I think the whole idea of grace is to remind us that life is a gift.
Gift: “something bestowed or acquired without any particular effort by the recipient or without its being earned.”
- “Grace alone implies a complex design of predestination in which everyone is equally base and no one is deserving.”
- “Grace insists on a respectful, unpretentious, humble compassion for All.”
- “If Grace insists on a respectful, unpretentious, humble compassion for All, then a lack of Grace insists on an inconsiderate, pretentious, selfish disregard for all and everything beyond this moment.”
Capitalism lacks grace and (today more so than ever before) encourages me to take individual credit for this gift that is life and believe that it is not only earned but deserved, and believe that I am not only entitled but gifted. These impressions of course are erroneous but consistently thought they become entrenched and for most of us there is no turning back.
Yet to move forward we need to turn back not only to grace but also to civic and moral value.
- “Political discussion in recent years has retreated from a substantial, meaningful debate on civic and moral virtue to an entrenched academic exercise calculating market values. Going as far back as Confucius and Plato and as recently as Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King Jr, moral and civic virtue was a consideration; part of the equation. What has happened in the past 40 years?”
- “It may be an oversimplification but I believe our recent decline is a result of our increasing capacity for learning that has enabled rapid technological progress and at the same time stymied our ability to think. We are so busy creating, we have left no time to consider potential outcomes or repercussions. We have grown smart faster than we have grown wise. So we have fallen back on this system of Market Value because it appeals to our current level of acuity and does not require the thoughtful, careful depth of consideration necessary for inclusion of Civic Value and/or Moral Value.”
I need to understand that regarding Humanity’s progress and survival, wealth and power is the equivalent of the kiddie pool. I need to understand that individually being better off materially does not make me the better person.
- “My natural state, (with no artificial encouragement), is discomfort. To be consistently comfortable I must be constantly comforted; and that comforting is not going to come frequently or fast enough from others, …therefore I must constantly soothe and reassure my self myself; in every moment. This leads me to the realization that constant comforting is more comforting if I am constantly improving or getting better; and in our capitalistic world what better way to be better than to be better off. Not only better off than others, but also (and perhaps more importantly) better off than I was a few years or months or even moments ago. And it does not matter that I am better off because (or in spite) of others being worse off. What matters is that I am comfortable because I am comforted by my wealth and/or power relative to those more deserving of less; those on the wrong side of a coin flip that I have conveniently misremembered.”
I need to understand that compassion, progress, survival is not comfortable.
- “Perhaps to reach optimal productivity from discomfort, we need to first establish world-wide-spread comfort. If we have a comforted / comfortable constituent base that feels secure in opportunities for education, peace and prosperity, then perhaps the burden of the necessary awareness from discomfort can be properly placed on the shoulders of more thoughtful worldwide and community leaders and experts, who are capable of mitigating existing and unforeseen threats to our long term survival. As long as we have a constituent base mired in discomfort and on the less preferable side of widening wealth and power gaps, we have an audience for populists, despots, tyrants, autocrats, oppressors, and fringe fear-mongering fascists spouting divisive rhetoric. And as long as we have that audience, we will have an us and we will have a them.”
- “We are in a difficult place. We must seek discomfort to become aware and to encourage change, but we must create comfort to discourage divisiveness so we may work together; or at least work on what is important. And we must narrow the gaps, yet we are still operating on a strong instinct to widen the gaps. It is a multi-level entanglement of contradiction and hardship.”
I need to see the last four to five decades for the cluster they have been.
- “As appalling and repulsive as it is to think, it truly appears that we are a nation of elitist bigots. Until we overcome this empathyless national infirmity, those who look different (minorities and immigrants), those who fall into circumstance created and perpetuated by rich white men (poor people, single moms and felons), those born into less opportunity than advertised, those who don't take advantage of the opportunity there is, and those who are on the overcrowded side of the ever-widening wealth gap, will continue to be victimized. The funny part here, (at least funny to the rich white men and the 9.9% born on third base), is that even though the potential victims constitute a large majority of all Americans, somewhere around one-half of this majority remain active, bona fide, card-carrying elitist bigots, and I would guess that at least half of the remaining half are (to varying degrees) closeted supporters.”
- “I will never understand why or how someone would or could prioritize their bank balance over the needs of a victim. Whether that victim could or could not have made a better decision at some point in the recent or distant past to alter their trajectory should make no difference; statistics show they will, regardless, land on a ladder rung very near to where they began, and be prohibited from climbing too far. So, if today they are a victim, (as are 90% of us in this country), why would we choose to withhold available wealth and rob them of their personal sense of significance? Why would we choose to turn our backs and allow them to question and doubt their self-worth? Why would I choose to believe that I am any more necessary than they are?”
Truthfully, America has never been great; but it has been better, more thoughtful, considerate, concerned.
- Grace.
- Civic Value.
- Moral value.
With effort, perhaps America can be better again.
