Looks like we will be a 3rd world country before long?
Kind of makes me wonder why we are inviting so many in when we can't take care of ourselves?
M-Bob
Hi MM,
Sometimes I wonder, when I hear people who seem to see the world's problems as such simple things to be fixed, whether they understood, when reading Thoreau's work, that it was an imaginary society that he presents to us.
I watched Atlas Shrugged the other evening. That's Ayn Rand's fictional work showing how the very rich can easily create their own Utopian society by merely withdrawing from the reality of what a real society is like. Admittedly, Ms. Rand portrays the 'real' society as being some kind of monster beast society that is going to take away all capitalistic and free will efforts. It will expend its control by crippling its people with some socialistic idea that we're all going to have to work for some 'big brother' government that will control all resources, but the society that she establishes for the rich is much the same as Thoreau's. A perfect society where all are in agreement and everyone goes on to live happily ever after, by throwing off the fetters of some unrighteous government.
I always wonder how the fairy tale Utopian society works out when it's several million people strong? Real life isn't like one can conjure images to write a book about some perfect society. A society of total agreement where everyone works for the good of the group. Even the society established by Ms. Rand, wants to glorify personal achievement and everyone being able to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps to become working and valuable members of their make believe societies.
The last society where God was the king was Israel some 4,000 years ago. That didn't work out well and God was their king! I imagine it's fairly easy to take 50 or 100 people who are all in agreement and go off and start a society. Jim Jones tried it as did Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in Antelope Oregon. They both conceived of these Utopian societies where everyone would work in agreement for the common good. However, everyone seems to forget God's word: Man's heart is wicked. Who can know it?
While such an exercise may work for a small band of like minded folk as Ayn Rand and Henry Thoreau project in their fantasy works. It never works out as these societies grow. Then they begin to experience the real world problems that people have and they begin to find that the larger group isn't necessarily in agreement as they were when the society was begun.
Sure it works in Ms. Rand's work where everyone is a college degreed professional of some field, but full blown societies are never like that. There are poor and there are under educated. There are greedy and there are slovenly. There are gluttons and there are the entitled. All real life societies upon the earth are made up of such people.
Those who believe in some Utopian society will sit and blame all of these ills on some part of the whole that isn't in alignment with their personal understanding of how things should work. But that's what real life is like. Every nation on the earth has its poor and its dissidents. Every nation on the earth has some who believe life should work one way and some who believe it would work better another. Even Israel couldn't maintain solidarity in their governance and so God withdrew Himself from being their direct king. He picked Saul and then David. Then a whole line of kings followed of which the majority were not faithful to God.
THESE ARE GOD'S PEOPLE!!!!!!! If God couldn't get His own people in Israel to live as He wanted them to live, how in the world do we think we're going to be able to do it?
Man's heart is wicked!!! Who can know it?
God bless,
In Christ, ted