Proverbs speaks of slaves ~

In Proverbs chapter 17 Solomon says the wise servant takes control of the children and is honored as part of the family. Here's the link:https://www.bible.com/bible/116/PRO.17.MSG

I don't think Solomon was talking about a hired person. I think he was talking about a slave. And so in today's environment of peace for people known as oppressors does that mean that the Jewish people were oppressors?

I know that that probably could be called anti-Semitism. That on drawing down the anger of generations of leaders and pulling into a multi-century and even multi-millennial battle between different people from the same part of the planet. But I have to ask the question! Jewish people were slaveholders. Egyptian people were slaveholders. African people were slaveholders. Chinese people were slaveholders. In fact, if you look at history there have been slaves in every age.

So why am I being singled out? As a white male I am hated for what I am and what race I am considered to be a part of. People don't ask what my background is. People don't look into my family tree or history to see the indentured servitude, another form of slavery.

People assume based on my skin color and my success level that I am an oppressive Caucasian that needs to be shouted down at every opportunity and shut out of the new society being built.

Enjoy your new society! Just like the last several downturns in the economy, just like the several downturns in other things, just like all of the stuff that I don't buy into, I will not be participating in your new society. At least not unless I have to.

I am required to pay taxes. Sadly those taxes will be used to lift unsuccessful people to a supposed level of success that is equal to mine. And while they puff on the hookah and sit with their thumbs firmly placed I will laugh at what they call their redefinition of success.

Hope you're happy! Your campaign of hatred is working. I feel very hated.

Different way of thinking ~

As I scrolled through some search results on Instagram I stumbled across a post that asked "how do people wake up, work 40 hours a week, a nine hour shift every day, and think yes, this is the way of life without questioning how absurd capitalism is?".

The question is a good one because it gets to the root of the difference between the people who just want to be taken care of and people who want to take care of themselves. The socialist minded vs. the liberty minded.

People who would question this as a way of life tend to think that the government can print money and issue them a universal basic income sufficient to provide them with all of their needs and some of their wants and desires if they play the system correctly or give up on certain things to save up toward a goal. Capitalism within a socialist environment.

I have yet to encounter a fully raw capitalist system. But my understanding from studying capitalism is that each player or entity in the capitalist system is looking for buyers for whatever it is that they are selling. Once you develop a market for whatever it is that you want to sell then you create demand and supply and make trades to gain some sort of income. I have computer skills and you have a need for some work done on the computers to bring your stuff into view of buyers. And so you pay me to use my computer skills to make your product available and visible and the buyers buy that product demand. If your supply goes down and more people want your product you can raise prices to equalize supply and demand and get a continuous stream of income flowing as they do the same thing on their side and everybody makes money along the way. Money chases money throughout the capitalist system. In the socialist ways money drains and money gets created through artificial means driving up inflation and making products that actually have to be produced at a cost go up because it takes more money to pay people to produce the products and then to sell them..

I have traded 40+ hours a week to an agency now for over 30 years. In that trade I have been compensated tremendously for my time and have enjoyed the benefits of the fuel for my life engine that money became.

So many people who look at socialism and see so many cool looking people relaxing and doing whatever they want to do whenever they want to do it say "that's what I want to be when I grow up tomorrow" don't realize the cost that those people become on the system. And that they have spent years practicing learning an artificial system that allows them to jump from step to step and gain advantage over others in the giveaway system so that they can embrace the lifestyle they are pursuing. That woman sitting on the park bench drinking her free coffee for the fifth day in a row may have six illegitimate children at home taking care of each other while she applies for the next government check.

I hate thinking of it that way, but I was raised to think that you work for your money and then you enjoy your money and what it can bring you. I have worked and given up life with my children and family at times in order to get that fuel and make more money. I have pursued goals that brought more income but denied me more time out and about doing what I wanted to do. But at the same time I got to do a lot of the things that I wanted to do whenever I wanted to do them within the framework that I had set up within that system.

We all have to figure out where we fit in what we can and can't do. We have to look at and evaluate the situation and choose the path that we want to go on. And if you want to give up your freedom and liberty in order to sit and sip a latte have at it.


I prefer the dangerous world with a veneer of civility and I'll take care of the rest. My liberty makes me very dangerous and that's what scares so many people. Because I, like so many others, could throw off that veneer quickly and become what they fear.

The other part of the socialism vs. communism discussion is one that nobody really likes to take on. I acknowledge that socialism would be awesome if it could actually be done. I have yet to encounter a group of people that are unselfish enough to make socialism or a socialist economy work. Because within that framework selfishness takes hold and people will withhold resources and hoard resources that the group needs and watch others not survive while they and their family survives to the fullest and more.


I enjoy capitalism. I despise socialism and communism.

Proverbs each day ~

One of the things that I do on a regular basis is read a chapter of Proverbs a day. My friend Brandon encouraged it and I took him up on it and I have done this now for almost 2 years.

When I say read it's more like listen to. Text-to-speech technology reads me a chapter of Proverbs every day. Whatever day of the month it is that is the chapter that I read it in Proverbs. If it's the 10th of the month that I read chapter 10. If it's the 19th of the month I read chapter 19.

As I go through it I pick up tidbits here and there that I didn't hear last time.

One of the interesting tidbits that I picked up this month is that wisdom was there as God created the earth. I think it was in chapter 8 where it says that wisdom was there and was before the oceans were formed. It's a fascinating thought because the way I was taught there was nothing and then there was stuff as God created. Sure, evolution and all that too cold and things evolved over time. But the initial creation was not a big bang as I was taught. Or it was a big bang that was spoken into existence by God.

But it's interesting to think about wisdom being there before anything was created. It's comforting because Proverbs is a book of wisdom. It's a poetic book and so that means it's hard to understand. But the nuggets that you glean as you go through it over and over and over far outweigh the difficulty of getting them.

Money, foolishness, preparing for things before they actually happen, a loving wife, although cool things that Solomon talks about in his poetic book of wisdom just help me throughout each and every day. I enjoy listening to it and I enjoy taking it in a chapter at a time. As I go along and realize that I've heard it over and over and over I start to meditate on it and wonder about how it plugs into real life and what it means and how I can apply it and how I can help others with the advice of Solomon instead of just the advice of David.

I encourage you to read today's chapter of Proverbs. And read a chapter a day. It will truly change your perspective on life. Go for it!

https://www.bible.com/bible/116/PRO.1.MSG

Not a name-dropper ~

I have never been a name dropper. I just don't think that way. I don't think about trying to gain an advantage by using connections or perceived connections to get preferential treatment.

But I'm surrounded by name-droppers. My wife does it. Other relatives do it. Many people drop the names of television personalities in order to give their words more weight.

Even devotionals meant for us to center our minds on God do this. They quote authors and pastors of big churches. And then they encourage us to drop the name of God on people and we want to gain a little bit better access to things or gain some control over someone that's not the way they freeze it, but that's the result that they are looking for.

In a time when so many people are wailing against preferential treatment I always find it funny to see people use the fraternity or sorority affiliation to get jobs and to get discounts.

My father even did it! My father joined the Freemasons later in life. When he would travel he would slip on his Freemasonry ring and then he would wave it in front of the waitress or waiter in an effort to get a discount. He didn't do it around me, but I was told by plenty of people that he did that on numerous occasions.

I prefer to live my life with an approach on a level playing field. Or as level as it can be given the circumstances. That way when we do things we all get along. We all enjoy the possibility of similar outcomes.

But then I see people glory and me having to pay more than them because I'm not as well-connected. I see people take glee in abusing the system and then saying that they didn't say I couldn't.

I think the world would be a better place if we all approached it equally. Sadly, many people would prefer to cheat and lie and steal in their effort to avoid doing the work required to get an outcome similar to what I've got. Right now they're calling that equitable, but I'm calling it cheating and lying and stealing because so many people are doing just that.

Lack of respect ~

We're in a strange time right now where the lack of respect for others has grown into an ugly malignancy that threatens our society.

It started a long time ago. The struggle has always been there. Little lyrics looped into songs to push the agenda talk about the gentle curve of something without ever saying it. As the edge got pushed further out they got worse. A very popular rock song that I remember that really pushed hard on the edge was If You See Kay. I forget who sang it but it was a hot song on the radio is because it pushed that image and got the F word out there on the radio. Openly.

Wrappers push that edge hard, then bend and break it over and over and over. The repeated use of the N-word with the defense that "I'm black so I can say this" is saddening as much as it's maddening. Songs that say the word shutting within an "I" instead of the "u" and then the smiling smirk when they get interviewed about it shock people and make it more more acceptable.

Social media doesn't help. "Oh my God" got shortened to OMG. To put more emphasis on it it became OMFG. I've only seen JFC a couple times but it is out there. And the things that people put in comments are just incredibly disrespectful. I remember one that I saw where somebody commenting on somebody else's opinion and it was obvious that they did not know each other but this person had stumbled across them online talk about the author's mother's vagina. Where is any shred of respect in that?

Books have come out in the past few years like "Shit my father said" that got turned into a TV show if I remember right. F the world. Shut the F up. The Art of not giving an F.

The F bomb is one of the most prevalent edge pushers out there. It's used in conversations and kids say it to try and feel more adult like. I have used the word way too often and have worked hard to reduce and minimize that use. One of the most beautiful acts between a man and a woman reduced to a comment meant to wound and shock becomes more and more minimized the more easy it is used.

Now headlines on prominent news websites use F*** openly.

All of this seems to bow down to the general low level of respect and self-control being exercised by people. The use of all these things in the pushing of the edge and obliterating of the line in the name of freedom of expression fit right in with the neo-barbarian view of the world and what I call the new American slogan: don't get in my way.

We've come a long way since that artist put a Christian cross in a jar of urine and called it "Piss Christ". I'm almost afraid of what the neo-Puritans will do when the pendulum swings the other way.

We'll see...