The Gods of the Copybook Headings will do it for us.
Weakness of the very spirit of society has given rise to the Snowflake Generation. Now, today’s young need ‘safe spaces’ and ‘protection from triggering’.
And, to give a nod to your post, it is because we haven’t given tough love to this generation (and, almost certainly, to ANY generation this side of that idiot, Dr. Spock - who definitely said to “spare the rod.” Well, that spoiled entire generations of children. The world is a tough, cruel place. While we quite naturally seek to make it less tough and less cruel for those whom we love, our puny actions will never change all of society (which is to say, we cannot change human nature). All that we can do, by trying to be kind, is to leave those we love less (or completely) unprepared to deal with the world AS IT ACTUALLY EXISTS. We should teach our kids and grandkids to be tough competitors, while also teaching them to be kind and generous to others wherever that is possible.
So many safety nets? ... Check out the Cloward-Piven strategy. These ‘safety nets’ are ‘pooping’ up because the original plan A was too obvious and society rejected it in the main. But the America haters never sleep. They are fully committed to end The Republic, any way they can git er dun. The just ending election cycle proves the bastards are succeeding!
Have you slipped a decimal in your theta value?
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