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I. Just. Can’t. Do. It.
I tried, honestly, I have, but I don’t think I can do it.
When I have a strong opinion about some political person or event, I am very aware that this feeling may be due in large part to media coverage. Because of this, I search out something from ‘the other side’ to try to get a balanced perspective.
Jim Comey is the latest example of this quest. I finally decided to read the first of his books, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership.” It is included with Amazon Prime, so the only commitment is my time.
It winds up, that is too much to ask of me. Consider some of these quotes (if you can get past the title):
….. will America as we know it survive? People ask this question, with urgency and fear in their voices, because the forest fire of the Trump presidency I describe in this book still burns and threatens America’s values, especially our commitment to the truth and the rule of law.
To be clear, I don’t underestimate the threat. Donald Trump’s presidency represents a continuing frontal assault on the truth—on the very notion of “truth”—that began with the lie about his inauguration crowd being larger than Barack Obama’s. So many lies have followed that we risk becoming numb to them.
I feel the giant stirring now. The awakening is slow, but it is underway. Torches and death in Charlottesville. Children in cages at the border. The lying, misogyny, racism, and attacks on the rule of law. These things poke the giant. It takes time, but the American people are stirring.
There is one thought I can agree with, though:
WHO AM I TO TELL others what ethical leadership is? Anyone claiming to write a book about ethical leadership can come across as presumptuous, even sanctimonious. All the more so if that author happens to be someone who was quite memorably and publicly fired from his last job.
…and I haven’t even made it past the forwards and notes! I don’t think my blood pressure can take any more.
Oh, well….. next on my list is “Covid 19: The Great Reset” by Klaus Schwab (of the World Economic Forum). Maybe I’ll do better with that…. Or just read what Mrs. Spring calls a “shoot ’em up” novel.
Published in Politics
But @nohaaj response is what enabled me to remember that I actually have a work by George Adolphus Storey, an expert on perspective, who was once a professor of perspective at the Royal Academy of Art in London.
Well, that’s not indicative of any tribe, is it? Heck, nation states do that.
In combat, tribal instincts must come to the fore. The guy next to you doesn’t need you to explain the theology of the guys who are trying to kill you. He just needs some ammo.
duplicate
So tribalism promotes warfare, and warfare proves tribalism.
I don’t think any of Canada’s First Nations display any of this extraordinarily primitive and warlike behavior. They appear civilized and pacifistic to me.
I have completely miscommunicated my idea, sorry.
The original post was about the writer’s individual goals, and the difficulty of putting those desires into action. It had nothing to do with nations.
I was not introducing a new conversation. I was only continuing the conversation, by responding to what the author wrote.
So when I wrote about the two natures God gave to each individual, I literally meant to each individual, and I did not mean what you assumed–to assert anything about any particular tribe or nation.
I meant what I wrote: that God gave each of us as individuals (irrespective of hereditary or social group membership) two instinctive desires, or sources of motivation for action: a lower nature, and a higher nature.
The lower nature seeks survival and reproduction. The higher nature seeks the good, the true, and the beautiful.
Thanks, Mark. And I see your point.