Life is a growth process. We are born ignorant, and our lives proceed through various degrees of education and enlightenment.
Every new generation adds a few pages to humanity's book of knowledge. Consequently there is an overall human, "Reference of Intelligence," or "Awareness of Reality," that is constantly growing. This intelligence fills many books in libraries, and the collective minds of the chemist, the engineer, geologist, psychologist, medical doctor, the humanist and any who see beyond their own selfish desires. Thus the advance of civilization is also a growth process.
Education is a process of giving up one's ignorant ideas, and learning to control one's activities in accordance with the facts of life. Educators, who attempt to distort education for their own political gain, are the scourge of civilization. Are our universities to become babysitters of degenerate youth, or developers of genius for the future? Human beings were never born to be subjugated or controlled, but to develop, grow, understand and blossom in an epiphany of self realization.
For centuries the only thing people saw as worth pursuing was domination. Those who dominated had wealth. Those who could not dominate had nothing. It is interesting to note that whenever civilization gained a new insight that gave mankind the ability to take a meaningful forward step, it was never done by a government, or other dominator, but by the curious mind of a single individual. Gutenburg, Tesla, Hertz, Pasteur, Ford, Einstein, to name but a few, were not trying to take over anything beyond satisfying their own curious minds.
The bane of progress has been the rulers, who in maintaining their power must limit the functions of the populace. Just as the powers in control jailed Galileo for what they saw as his threatening ideas, those in power often have little desire for progress, as it tends to upset their apple carts. Their only curiosity is how to maintain their power and control over the crowd. The world is full of rulers who maintain their status with an iron fist. That is a common, human trait.
The United States Government was set up to be controlled by the people. America is unique in that we were established to insure freedom to our citizenry. It is not our purpose to give control of the country to any king or cabal. The more government pursues taking control of our fates, the more likely we are to deteriorate back to modern day dark ages.
Americans are raised with the desire to become complete, fully developed masters of their own lives. This uniqueness has spurred our growth as the greatest nation the world has ever seen. It has also set us up as a target for those seeking control of wealth. Some politicians decry the wealth held by some of our more successful people. It would be interesting to know how much wealth is personally controlled by those same politicians.
Tyrants around the world loathe the freedoms Americans enjoy. It breeds restlessness in their populations who become increasingly difficult to control. We have been enjoying a system whose time has come. If we allow its takeover by self aggrandizing would-be captains of our country, we will set back the general growth of the civilization of humanity by generations. The destiny of America is not to control the world, but to lead it to the freedom and fulfillment of humanity.
There are people who cannot take care of themselves and must be cared for. There are also people who must be restrained from their wild rampages, whether in the dark alley or the boardroom. These folks in either category are not the majority. The great majority of us are able bodied and able minded. We can take care of the small minority of both extremes in our society without giving the government control over our industries, organizations and very lives. The idea that a government will, or even can, create a society where everyone is on easy street with no hardship is a fairy tale for children.
We are now on the threshold of some of the greatest developments for mankind. The human mind is a looming frontier on the verge of its new becoming. We still have little idea of the possibilities of fully developed humans, in command of their own potential. The forces of containment and the limiting of discovery can never win, because suppressing the truth is like trying to prevent boiling water from emitting steam. Lying about reality is self-condemnation.
Our freedom will, and does, produce outstanding, understanding people. We must not let any would-be king gain a throne on the pretense, or even good intention of saving us all. Fishermen will never all catch the same number of fish, unless the fish are controlled by a fish allotter. That makes the whole spirit of fishing a farce. It dulls incentive and interest in fishing. People are not meant to be kept children. Let's not give the control of our government over to the children until they reach adulthood. May God bless and keep America.
Richard Westlund is a Collins resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com
