Chapter One

SEEKING

Restless Generation

We are living in an age where many people, if not all people, are seeking something, within or outside themselves, to bring them; peace, happiness, and a sense of fulfillment. This searching is reflected in the rising interest in; the occult, empty religious ceremonies, fringe cults, wild scientific theories, bizarre lifestyles, etc. We even see it reflected in the dramatic increase in conflicts, terrorism, crime, rebellion against authority, and a general rejection of traditional conservative ideals. We see it in the general restlessness around the world we live in.

People who seem to have it all, like Michael Jackson and Judy Garland who both died of barbiturate overdoses, often cannot sleep and must depend on heavy doses of medication. Others, like Robert Downey Jr., take street drugs or depend on alcohol like David Hasselhoff. They have fame and fortune but they have no peace.

Powerful members of our government are not immune. President Clinton, John Edwards, and recently four-star General David Petraeus have been involved in sex scandals. Many end up with their lives in turmoil, their marriages destroyed. Some, like Charlie Sheen, have run-ins with the law. Some lose custody of their children or ultimately watch helplessly as their children eventually destroy their own lives.

These catastrophes are not restricted to the rich and famous however. The middle class and the poor suffer from them as well. It’s just that when we see the poor suffering from the effects of disillusionment, disaffection, and despair we tend to assume that if their poverty were eliminated their other problems would go away. This has been the song of the liberal political left in America.

This view that money will solve most problems, seductive as it may be, is difficult to support when we look at the problems occurring within the more affluent middle classes, the rich and the ultra - rich. Howard Hughes was incredibly wealthy but died a tragic recluse. Adolph Hitler was one of the most powerful men in history but after destroying the lives of millions he shot his bride and then himself.

If having wealth, popularity, and influence doesn’t solve the problems of the affluent, wealthy and powerful, why do we assume that it will work for the poor? But, we must ask ourselves, if money, fame and power is not the answer what is? Where do we turn to seek answers?

The Government

Many today look to the government for answers. Politicians promise to cure the ills of the world. We hear it again and again, “If I’m elected I will _____”. The promises, unfortunately suffer the fate of all empty promises as reality sets in upon taking the oath of office. The simple truth is that the problems of the modern world are too great, too complex for any mortal man, or group of mortal men, to solve. Our national debt in the U. S., now over $16 trillion, is completely out of control.

National Debt:

Source: Fox News America Live 2/24/2012

Fox News reported that the current debt per capita in the U.S. according to Jeff Sessions Ranking Member of the Congressional Budget Committee is $44,215. Every man, woman and child in the U.S.A. would need to write a check for nearly $45 thousand dollars to free our country from its staggering budget deficit. Fox further reported that it is estimated that by November 2012 the national debt will rise to 16.4 trillion possibly forcing the President and Congress to raise the nations debt ceiling even further.

The article quoted above is history from February 2012. As I write this in August 2013 the national debt has risen to approximately $16 trillion. The very idea that the share of national debt for every man woman and child in the United States is approximately $50,000 is unacceptable. This is the result of fiscal mismanagement by those responsible for governing.

The annual budget of the U.S.A. is beyond the mind of any person to fully comprehend.

Obama’s submitted budget request called for:

Total revenues: $2.903 trillion (requested)

Total expenditures -- $3.803 trillion (requested)

Deficit -----------------$901 billion (requested)

I don’t mean that we cannot conceive the numbers of $3.5 trillion (2013) or $16 trillion. What I mean is that we cannot comprehend the federal budget with its distribution to thousands of diverse allocations, approx. $10.5 billion daily, almost $438 million per hour. How do you control effectively what you cannot even comprehend?

We are digging our own fiscal grave. Anyone who has ever been in a position of handling a budget of any kind knows that you cannot go on spending beyond your income year after year without ultimately facing disaster. Nevertheless, the attitude of our politicians seems to be, “Go on spending, let come what may, as long as the Piper doesn’t come to be paid on my watch”!

Fiscal problems, however, are not limited to the U.S.A.. The U.S.S.R., the United Kingdom, several European countries, Central and South American nations, Africa and much of Asia are all in or near financial crises.

Politicians today, the world over, are pulled in many directions at any given time.

First, there is their own selfish interests: the desire to gain power, wealth, remain in power (be re-elected), etc. There is also their own personal perceptions, preconceived views and prejudices. Beyond themselves they must deal with special interest lobbies pulling them to protect the interests of unions, financial institutions, ethnic groups, religious groups, government groups, etc. They are also pressured by other politicians and political parties to vote for this bill or vote against that bill, etc. If that were not complicated enough, there are so many bills and revisions some of them thousands of pages long that it would be impossible to carefully read and thoroughly understand all of them, even if that were all they had to do. In this chaotic environment it is a wonder that anything good or worthwhile ever gets accomplished.

We, the people of the United States, are supposed to control our government through our vote, privilege of recall, etc. The fact is, we are the greater part of the problem. We vote our wallets and special interests rather than our conscience. We know, in our hearts, that a corrupt, immoral politician is not what is best for our city, our state or our nation. Nevertheless, if the promises sound good enough we vote for the promises regardless of the character of the politician.

Time after time, we see politicians who show a serious lack of character get elected into office or, even worse, remain in office in spite of scandalous behavior. People today seem willing to vote for any scoundrel who will promise to deliver substantial benefits from the public trough. There is, however, a serious problem with this philosophy.

The following is an interesting summary of comments attributed to history professor Alexander Tyler which I received by e-mail 5/14/2007 (Author of e-mail unknown).

“About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburg, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian republic some 2,000 years earlier:

“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government”

A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.”

From that moment on, the majority will always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that the democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.”

The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years.”

During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:

from bondage to spiritual faith;

from spiritual faith to great courage;

from courage to liberty

from liberty to abundance;

from abundance to complacency;

from complacency to apathy;

from apathy for dependence;

from dependence to bondage.”

Does any of this sound familiar?

Politicians more concerned with being re-elected than with what is good for our country. Voters who are more concerned with what the political candidate will do for their wallets than with the long term consequences of the candidate’s policies. Moral decay, apathy, and a general lack of concern for anyone other than self- appear to be taking over an ever larger segment of our society. As a result, we have gone from a nation where virtually everyone was a producer to a country where more and more people produce nothing except more mouths to be fed from the public trough. Now our inability to develop a clear immigration policy is leaving our borders as porous as a sieve allowing thousands of illegal immigrants, many hardened criminals and possibly even terrorists, to further tax our limited resources.

We could vote the scoundrels out of office. We could force our political leaders to be responsible and balance the budget. We could insist that they make more responsible regulations regarding welfare and make them tighten our borders. We could force them to stop sending billions of dollars in aid to countries that hate us and want to destroy us – and who, in fact, probably channel much of that money we give them into the hands of terrorists. We could do these things -- but we probably won’t because it would mean sacrifice. We don’t like sacrifice! So, we have the power to do good but we won’t use it – and - every day that we don’t use our power to do good the problem grows worse.

“Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the American Government take care of him; better take a closer look at the American Indian.”

Henry Ford

If government isn’t the answer where do we look?

Strange Religions

We see people today turning to astrology, necromancy*, card readers, ouija boards, etc. We are also seeing large numbers of people turning to strange religious beliefs like the Heaven’s Gate group who committed suicide expecting to be taken away by a space ship that they thought was following a comet.

Heaven's Gate members believed that the planet Earth was about to be "recycled" (wiped clean, renewed, refurbished and rejuvenated), and that the only chance to survive was to leave it immediately. While the group was formally against suicide, they defined "suicide" in their own context to mean "to turn against the Next Level when it is being offered," and believed that their "human" bodies were only vessels meant to help them on their journey. In conversation, when referring to a person or a person's body, they routinely used the word "vehicle"; when shown a picture of his son in an interview, Rio Di Angelo commented, "Look, there's the little vehicle."

The group believed in several paths for a person to leave the Earth and survive before the "recycling," one of which was intentioning love to this world strongly enough: "It is also possible that part of our test of faith is our loving of this world, even our flesh body, to the extent to be willing to leave it without any proof of the Next Level's existence."

The article went on to say:

On March 19–20, 1997, Marshall Applewhite taped himself speaking of mass suicide and asserted "it was the only way to evacuate this Earth." After claiming that a space craft was trailing the comet Hale - Bopp, Applewhite convinced 38 followers to commit suicide so that their souls could board the supposed craft. Applewhite believed that after their deaths, a UFO would take their souls to another "level of existence above human", which he described as being both physical and spiritual. This and other UFO-related beliefs held by the group have led some observers to characterize the group as a type of UFO religion. In October 1996, the group purchased alien abduction insurance to cover up to 50 members at a cost of $10,000.

*Communicating with the spirits of the dead.

We see others turning to organized religions that are very structured and regimented demanding adherence to specific beliefs and structured behavior like Islam, Jehovah’s Witness, Christian –Science and the LDS (Mormons). They are all seeking, searching for the elusive something that will satisfy them.

Many people today feel that all gods are the same – any religion will do. After all, they are simply different paths to the same place. Others, say that Jesus was a good man, but just a man, while still others consider him a prophet-- but not diety. Some worship cows and other life forms as reincarnations of those who have gone before. Unfortunately, none of these provide satisfactory answers to the questions and problems of life.

Science as a Religion

Some, today, treat certain areas of science as a religion, choosing to believe in theories like evolution when even its founder abandoned the theory before his death. They use science to promote bizzar notions that common sense would tell us are faulty. In their view, criminals are no longer responsible for their antisocial behavior -- it’s the fault of their environment or their upbringing. They accept without question the theory that homosexual individuals are “born that way” and so they have no choice concerning their sexual preference. The concept of personal responsibility is no longer socially popular. More and more people seem to be accepting these ideas. But where will these attitudes lead us? What will we be called upon to accept in the future?

A recent story appeared on CNN titled,”Do pedophiles deserve sympathy?” By James Cantor, Special to CNN updated 10:32 PM EDT, Thu June 21, 2012. In the story it is claimed that those afflicted with tendencies toward pedophilia* are physically smaller, have less connective white tissue in their brains and are more likely to be left handed or ambidextrous as though this somehow renders them helpless against their lust. Millions across the world are physically smaller than others, quite a few are ambidextrous and millions are left handed. Do these physical differences somehow deprive them of reason, logic or the power of choice?

The fact is—we are all born with a predisposition toward selfish, rebellious and inconsiderate behavior but we do not all act upon our impulses to the harm of others. We can, and generally do, overcome those tendencies and make better choices at least to the extent of complying with the laws of society. We may not all have the same antisocial tendencies but we each have our own tendencies that must be kept in check to live successfully in society. To excuse the behavior of certain groups or classes of individuals by saying that, “it is not their fault – they were born that way” is to invite chaos! They are as responsible for their behavior as those of us who choose to suppress our evil inclinations for the good of all. We were all “born that way” but fortunately most of us develop sufficient character to control those impulses as we mature.

*Sexual perversion in which children are the preferred sexual object.

Some are Zoning Out

Life is very hard and not for the timid. Trouble comes to everyone and some seem to encounter much more than their share. The pressure of life’s trials can be extreme and the temptation to just give up can be seductive. Some today seem to drop out of the social mainstream. That is, they seem to cease trying to be productive contributors. They are content to spend their lives sleeping on a park bench or under an overcrossing, searching for money for their next fix or their next drink. Some others, mostly younger people go boating or surfing, spending what others have earned; partying, drinking and drugging the days and nights away. These people are disillusioned and some have been spoiled beyond usefulness. Others have been beaten down by life. They have looked around and not liking what they have seen, and overwhelmed by the difficulty of correcting it, have given up and zoned out.

Still others give in completely and just give up on life altogether. These unfortunate individuals, who have no one they feel they can lean upon, lose all hope that things will get better. Losing all hope they give in to despair and take the extreme option of suicide. But this is also and act of selfishness since it does not consider the impact upon those left behind; parents, children, grandchildren, other relatives and friends - nor does it consider the wishes of our creator.

Still others choose to take out their anger and frustration upon society. Earlier we mentioned the dramatic increase in terrorism, crime, conflict, rebellion against authority, and general rejection of traditional conservative ideals. All of these things stem from our selfish nature. Crimes are committed to gain something or to avoid something. Conflicts, likewise, grow out of efforts to gain something like power, property, recognition or out of fear as we try to avoid something like loss of property, loss of freedom, loss of reputation or something else that is valued. Rebellion against authority is nothing more than seeking to get our own way instead of submitting to the will of another for the common good.

Shifting Responsibility

We seem to be living in an age where ideals like personal responsibility have become unpopular. We want every wrong to be the fault of someone else or something outside of our control. For every irresponsible or unseemly behavior there is a scapegoat; “my parents were alcoholics”, “I was abused or molested”, “I was underprivileged”, “my boss didn’t appreciate me”, etc. But this completely ignores that fact that others who were more abused, had worse parenting or none at all, and /or were even more underprivileged, unappreciated and mistreated have risen above their circumstances to become outstanding citizens.

Consider the case of David James (Dave) Pelzer:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pelzer was born in San Francisco, California, and was the third of five boys. He is now living in a different state with his second wife and kids. Pelzer wrote in his book that as a child, he was continually abused, mistreated, and beaten by his mother, who thought of it as a game. The book describes how his mother starved him, forced him to drink ammonia, stabbed him in the stomach, burned his arm on a gas stove, and forced him to eat his own vomit. His teachers stepped in on March 5, 1973, and 12-year-old Pelzer was placed in foster care. He joined the U.S. Air Force in 1979 and later became an author.

Dave’s childhood has been called the third worst case of child abuse on record and one of the worst in California’s history. His mentally disturbed and alcoholic mother abused him until he was rescued at age 12. He was placed in various foster homes until he entered the Air Force at age 18. Later he was chosen to refuel the SR-71 Blackbird and F-117 Stealth Fighter.

He has now written 7 inspirational books. He was named California’s Volunteer of the Year, received the J.C. Penny Golden Rule Award, was honored as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans and was commended by Presidents; Reagan, Bush, Clinton and George W. Bush. He was honored in 1994 as Outstanding Young Person of the World. He carried the torch at the Olympic Games in 1996 and in 2005 received the National Jefferson Award.

Many others have overcome incredibly harsh

environments as well. The survivors of the Holocaust had to overcome both abuse and abject poverty. Everything they had in the world had been taken from them. Often even their parents, siblings and other family had been brutely torn from their grasp and slaughtered. Even so, many survivors became successful business people, good parents, and good citizens. If the popularly held views regarding poverty and abuse producing criminals and abusers is valid, how is it that we did not hear about a massive wave of Jewish crime and child abuse around the globe after WWII?

While it’s true that there is historically a fringe group known as the Jewish Mafia or “Kosher Nostra” they appeared in the late 19th century long before the holocaust. And while there was an increase in crime among Jews after WWII most of it involved Jews as victims of crime, not the perpetrators of it. The increase in crime by Jews in the past half century was not nearly what one would expect in relation to what they have endured.

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