Where are we, and what should we do?
It is our strength and our weakness that politics, in ways great and small, true and false, and good and evil, affects us all, everyone in every country, church, club, and organization. Sometimes politics is in compete control and the average citizen is completely on the “being done to” side and not the “doing to” side. It is in human nature, the result of biological natural selection, to very badly want to be on the “doing to” side, to the point of having little regard for the “done to” side, except for the expectation of the right to take life, property, and freedom of those in the “inferior” group. Such grouping can be based on ethnicity, wealth, political power, God given authority, superior military ability, and the political tool of demonization. Fortunately, at this point in time, with our vote, we do have the power to affect the future of our country. We may not have that power in 2014.
Fascism and communism, coming from two opposite extremes, total private ownership under total authority and total communal ownership under total authority. In both situations, although apparently on opposite extremes of civilization, each has the same controlling effect on the people. The fates of Jim and Jane citizen under both extremes find themselves in pretty much the same place. And that place is under the hard and total control of a repressive government. Democracy is a form of government that tries to institute the individual freedom to conduct one’s life as one sees fit, without the total control of government over life itself. But there is a catch, in order any one individual to be free, including the poor, the disadvantaged, the average citizen, the wealthy, and… and… those that make the laws and govern the application of those laws, have too, must be, also completely subject to those laws as well. In addition, the populace must have the peaceful opportunity to have control to change those that are in political power at regular intervals. Power begets power, and those in political power are seldom for change, no matter how greatly the populace has changed. A true democracy is always a work in progress. An unchangeable swing to the right or the left results sooner or later, in the death of the democracy and often a destructive reconstruction of government. If we are to survive as a citizen powered democracy, we must honestly share political power with all citizens to preserve the rights of all citizens. It is the citizens that that have the right and the obligations to seek the middle path that preserves our democracy,
Over the last few hundred years, the concept of science was conceived and developed and for better or worse has changed civilization. Science has application to every aspect of humanity. The essence of science is not to create the Atomic Bomb! No, the essence of science is to find the truth. Not the truth that religion seeks, not the truth that politics seeks, not the truth that the economy seeks; Science seeks the truth that real and actual without regard to what benefits the human organization that seeks it might find in the “right” answers. Real science has no regard to the negative or positive results on economic and political consequences that the truth of real science might have on the party in power, or the party that seeks power. Real science understands this truth, political science, when wielded to effect the results of elections, does not. Unfortunately, some major and minor corporations striving to sell products also choose to use to concept of science to secure a result rather than develop real knowledge.
Most of us try to keep track of what is real and true to guide our lives, but the pressure to yield to emotion, greed, power, group think, and acclaim is pretty much, in one way or another, small or great, not easily resisted. But there are times, such as in critical elections that have the power to shape our country and who we are, when all of us that can, must use real truth and real science to shape our understanding of our fragile world and our view of the future of our country to guide our decisions.
Martin Moe
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