Politics, Economics, Religion, And Freedom. Just Some Thots.

So I’m starting to get tired. I've been exposed to so many issues and problems this last month my head is spinning. Half of me wants to fight all the evil in the world, and half of me wants to crawl up and forget it exists. I'm reminded constantly of the verse Ecclesiastes 4:2 which says "therefore I praise the dead who are all ready dead, more than the living who are still alive. Yet better than both is he who has never existed, who has never seen the evil work that is done under the sun." All these issues I do have opinions on but that’s not why I'm writing I'm writing because spiritually I am drained. Its become so clear to me that ignorance is indeed bliss, and part of me wishes I never knew.

I am looking for answers because it seems to me that all this effort and talk is empty words. The people that want change don’t know how to bring it about and I'm beginning to believe its not possible. Not because I'm being cynical or because I'm depressed but because it seems more and more clear to me that civilization in general is the source. Is there any system where all persons benefit? Isn’t the whole basis of society the struggle of the few to gain "carefree" lives at the expense of others? Is there any other method of gain? Its hard to think about it but everything we do that is a benefit to us directly or indirectly harms someone else. We buy our wives diamond rings that are most likely conflict diamonds, if you don’t know what that is try watching blood diamond sometime. Even if its not we are willing to pay pieces of paper to someone to actually go do the hard work. But even if they are not conflict diamonds the reality is you are paying a retailer crazy amounts of money compared to the tiny amount the actual worker gets. And you never think of it, its not like your trying to hurt someone, your intentions are pure, in fact your trying to make someone happy. What about clothing, somewhere back in time we decided to pay someone else to make our clothes for us so we didn’t have to. Eventually or maybe even back then too the people actually stitching the clothing receive far less than what is deserved for their hard work. Do you think about it every time you buy clothing? of course not.

Here’s my problem, you can argue all day for better labor laws, better enforcement of labor laws, you can scream "change!!!" but unless your willing to make your clothes yourself there is never going to be a perfect system. But of course not we like options, style, and convenience not things I’m condemning, but I’m a little sick of someone whining about sweat shops with brand name clothes on. You can try to better the system but the reality is it will never be "fixed" until the demand is gone from consumers, as long as we want something some one will give it to us. Of course we can lobby for more laws and take more and more of our freedoms away.

Oh wait maybe you didn’t realize that. See every time you ask someone to protect you lose "freedom". Think simply here. If you hire a body guard to protect you at all times, you lose a certain amount of privacy, and probably the freedom to go where ever you want. If you ask the government to regulate business, then business owners lose the freedom to run their business as they see fit and you as a consumer lose the right to ask for lower prices. You cant have your cake and eat it too, I swear if some people actually took an economics class... you cant regulate a business and cry about high prices. Look at the auto industry for instance Henry ford once built the automobile for the average man, when he started out he wanted to be able to sell his auto at a price all the workers building that auto could afford. And he did, but look now and be sure to add safety requirements, air bags, auto braking systems, load range specific tires, a guarantee, and crash test results and you cannot sell a vehicle at the price the average person can afford. Its the same with housing. We tell landlords you have to have this this and this, fire doors, plumbing, water, heat, lack of vermin, and then say oh yeah and we want it at a price we can afford. How?

I'm not saying these things are bad, we should want to be safe, relatively, but all I’m saying is that this nation was founded on the direct opposite. We want to claim all the founding fathers were Christian when we ask for “In God we trust” to stay on the dollar or to keep prayer in school. But where is their religion when they founded a capitalist nation? Do most people even know what capitalism is? In short our economics was founded on rebellion to over government regulation, taxes!(remember the Boston tea party?), and so we used a system that literally means hands off (meaning keep governments hands off business). Wrong or right is your personal decision that’s not what I’m getting at I’m just wishing more and more people would take real facts into account before they say things like we should make laws against this or that, or why isn’t the government stopping this. There’s a fine line somewhere and I do not claim to know where it is but more and more I’m wondering if that line has to float around and in fact a truly "Christian" one doesn’t exist.

Where were the founders religion when they drew this up, probably right there with them, not to say it was a good system morally but to say that things like politics and economics should never be mixed with religion. Look at other nations that have other religion mixed in their government what do most of them do? They persecute other religions(and we get upset when its us). So especially with elections coming up maybe we should become more aware that we should be wary of "Christian" politicians, not to focus on the fact that most use it as a rallying point to get votes and that’s it, but that even if we believe our religion is correct, which I believe it is, does it give us the right to do what other religious nations do? Is it ok to persecute other religions? Is it ok to persecute gays? There’s a saying by a founding father or philosopher I cant remember, I want to say it was John Locke but I’m probably wrong, it says something like I may not believe what your doing is right but I will fight to the death for your right to do it. This nation, this "free" nation was founded on just that freedom, is it freedom to do whatever we say is morally correct or is it freedom to do anything that doesn’t impose on someone else’s freedom? I think the latter, so we can dream up "perfect Christian societies" ,that scarily reminds me of communism, or we can love everyone where they are, who they are. I don’t like to throw out the "Jesus card" but I’m pretty sure he never persecuted anyone, didn’t he eat with sinners prostitutes and tax collectors? Maybe we should let the government do what it wants and be glad we live under a nation that gives us freedom to practice our religion and focus on loving people not forcing them to do it our way, like the puritans and witch trials, didn’t Paul say law cannot make a man good.... And when the rich young ruler of John 10:17-22 went away sad because he couldn’t receive eternal life was it because he didn’t follow all the rules? I’ll let you read that one and figure it out.

I’ve decided that the answer might be one of two options. Either we are to live simply, I’m talking like Amish simply and rely only on family and friends for all our needs and oppress no one. Or maybe question why it was Jesus said give to Caesar what is Caesars. Did Jesus ever "fight a system" or did he seek to change hearts, was his goal ever to throw off oppression? Did he ever seek to overthrow the roman empire as many of his followers expected him to? but then again if we are thinking of living simply wasn’t Jesus homeless? didn’t he wander the countryside with not a penny to his name? hmmm...