Posted by
Steve on Friday, October 28, 2011 11:56:23 AM
Barack Obama said this week that we have lost our drive to succeed. Basically he said we have fallen into the malaise that so plagued the Jimmy Carter administration and caused it to be defeated in 1980. But where is this malaise? Is it in private industry? Or is it in government?
I contend that private industry is as industrious and innovative as ever. New products are coming out all the time. Our lives are being improved by the technical innovation of the American worker. There is little that private industry cannot do if government gets out of the way and lets them do it.
The malaise is occurring in government. We are being saddled with the tired ideas of Marxism that were old when Karl Marx wrote them in the 1800’s. Marxism is nothing more than total control over the lives of the people in a country. That idea was first put forward by a little known individual by the name of Lucifer, commonly known as Satan. He proposed that he would save everyone in the world. He would force everyone to do what was right and not give them the option to make a mistake. To achieve this goal, he wanted the honor that went with it. For his arrogance, he and 1/3 of the host of heaven were thrown out. They are a major cause of the problems we have in this world.
The plan that was accepted was Free Agency or Independence. Everyone would come to Earth and be able to make choices for good or evil. The American Constitution is the best representation of the concept of Free Agency or Independence that has ever been produced by man. The scriptures tell us about Free Agency and how to make good choices. The Constitution tries to put those ideas in a form that allows a country to function and thrive. The Constitution is not perfect, it was written by men after all. But, we can modify it when we discover errors. That is the beauty of the system.
There are those that are opposed to freedom. They parade around as pseudo-patriots and try and tell us what to do. The current administration is a perfect example of what I am talking about. They are opposed to freedom. Look at Obama’s words when he was talking about the malaise. He talks about the uncertainty of independence. He talks about the difficulty of having to make decisions on your own. Those are true, but that is the beauty of independence. The reward for making those decisions and going through the uncertainty is definitely worth the problems. Having a “big brother” in the form of government telling you what to do would stifle your ability to succeed. With government telling you what to do, you will never be as great as you could be. Great people are tested in many ways. The tests they pass cause them to become great.
If you watch the movie, “The Green Lantern”, the hero is chosen to be part of the Green Lantern Corps. The qualification for the Green Lantern Corps is to be without fear. Hal happens to be human. Humans have fear built into us. He was chosen because he could overcome fear. That is how he becomes great. Once he realizes that he becomes greater than all those that were without fear to begin with. But, that is because he made the choices necessary to overcome fear. If he had listened to government, he would still be huddled in fear and be a nothing. All of us are like the hero in the Green Lantern. We can become great of we choose. But, we as individuals have to decide to become great. The government cannot do it for us and we cannot rely on the government to help us. We have to do it ourselves. That is the purpose of freedom. It gives us the opportunity to be what we can be. Not all will reach the very top. But everyone can reach a level of success that is accessible for them. They just have to make the choices necessary to get there. They can have help, but the government is an anchor, not a hand up.