The Cause of Liberty

If you were left wondering whether you should laugh or cry after reading my last post, you got the point.

America really is at a crossroads, a momentous point in history infinitely more critical than anything Rome, Greece, or the ancient Israelites ever faced because of how much our decisions impact the rest of humanity.

However, I’m an optimist at heart and believe that Americans can and will conquer any challenge, no matter how difficult or even if it is self-imposed. As Thomas Jefferson wrote, “It is a part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate, to surmount every difficulty by resolution and contrivance.”

With this in mind, I wish to transcend the gloomy picture painted in my last post and offer the ten most important things that average Americans can do to ensure that our current decline doesn’t engulf us and last interminably.

10. Read at least one classic a month.

According to George Wythe College, “Classics are original works of depth and substance–writing, painting, sculpture, philosophy, music, theory, law, etc.–that engage the student in the great questions of life. Works that have wide application and scope, they offer valuable ideas to a variety of cultures and times, and can be applied to nations as well as communities, families and individuals. These timeless works change us and ask the hard questions that cut to the core of human nature and human institutions.”

Study the nature and anatomy of freedom through classics. Learn what it takes to preserve and promote freedom for yourself and your posterity.

9. Discuss the classics you read with groups of your peers on a regular basis.

Similar groups were formed long before the American Revolution erupted, and they had an integral role in shaping the views and direction of the entire populace. As Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

8. Keep entertainment in proper perspective.

We’re flooded with an infinite variety of ways to divert us from our highest potential and purpose. When entertainment becomes excessive, it prevents us from living the ideals necessary to sustain freedom.

7. Raise a family worth emulating.

Love and serve your family. Be true to your spouse, be kind and inspiring to and patient with your children. Take responsibility for the education of your children. Build America from the inside out with the solid bricks of family values and relationships.

6. Forgive those who have wronged you.

World peace will never be achieved until individuals become conscious of their own contribution to or detraction from that goal.

5. Be a person of integrity.

Keep your word, no matter how difficult, no matter how tempting it may be to follow the crowd and become casual. Do what you say you will do. Live what you say you believe.

4. Be vigilant about how you spend your private time.

As I have written elsewhere, “The ultimate measure of a person’s integrity is how they act when they are absolutely alone, and what they do when no one else will ever know. It is the quiet moments spent in solitude that determine if you are true to what you say you believe in.”

3. Become a constitutional scholar.

Know the Constitution backward and forward. Study its foundations. Study the works that its creators read. Learn what habeas corpus, bills of attainder, and ex post facto laws are. Learn what the different branches of government are authorized to do, and prohibited from doing. Know the intended balance between the States and the Federal Government.

2. Live your mission.

Discover, develop, and utilize your natural gifts and abilities. Do what you were born to do, even if it takes quitting your current job. Live the spirit of providence in your life. In the words of Steve Farber, “Do what you love in the service of those who love what you do.”

And the number one way to lead an American Renaissance is… Continue reading »

Are you doing what you were born to do?

Our earliest citizens believed in an ideal that they called Providence, which is something that has been largely forgotten today. To believe in Providence is more than just believing that there is a God, although that is certainly a part of it.

Providence is the belief that every individual has a unique mission that they alone can perform and that the world suffers when they don’t fulfill that unique mission. It’s having a relationship with your God that gives you the faith and motivation to fulfill your unique mission regardless of the consequences.

How do you know if you are doing what you are born to do? A good indication of that is if you can’t wait to jump out of bed and begin every day with excitement and purpose. If you find yourself dreading going to work you know that something must change.

The best thing you can do for yourself and for society is to find and develop your passion–to revive the spirit of Providence in your own life.

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Written By Stephen Palmer. Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.

Information Age Casualties, and How To Reclaim Them

Why is it that the more digitally connected we become, the more we feel disconnected from the things that matter most?

Picture the following scene, played out many evenings in typical American homes. The father is on his computer in the office, finishing up some last minute work details and reading up on the latest election news on the internet, while the mother is watching TV in the living room. The son is downstairs playing video games while the daughter listens to music on her iPod in her bedroom while instant messaging with friends online.

As you picture this scene (and ponder what’s wrong with it), try to comprehend the magnitude of what we’ve accomplished in the Information Age, the ability to bring the entire world into our living rooms and bedrooms, the ability to connect in real time with almost anyone across the globe.

Want to learn about Zambia? A quick Google search brings up 124 million sites. Want to download the latest song from an obscure artist in Australia? You’re about two clicks away.

What’s the current price of crude oil? Who won Academy Awards? How many delegates does Barack Obama currently have? How can you defeat the final challenge on your favorite video game?

Whatever is on your mind, in whatever corner of the globe or concerning the most esoteric and specialized concepts, you have almost instant access to your questions. Technology has given us a brave new–and small–world, with more information, opportunity, and connectivity than our ancestors could even dream of.

And yet, in an age largely defined by connectivity, we’re losing our lifelines to the most important things. Specifically, there are three main connections that, ironically enough, are being systematically severed the more digitally connected we become.

What are those three connections, and how can we strengthen them in our own lives?

Continue reading »

All change involves both gains and losses; change is essentially the process of one exchanging with themselves. A person is constantly making decisions regarding this personal exchange, and through this process they can either degenerate or grow. One can choose to give up happiness, health, and wealth in order to gain laziness, fear, and bad habits and therefore degenerate, or one can give up laziness and fear in order to gain greater happiness, and therefore grow. There is no decision that does not carry both a gain and a loss.

The question you must answer is: What is it that you really, deeply want to gain and what are you willing to give up to get it?

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Do you know the roots of and reasons for your fears?

Paul Slovic, a psychologist at the University of Oregon, has spent decades studying how we decide what’s risky and what isn’t. His studies have shown that how risky something actually is has almost nothing to do with how risky we think it is. Slovic has demonstrated that people think skiing is safer than flying on a commercial aircraft, that smoking is less dangerous than being around handguns, that nuclear power plants are riskier than cars. Think about these questions: Do more Americans die of suicide or homicide? Which is more lethal, kidney disease or AIDS? According to the U.S. Government, in the year 2000 nearly twice as many people killed themselves as were murdered, and kidney diseases caused nearly three times as many deaths as AIDS. Although Americans consistently rate nuclear power as one of the most dangerous of all technologies, it’s actually safer by any objective measure than most other forms of power. And two of the deadliest things in America are cigarettes and cars; auto accidents alone kill an average of 115 Americans every day.

When we’re subject to fear our judgment is severely clouded and we make unwise decisions. Overcome fear through a commitment to continual education and persisting in courageous actions.

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Anything great was difficult at one time. There are some things that may come easy to us, but we should never coast down the road of comfort because we’re not continually trying hard to develop our talents. There is a danger in misunderstanding the idea that unique abilities come easily and naturally. As Thomas Paine wrote, “What we obtain too cheaply we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value.”

Valuing and developing our talents properly comes from having the proper allegiance and submission to God, who will show us how to use them to bless the lives of others. He may guide us down a difficult path, but we will become great in the process. If we have an allegiance to self, we will only do what we find easy, but our lives will be mediocre at best, relative to what we could have been. Don’t make the mistake of always associating easy with happy and difficult with unhappy. Oftentimes the things that bring us the most happiness in the long run are the things that are the most difficult, at least for a time.

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One prevailing counterfeit of humility is self-deprecation, or thinking you have little or no value. But as Ken Blanchard and Norman Vincent Peale wrote, “People with humility don’t think less of themselves; they just think of themselves less.”

Pride leads you to compare yourself to others and to derive your self-worth from things outside of yourself. When you’re humble, you’re only concerned with your own progress relative to yourself–not to other people. True humility flows from having the proper allegiance to a Higher Power; no matter how far you’ve come, your Higher Power can show you how far you have yet to go.

Humility–used properly–can help you to always stay producing no matter how much value you’ve produced in the past. It opens your mind to see how much more you can do. Be humble without devaluing yourself, and value yourself without being prideful.

Suggested reading: The Power of Ethical Management by Ken Blanchard and Norman Vincent Peale

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What does it mean to make a decision and why does decision making seem difficult?

The Latin word incido means to cut, and is the base of the words incision, excision, and decision. Therefore, incision means to cut into something, excision means to cut out something, and decision means to cut off something. Every time you make a decision you are cutting off possible options, which is why most people are afraid to make them.

Overcome the fear of decision-making by managing your attitude toward your choices. Eliminate regret from your life, and stop labeling your choices with moral judgments that limit your productivity. For example, many people who have experienced bankruptcy live their lives full of regret for the “bad” choices they made. But their bankruptcy could be the best thing that ever happened to them if they simply changed their attitude. Any choice, however negative, can be turned to productive use according to our attitude.

*Special thanks to Dr. Paul Jenkins, founder of Creation Tree Coaching, for this topic.

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