...that you don't know what you got 'til it's gone?
I was going through the starred posts on my Reader, and came across this video:
It just made me think about what I'll call here "the big picture," though even I think that's mislabeled. I've got this weird feeling after watching that video, like I'm taking a step back from everything and taking it all in, and this quote pops in my head: "Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it." I'm thinking that we've all heard that at least once, but it raises a couple of questions for me.
1) Are we learning it in the first place? In the context of this blog post, are our children learning about the conditions under which the colonies revolted against the crown? Did we even learn that when we were kids?
2) Perhaps the first question is not fair, since children are not mature enough to properly understand the complex struggles of the revolution, so let me ask this: "What have you done for me lately?" Ask yourself if you rightly know what our forefathers gave their Lives and their Fortunes for, and how they ultimately earned their Sacred Honor. What were they truly fighting against?
I brought up the Nephite pride cycle in my previous post, but there's another pearl of great price in the Book of Mosiah that is a better fit here. Roughly 92 years before Christ visited the Americas, the great Nephite King, Mosiah, was nearing the end of his life and his eldest son refused to assume the throne. It is at this point that the nation converts from monarchy to a primitive democratic republic. The whole chapter is great, talking about content of character (no talk about skin color there...), but I'm looking at verses 25-27:
25 Therefore, choose you by the voice of this people, judges, that ye may be judged according to the laws which have been given you by our fathers, which are correct, and which were given them by the hand of the Lord.
26 Now it is not common that the voice of the people desireth anything contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the people to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law—to do your business by the voice of the people.
27 And if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land.
You see where I'm going with this? You understand why our country is in the state that it's in? It's our own damn fault! Now ask yourself this question: Who has the power in this country? Redundant question, I know, since I just told you it's our fault. But have we lost our power? Not completely, not yet.
If you want to get it back, though, it's going to be a fight. You're going to have to be "that guy" in your circle of friends. You're going to have to practically drive your wife crazy by seeing politics in everything, not because you're paranoid, but because that's how far it's come. You're going to have to dress up as Thomas Paine and yell at people for 6 and a half minutes about how lazy they've gotten!
It's not fun being "that guy", trust me. I can't wait for my 10 year reunion next week so I can talk to the 3 people I haven't alienated - either through my wanton destruction of the earth, or the fact that I don't want to wait a year for a life saving surgery, or because I'm a bigoted homophobe! Family reunions are even better! (Haven't had one for 9 years)
But, if that's all I have to go through, as opposed to an actual bloody revolution as our forefathers did, I'll dress up like fricken Betsy Ross if that'd help. (It won't.) Please understand that our forefathers knew they were signing their own death warrants. Please get yourself in a frame of mind that, if it came to it, you would sign yours too. Or at the very least get in shape for that Betsy Ross dress.
1 comment:
That video...it really made me feel lazy. I feel that getting what we don't earn has become a national core belief. Whole generations of entitled, spoiled, and generally non-self-reliant children course through my school each year. It's something I struggle with too.
That passage in Mosiah was poignant. It says that when we stop, as a majority, doing what's right, we'll get wiped out. And that time is coming, if not here. The church is the only thing that makes sense any more. God doesn't change. What's right doesn't change. Enacting as many of God's principle's in our lives is the only way to ensure a happy life. And look at what that would include: frugal living and living within your means, a church welfare system that supports pride instead of mooching, and the concept that we are accountable for what we do. The environment seems to be the only thing leftists really want to stand up for. They don't care about hard work or earning what you get, budgeting or reducing debt. Credit! The whole country has run up a national credit card and we'll never be able to pay it off. (I actually think credit cards should be illegal. I hate them.)
Anyway, long freaking comment, I know. I just thank you for helping me remember that Jesus and his gospel are the way to happiness, and in these times when out government is ruled by crazy people who may or may not be communists, the church is a stable foundation, and the one we need to root our lives and families in. I feel inspired to read the Book of Mormon. Right now!
Well done, Jim. I shall have to read your blog more often. :)
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