Before Your Very Eyes

Good Morning, Playmates!

Only those of a certain age will recall Big Hearted Arthur Askey CBE (1900-1982) and some of his quips. For no good reason that I can think of, he came to mind today after I had listened to incredible utterances from some of those who would rule over us.  In modern parlance: They cannot be serious!

On the subject of tax, I've heard Messrs Corbyn and McDonnell on one side and Mrs May on the other use the expression 'ask the better off to contribute a little more'. ASK? Whenever did government ASK us about taxation? To tax is to demand money with menaces and asking has nothing to do with it.

In the past I've come across young people about to vote for the first time. Some thought they would vote for the leader of this or that party and were dismayed to learn that they could only vote for the leader if they happened to live in the leader's constituency. Today a senior citizen cousin tripped over the same illusion. She would vote for (named) one of the leaders, she said, almost apologetically. On the grounds that she couldn't vote for the other one, she added. She seemed to be not very concerned about local candidates.

There you have it. BEFORE YOUR VERY EYES! The role of Prime Minister has morphed into that of President. Those who aspire to be a constituency representative in parliament have become Party Representatives, selected by the party and thus owing their allegiance to the party if they are to maintain their jobs. And it has happened BEFORE YOUR VERY EYES, Playmates! Before your very eyes. Admit it and weep.

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This needs little explanation.

We laughed the first time we saw it and probably smiled on every similar occasion since then. The fact is that it holds a truth which, too often, we choose to ignore. We know our place and we reconfirm all the prejudices by the way we speak, dress, choose to spend our time and money, and with whom we associate. Not always but often.

 

Jim Rohn (1930-2009) put it this way: "Each of us has two distinct choices to make about what we will do with our lives. The first choice we can make is to be less than we have the capacity to be. To earn less. To have less. To read less and think less. To try less and discipline ourselves less. These are the choices that lead to an empty life. These are the choices that, once made, lead to a life of constant apprehension instead of a life of wondrous anticipation."

 

And the second choice? To do it all! To become all that we can possibly be. To read every book that we possibly can. To earn as much as we possibly can. To give and share as much as we possibly can. To strive and produce and accomplish as much as we possibly can.

 

It should come as no surprise, he observed elsewhere, that those who achieve financial success and buy a  large house to live in, also build libraries within them. Others don't read books much, nor borrow them from a local library much but, lacking the same aspiration, they often subscribe to Netflix or some other time and opportunity wasting distraction. Thus they show the world that they know their place.

This gave me the clue as to why so many of us seem willing to give up our choices to faceless government rather than to function for ourselves and with our community. 

 

If we would dare to educate ourselves and then our own children there would be little need for expensive, coercive, state education (or indoctrination). 

 

If we would dare to form mutual savings associations or co-operatives as some of our forefathers did, there would be little need to turn to a private bank for a loan to buy a home. 

 

If we would dare to fund our own local cottage hospitals (or even clinics) there would be fewer calls for greater and greater spending (not investment) on bureacratic structures in our National Health Service.

Again, to quote Jim Rohn, "economic disaster begins with a philosophy of doing less and wanting more."

 

If we would dare to believe that we truly are Sovereign Beings, we would accept more readily our individual responsibility to be the best that we can be.

 

Or, as my father sometimes said: "If you want a job done properly, be prepared to do it yourself."

It seems to me that we are our own worst enemies.

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