Tag: protests

Being a Good Ninja

Halloween is almost upon us. Such a fun excuse to dress up as something or someone else for tricks and treats. I’m so blessed to be able to experience this day through my grandchildren now. Oh, I know adults can dress up too and party, party, party. But you can’t beat the anticipation of a child during this “holiday”.

My grandson will be a ninja for Halloween this year. In fact he has actually stated that he wants to be a ninja when he grows up! Not impossible these days when you consider that he can start karate classes at his age of five. But honestly I think Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers have more influence over this decision than any career ninja he’s met in his short life. I personally acquired my first degree black belt at the age of forty. It takes a lot of determination to get that far!

Everyone can develop good ninja skills.

Occasionally I will make an off handed remark to someone that I have ninja skills. This happens usually when someone doesn’t realize I’m near them or when I unsuspectingly respond to a person’s body language. What are those skills? I believe they are quite similar to my black belt skills which reflect a redirected proactive defense approach to life rather than a direct attack method. All ninjas know how to attack, but good ninjas know that you should never try to put yourself in a situation where an attack is necessary. Awareness of your surroundings, of the people around you, and of your own training is the best test of the stealth needed to overtake any precarious situation. The good ninja prepares and practices these awareness skills constantly.

Are there bad ninjas out there? Certainly! I’m watching them now destroying the streets and buildings of France. These “ninjas” believe that the governing bureaucracy is against them and they attack their own surroundings as if it is their duty to all citizens. They have been stealthily organizing to make their strike! They are aware of the system vulnerabilities initiated by the undisciplined bureaucratic processes. The chaos these bad ninjas unleashed will be difficult for the good ninjas to overcome…Unless the good ninjas are fully aware of their fundamental training skills. All the tools exist in the Western Pillars and Cultural Values of:

  • Individualism and Autonomy: Emphasis on individual rights, personal liberty, and moral accountability over collective conformity.
  • Reason and Rational Inquiry: Reliance on logical argumentation, empirical evidence, and critical thinking to derive ethical rules.
  • Universalism: The belief that fundamental ethical standards and human rights apply equally to all rational or human beings.
  • Rule of Law: The principle that laws should govern society through a constitutional framework rather than the arbitrary will of leaders.
  • Social Contract Theory: The idea—explored by thinkers like Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau—that legitimate moral and political rules arise from an implicit agreement among individuals to form a peaceful society.

The bad ninjas who are acting out on the streets of France absolutely hate Western cultural norms, but these norms are what keep a free society from devolving into tyranny. We all must be good ninjas in these times of chaos and practice our Western cultural norms constantly against any bad ninja behavior. Not unlike the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fighting against the evil Shredder and heeding the advice of their beloved Splinter.

May we all grow up to be good ninjas 😉

Fatalism or Free Will

These are some very dark days. How does your ideology help you to cope?

Sadly I see that many turn to activism. However, there are two types of activism we must be aware of.

The first type is personal … It’s plan of action is rooted in direct experience and uses principles that have been proven to work among close relationships with family, friends, and local community members. The system is designed for success to help the most people possible without disenfranchising others.

The second type of activism is what I call “tangential”… It’s plan of action is rooted in empathy and uses emotions as swords for justice. It’s appeal is not based in principle at all. The hook is projected outward from a guttural and primitive perspective. The system is designed for chaos and mass psychosis.

Do they really know what they want?

While personal activism is grounded in Truth, tangential activism has no grounding. If there is no grounding then the activism is nihilistic. Nihilism rejects all moral and religious principles in the belief that life is meaningless. Today’s group activism in the streets and meeting places is replete with catchphrases and chants yet has no solution. How is this activity useful for coping? Think about it.

To bring light into these dark times we must reject the fatalism of the tangential activism that we are witnessing around us. The goal of this activism is to eliminate the useful systems that have brought human prosperity. Yet, no matter how difficult the situation may become there are always people who work together willingly and freely to protect the lives of individuals. This light is the Creator’s promise of life everlasting in our world.

Reject fatalism and embrace your inherent free will to choose human prosperity. The evidence is clear: https://www.policyed.org/human-prosperity-project

The Shrew View: The Reality of Today’s Social Justice.

Today’s social movements are less about changing social attitudes and more about imposing socialism…

Just as I have thought, history is repeating itself.  I have been reading the book “A People’s History of the United Sates” by Howard Zinn.  Zinn focuses on the importance of social movements throughout U.S. History.  In the past few weeks we have witnessed a “social justice” movement bent on undoing the United States Constitution.  These social justice warriors are pushing a campaign of federal (and state) tax manipulation and “moral” hysteria focused solely on the needs and wants of victim classes and in so doing are also blurring the important distinctions of what constitutes “equality”.  Isn’t this an injustice of personal liberties?  I believe that today’s social movements are less about changing social attitudes (as in what Zinn discovered in past historical events while we were testing the limits and inclusiveness of our Constitution) and more about imposing socialism.

In my previous blog I made an observation that I believed civil protections were currently being reframed as “special protections” in the U.S.  I think that these special protections seem to be formulated around categories of victim classes who would like the government to ease their burdens and force a group solidarity expression of morality on the whole social sphere. Government programs however rarely solve the issues faced by people who feel victimized whether the need is for universal health insurance, free college tuition, tax subsidized reproduction rights or bias protections of any nature…This is where nonprofit and faith based organizations must step in.

Special protections are worthy of everyone’s attention in a civil society…this keeps us “civilized”.  Unfortunately programs cannot be delivered equally in a liberty minded nation because there will always be differences in quality (this is how “equality” loses its steam). And when it comes to laws created for protection, theories on paper rarely reflect actual experience. Civil societies and free nations are two separate concepts: A civil society is a community linked by common interests and collective, mutually beneficial action; A free nation is a country where the government does not control what people say or do for political reasons…having civil societies within a free nation is how we maintain “civility”.

The U.S. is a free nation and within this free nation there are many civil societies.  Churches, civic groups and other non-profits like libraries and food pantries all work on behalf of a mission and are inherently concerned with the betterment of the individual.  Through member participation and philanthropy their examples of altruism are allowed to resonate into the larger society.  An individual in a free nation is able to have the freedom to associate within and among these civil societies and do good works that have a larger impact than one person can usually do on their own.

Care organizations typically have a member funded civil society that works to educate, promote and help individuals who need specific services.  Because of this membership funding, the work is done without government intervention unless federal or state laws prohibit the activities…This is important because in a free nation you cannot legislate beliefs or volunteer activity.

Many of today’s politicians are focused on creating programs by using federal (and state) tax dollars.  Isn’t it a shame that these monies need to be redirected from individuals who could be investing these funds into local programs on their own.  Wouldn’t this make a more direct and meaningful impact in their community?  Instead, social justice activists want to discourage individual and corporate ownership of profits and spread these dollars around to government run programs thereby removing the moral obligation of the individual and causing the public to believe that the “collective” is taking care of issues rather than allowing the public to directly participate in the solution…This my friend is socialism in action.

I know that when my discretionary spending is tight I need to make hard decisions about how much I can give to my church, my library, my food pantry and even to pay for a ticket to attend a local fundraiser – all of these are meaningful actions to me because they help my neighbor. Interestingly, my apathy for participating in these civic organization’s increases when I need to work more to afford to pay my taxes rather than have free time for volunteering.

The next time you see a group of sign carrying activists first ask them, “What do you want to see change?” Then ask them, “What can you and I actually do today that is within our own power to help?” And finally form a civic group and get the job done!  Now that is real compassion 🙂