I believe in We the People helping one another. We strive, survive and thrive the best when we work and cooperate with each other; caring and sharing wherever and whenever we can. I also believe what Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich) wrote in his 1500 + page book, Law of Success: "All anyone really requires as capital on which to start a successful career is a sound mind, a healthy body and a genuine desire to be of as much service as possible to as many people as possible."
And from Mahatma Gandhi: "In order to find yourself, you must lose yourself in the service of others."
Then Emerson: " It is one of the most beautiful compensations in life that no man can sincerely try to help others without helping himself." He also said: Character is higher than intellect."
The human socio-cultural evolution involves the process of competition: survival of the fittest or most competent. In this process the concept of beating your own best is often forgotten, not realizing that this is the real key to surviving, thriving and coming out on top. Unfortunately, beating the other guy has become the byword for many, regardless of any ethical values of spiritual principles. Just where does ethical behavior fit in today? Where have values, principles and morals gone? How do you feel about the value you place on your own values?
Do our biases and beliefs cloud our vision as to what are the best actions to take in order for positive change to take place? Like Nature which is in constant change, we must remember: when growth stops, decay sets in. How are we doing in the areas of personal and spiritual growth individually, as a Nation and worldwide? Our chaotic world tells us that many of us are caught in the
GMP Trap [Greed, Money and Power] and the CDD Affliction [Character Defict Disorder]
It is not sufficiently understood that Character Counts: Character caries credit.
The value of values has been downgraded by entirely too many. Character traits such as integrity; self-responsibility; trustworthiness; unselfishness; sincerity; courage; honesty and many other positive traits have been diminishing over the years within many segments of our society. Have you noticed?
In America, too many in our society have come a long way down the road towards moral bankruptcy. Does this really need pointing out? If so, the reader is asleep.
Wake Up! Wake Up America: Its later tan you think! Much Later! Let not the Amer I CAN spirit of honest achievement ever die or be taken from you.
What are the reasons for this decadence? Haven't parents and the adults who run our religious and educational institutions, done a good job? They too remember, were exposed to these same systems. Bill Gates has said that, "Our high schools are obsolete." Warren Buffett feels that "Ethics should be learned in the home."
How do you feel about these statements?
It seems that there is an observable cycle here. Children are brought up by parents who went through the same systems. Is something missing here? And then we can also add the Internet, radio, TV, print materials, and entertainment as additional sources of information and education: not all positive.
As time went on the Bible, prayer, God and the value of values along with certain historical events, faded from our classrooms. Simultaneously grades plummeted, and graduation rates diminished. Apparently this observable cycle of events isn't working too well.
I've been watching these tends for over 30 years. I remember reading an article in 1980 on how cheating on tests was increasing among high school students. When I was in High School back in the 1940's, cheating was not a common thing. How was it in your high High School days?
Here's another question? Have the schools been dumbing down our children? If you think so, do you think it is unintentional?
Note: A poorly educated and misinformed people, lacking vital information and being untrained in analytical
thinking, develop analysis paralysis. They are more easily mislead and misguided into serfdom. Has this been happening in America?
Remember what Hitler once said: "What luck for rulers that people don't think."
Luck? As I recall, he was the guy who's government controlled education and religion in Nazi Germany when he was in power. Didn't he contribute to non-thinking future generations by his government controled education system?
