January 04, 2012
Bring ’em on Down
The marquee sign on a local financial investment company reads, “Don’t keep up with the Joneses, drag them
down to your level.” I can’t totally put my finger on it, but I’m having an
adverse reaction to this message. No doubt there is supposed to be an
investment connection as well as some humor in the message, but I just don’t
get it. I can however, see that the church is not immune to such thoughts. The
disciples were indignant with the sons of Zebedee for asking for positions of
honor to sit at the right and the left hand of Jesus in his kingdom. Jesus
responded to the ten, “…whoever wants to
become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants
to be first must be your slave…” (Matt 20:26b-27 NIV) Most believers don’t
have much trouble lifting up the weak and serving the downtrodden, but when
someone in our midst thinks they’re superior, being their servant is the
farthest thing from our mind.
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----Although this message may not quite have come from an understanding about servant hood, I am overjoyed to hear of it. Little Barry Obama has done more to draw attention to the elephant in our room than any individual of recent current events. He has been unabashed about fundamentally changing America from a process of the individual responsibility, effort, and participation of everyone to a solution of the individual participation of some in the individual efforts of others. Almost the entirety of our cultural mechanism has been so complicit in his ambition that they have failed to understand and communicate its consequences. These consequences are simple. When something is continually taken from someone who has more to be given to someone who has less, then eventually the one who has more will be drug down to the level of the one who has less. Indeed, this is a principle of an actual economic system: communism. But the principle I stated above is of a far different economic system - capitalism: individual responsibility, effort, and participation in a laissez-faire culture.
-----To drag the Joneses down to your level may seem only to be an economic event. In Little Barry’s world, it must be far more than that. Communism, socialism, and fascism are all statist systems. That means the state is supreme. For the state to be supreme, it must be stronger than the individuals over which it rules. History shows how strong individuals are. States have been falling as fast as they have arisen since history began recording the sordid affair. Individuals are strong! In fact, any state is really controlled only by individuals. So for those controlling individuals to keep control, they must remain stronger than the ones they control. And that is what socialism, communism, and fascism do. They deplete the wealth of the country by depleting the ambition of the country by depleting the responsibility of the individual by taking so much from the one that he can no longer be responsible for himself and giving so much to the other that he will have no need to be responsible for himself. Since irresponsible people are powerless, the control of the Nicolaitans (nico - to conquer; laitans - people) is secure.
-----The American Dream was never about owning your own home. That was a left wing (statist) distortion foisted upon us during the fascist moment of Western history. The American Dream was about making a life for your self by your own responsibility within a state which was smaller and weaker than its collection of individuals. Had the purveyors of contemporary culture been honest enough to admit to the people the truth about the American Dream then Little Barry’s elephant would long ago have been kicked out of the room.
-----Some conservatives have not been quiet about these matters lately. I too must only assume what that company’s sign means. But it’s negative import shouts sarcasm. Even the left wing would not so openly boast this subterfuge of their own efforts. Evidently the company feels the nature of these statist gremlins has been so publicly exposed that folks reading the sign will simply know it speaks of the left-wing elephant in the room. In that I am overjoyed!
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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