Dear Friends,
It seems to me, the world we live in is the aggregate of everyone’s actions, thoughts and attitudes. You might think your words don’t matter, or your minor indulgences are irrelevant to the big picture, but in that you are wrong. All the small actions accumulate into big consequences. Our culture is the accumulation of all of our decisions about what to wear, where to eat, what food to buy, what shows we watch on TV, the music we listen to and what books we read. Therefore we choose the culture by our actions. Our government is as powerful as we tolerate and our society is what we make of it, which is incredibly empowering, it puts us in charge of our culture, society and government. If you don’t like an aspect of our world, you can lead by example and change it in your own life, thus changing the paradigm, one person at a time.
When we cede our power to the elite, because we have allowed ourselves to become dejected by the seemingly overpowering tidal wave of history, they are only too happy to accept the gift. Most of us go along because to change our own actions appear too difficult, would inconvenience us or might lower our economic prosperity in the short run. That is why many people get into negative ruts, like stealing, lying and adultery. They are the easy path, while work, telling ugly truths and fidelity are harder to do. But how much harder is it, to not have to keep track of lies, pretend to be trustworthy while worrying about getting found out, or being faithful and not feeling the stress of potentially being caught? In truth the easy path is the one seen as the hard path and the hard path is actually the easy one, if we only open our eyes and hearts.
We can choose… to be the drop of water that refuses to take part of the tsunami, thus lowering the intensity of it. Moreover, by making that choice, we induce others to make the same choice, we are tribal in nature and when we see someone else acting virtuously, it is easier for us to act the same way, just as sin becomes more possible the more people we see engaged in it. When we are surrounded by people acting as villains, like monkey see monkey do, we tend to follow and become villains ourselves. By being leaders, and leading by example, we can change the direction our world is going.
We tend to follow our leaders, act as they act and think as they appear to think. Look at the popularity of People Magazine. Many of us are only looking for an example to follow, and what examples we have to follow, Hollywood stars going from bed to bed and marriage to marriage, politicians lying so much they forget what the truth really is, and our business people openly screwing their employees, shareholders and customers. Our leaders are the very people we must not follow! Sadly, it is in our nature to follow those we look up to, and so our culture, society, economy and politics degenerate into filth and egoism.
When we are allowed to seek our own good, contrary to what would seem obvious, the aggregate lot of Mankind is improved, while when we are limited by regulation and law, the aggregate lot of Man is lowered. This is because as we seek our own best good, through the free market, our good comes at another’s good. When you buy meat at the butcher who’s self interest is damaged? Certainly not the butcher, who now has money to feed his family, and certainly not the buyer, who now has meat for his children, and clearly not society because the people are better fed. Moreover, the beef industry can pay their people, truckers have cargo to haul and even the cows themselves benefit in the long run, because if everyone stopped eating beef, many types of cows would go extinct. Both the buyer and seller served their self interest, and by their doing so, the lot of Man was improved.
Many people are just followers and always will be, that is their lot in life, but need it be yours? In Elitist theory, an alternative to Marxist class theory, the elite make up 10% of any population. They are the ones who make the decisions and the people, who make up that group change. You can become a leader, an elite, and lead people to goodness… by acting good. You have the power to change the world for the better or you can give that power away to others to do with as they see fit. Those in power today would rather you follow and not lead, they don’t want the competition, plus if you lead people to goodness, it will interfere with their leading us to evil. You can be alight in a dark world for people to rally around bringing in more light, you can sit down and shut up and allow the world to be engulfed in darkness, or you can actively participate in darkening the world. The choice is yours… please choose wisely.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
