Churchill's actual quote,
“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.”
Churchill loved to throw amusing quips. He was however one of the strongest advocates of democracy even when he suffered because of it.
Ha hah, a good poster, whom I have already noticed... and been impressed with. I also like the ocean theme. I have two main posters on my wall (from my wife), one of an island beach, perfect tranquility, like Virgin Gorda. The other of a dark scene, with an old ship, right at the edge of the legendary 'end of the world', where the water falls off to the unknown...
Yeah, single quote, for paraphrasing.
There was a bit more to it, where he delineated the flaw.
But, it is going extremely well, in comparison with nations in the past. Where you have feudalism, colonialism, tyranny, from the top down.
The problem I see, is with our current state of ignorance, and the flesh. I am not sure if the change happens, when the Kingdom returns, or if that happens later. I think, the Kingdom could be run, from the flesh. That would be far less traumatic on 'everybody else', then a global 'elite' who have those sorts of bodies. (Such as described in Revelation.)
But, right now, I would say, anarchy mostly came about when monarchy was a thing, at a time when these systems were remaining very corrupt. Probably, because of that, anarchy manifested in a sense of chaos, with terrorist actions being their main visibility.
So, you see two definitions:
1. a state of disorder due to absence or nonrecognition of authority.
"he must ensure public order in a country threatened with anarchy"
synonyms: lawlessness, absence of government, nihilism, mobocracy, revolution, insurrection, riot, rebellion, mutiny, disorder, disorganization, misrule, chaos, tumult, turmoil, mayhem, pandemonium
"the country is threatened with anarchy"
2. absence of government and absolute freedom of the individual, regarded as a political ideal.
To use the word, 'anarchy', in modern American vernacular, anyway, it is number one. But, I have seen depictions of the ideal, as number 2.
I think, another word would have to be made for that. Ultimately, this is the ideal. Where everyone is truly free, and governing is just. But, we live in a world, where, still, 'might makes right'.
Mad Max, post-apocalyptic worlds, we do not want.
We want a world, ultimately, where everyone is self-sufficient. Where there is no cause for chaos and disorder.
Where, each has their own vineyard, and can invite their neighbor, sort of thing.
This is the sort of environment, I have grown up in. Like living on an island.
Like living in the mountains.
Everything else, is 'out there'. Yet, I live, usually, in the outskirts of the cities. Still, friends, family, jobs... utter paradise. I could not have a better job then if I was paid to live on Virgin Gorda. Though, I do spend a lot of my time in the ocean, struggling with sharks and barracudas. But, also finding truly wonderous, beautiful creatures.
Going back to planet earth, a key flaw with the flesh is the problem of disease, aging, death. There is no hope. People live for today, they are as renters, with no truly tangible investment in the future. Slash and burn mentality, even if they *claim*, otherwise.
Truth to that claim - if they have no hope, no sense of immortality, which the mature Spirit provides - is only a delusion. People like to be told and thought of as their work 'lasting for generations', 'remembered forever', but truth is, they have no real sense of that. So, they are really just indulging in the praise and honor that those words mean.
And, there is no sense of time, as in, we can look back at previous times, even not so long ago, and see how horrific or silly - ignorant, and off - well accepted beliefs and conclusions were. Yet, we can have the illusion we are now on the 'last mile'. The science and technology we have today, though, will be dwarfed by what the Kingdom can provide.
Just as we could not imagine extrapolating our advance in technology, of all sorts, in the time it has grown; fifty, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, million years from now.
Usually, our science fiction just places us, where we are now. Mortality almost always is the dark blanket still hidden behind everything.
I don't have to deal with 'earth', so much, but back down to earth, I do read the news, a lot. The criminal justice system is entirely barbaric. It is, as Phillip K Dick pointed out, not usually presented this way, in the media. Even today.
Even if people bothered to take the concept of reforming seriously, the environments that create violence remain. And that is just the visible criminality. Then, you have the criminality at the top layers, where the strong and cunning who have no conscience have an advantage.
In America, where I have spent ... most of my time... there is profound diversity. Yet, groups collect, cultures, too often, do not blend. Conformity is demanded. On the other side of things, conformity is rebelled against, and tolerance for diversity is allowed. Yet, in that diversity, there also hides biases and bigotry. It is, yet, as if we may be going somewhere.
We should have a patterned blanket. Oceans of diversity, of culture. Music, fashion, technology, industry. Where there is no insistence of conformity, and there is tolerance, but no tyranny.
Where you can be happy to go, from one island, to the next, each as exotic as the other.
Where people do not live under the illusion of their own deeds and words are their own. But, they are doomed with the terrible problem of seeing themselves as the Beautiful People. Beautiful, not because of genetics; rich, not because of birth; cultured, not because of race. But, all because of given by God.
So, the dissolution of pride.
True freedom.
The Beautiful People I have grown up and lived among, are truly wonderous, beyond comprehension. Fascinating. Inspiring. Yet, there is never a sense of, 'they did this', or 'I did this'.
Because, the spiritual beauty is from the same place. The spiritual wealth is from the same place. The race and nation is from the same place. God, has, very many children, very many races, very many families, yet it is one, in vast diversity.
So, you wonder at them, yet, it is, at the same time, wondering at God. For it is clear, they are from God. And, God is their Father. Yet, your Father, too.
Back to earth, already, fifty years ago, seventy years ago, a hundred years ago... not the same time scale, as it was. Things have been changing much faster.
In my life, five years have been like fifty years. Worse. Better. A thousand years. Ten thousand years. Yet, back again. Like Dr Who and a time machine. You visit various time locales and locales, on earth, and through outerspace.
Only, as too much science fiction is like, aliens, people in different ages... more it changes, more it stays the same. Nothing truly alien.
Nothing truly futuristic.
Futuristic is presented as a change of clothes and environment. 'Whereever you go, there you are'.
But, true alien, true futuristic, is always beyond what you can expect.
Beyond what you can imagine.
Never so beyond you can not adapt, or communicate.
There is a commonalty, which is a sort of holiness.
Down to earth, real. Everyday. Yet, a holiness, too. A holiness without pretension or pride.
In the meantime, I can only hope for things to be sustained. That infamous, foretold, 'peace on earth'... which comes before 'the flood'. The flood has to come. There is no easy transition, from one world, to the next.
Because that future requires the whole world, going through 'challenging times'.
Challenging times, to refer to the 'Chinese curse', can be calls to be heroic. We tend to like to watch heroics in cinema. But, that is armchair heroics, with a distinct sense of relief. That is not you, up there, facing life and death, your mind bending, your emotions exploding and sustaining. You are not aware you are the main character, or the main group of characters -- the audience is. And the audience always knows, they never die. Ultimately, they never lose.
The ideal, is a mixture. The reason why I have been able to live a truly challenging life and heroics, is not because I have known I could not die, so much, as that is not really the end of it. We would just come back, again. Not because I do not lose, nor suffer pain. Pain shows our strength. It shows our character. It makes the incredible blessings real.
But, if I were just living for today, if I did not have a sense of immortality, I would have been wasting my life. Instead of enjoying my twenties. Or thirties. Or forties. I went on grueling adventures. Great highs, sure. But enormous amounts of time in great struggles. That is simply not how you want to live, if this is it.
There is this sense people have. Of wasting their lives. Did you really want to spend the prime of your life on a battlefield? Or, in a distant country? With your kids wondering where you are? With your beauty and your strength fading? Spent?
Or, would you prefer to live the prime of your life, on a beach, with a happy family, and a perfect environment, and wonderful people?
I have had a mixture of the two. To appreciate the good, you have to pay the price for it. Or, somebody does.
But, you also do not want to look back, instead of living.
Why not always live in the prime of your life, instead? Why not always be thirty?
Always young, yet always growing.
In summary, one of my favorite songs, right now (though I have very many), is 'Everybody Knows'. Lyrics from a poem, by Leonard Cohen. I prefer the version by Sigrid.
But, I listen to it in near mock mourning. With a hearty muahaha, not 'with the lyrics'. But, because, for me, it is *entirely* ironic. It is how things *seem*.
But, 'the times, they are, a changing'.
Partial quote:
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died
Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long-stem rose
Everybody knows
The captain, of course, did not really lie.
It is almost a joke. A dark one.
But, the joke is on them. 'The strong of the world'.
1 Corinthians 1
26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him.
