Opus 2013-112: Cornerstone Considerations: D of I, Truths: Irresistible Change

I was raised with the words of Jesus, “Turn the other cheek...” ingrained into my being.  My father could lose his cool but it took a lot to set him off.  I worked construction with him for years and I never heard him cuss, swear or take the name of the Lord in vain.  He set an example. 

As a result, I tend to put up with things longer than is logical.  I was literally bullied for a year and a half in elementary school before I learned that bullies are cowards and by pushing back I could set myself free.  I’m talking real, old fashioned bullying.  It involved physical violence and coercion, not just the little hurt feelings that are labeled bullying today.  I find myself feeling the pain of the Founding Fathers.

“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed.” 

We put up with a lot.  Let’s face it, if we have read the founding documents we know that we have every right to rebel based on their standards.  I will get to the specifics eventually, but the colonists put up with a lot.

In the same way, we put up with a lot.  In general that is a good thing.  I lot of people would die ugly deaths and suffering would be greatly multiplied if we were not a patient people.  That is one of the reasons that the tribal cultures are so far behind in development.  They tend to take any slight and turn it into a killing offense.  That response generates feuds and generational hatreds.  It is destructive.

So don’t expect people to change.  We are patient.  We believe in giving people a second chance.  And a second.  And a third.  Jesus said seven times seventy.  The ones who should be worried are the leaders who have exceeded even that measure, who continue to stomp on people, whittle away at our liberty and demand more special privileges for themselves.  There are many people who are not as patient as I have been.  Someday they will be pushed too far.  The straw will break the camels back.  There will be Hell to pay.

Let us hope that the necessary changes come before the fuse gets to the keg.  They didn’t come in 1776.  Pray for a different result in 2013.

homo unius libri