Rebuilding the Shining City on a Hill

A group of women from church have been getting together this year on our own version of The Happiness Project, working on personal ways to find more joy in life.  I read the book some years ago and didn't find it life changing, but working together on our own I have found valuable. Our journey has included exercises in being more mindful, and more grateful. As part of my exercises, I’ve included various affirmations, to get my mind more focused on the positive.

Lately I’ve been doing an exercise in which I look at what things look like when some aspect of my life is the way I want it: “When I have _____ the way I want, my life includes _____ and _____.” It puts my mind to work thinking about the positive, creating what I want, rather than cataloging the things that might prove I don’t have it.

So I thought I’d look at that on a broader scale, way beyond just me, to maybe a national level. Maybe beyond that. But what would happen if a large number of us started mentally creating the freedom, prosperity, and civilization we want? Feel free to join me:

Freedom—The Political Sphere

When our country is free, we have

·         Laws that limit government to its proper role of protecting our lives, liberty, and property.

·         Laws that come from the most local level possible for the particular concern.

·         Laws that guarantee our God-given natural rights.

·         Laws that are written, known, and understood by the general population.

·         Leaders committed to the limited government laws we have written.

·         Leaders who are committed to serving people, rather than maintaining personal power.

·         Leaders who live exemplary private lives, in addition to their exemplary public lives, leading the population to emulate their example.

·         Equality before the law, with no favoritism for certain tribes: ethnicities, genders, factions.

·         Free and fair elections.

·         Justice that applies the laws as written and intended, with punishments intended to prevent that perpetrator from repeating (could include rehabilitation), and discouraging any other perpetrators from committing the same crime.

Prosperity—The Economic Sphere

When our country is prosperous, we have

·         Free enterprise, with its entrepreneurship and invention.

·         Self-regulating industries, working always for better products, made in better ways, and becoming better stewards of resources.

·         Honor to the successful, and encouragement and opportunity for those not yet successful.

·         Safety in the money supply, which exactly accounts for the accumulated wealth created by the people.

·         Those who create their wealth in charge of how they spend their wealth.

·         Private resources to fund things that are important to us: education, medical care, scientific research, arts, recreation, etc.

·         Private resources to care for the poor who are unable, either temporarily or permanently, of caring for themselves, so that even the most needy have basic food and shelter needs met.

·         Freedom from government interference beyond protecting our lives, freedom, and property.

·         Taxes limited to providing only for the basic role of government, done in the most effective manner.

Civilization—The Social Sphere

When our country is civilized, we have

·         A religious people, with freedom to worship as one sees fit combined with encouragement of basic religious ethics: valuing innocent human life, valuing truth, valuing property rights, and valuing family and marriage.

·         Freedom from religious persecution.

·         Freedom to live our religions in our daily lives, including in our businesses.

·         Self-governing people.

·         Educated and wise people, who seek truth, justice, and mercy, and strong ties to the history that led to our thriving civilization.

·         Strong families, with a critical mass of married mother and father raising their own children, with encouragement and support from extended family and society.

·         Wholesome entertainment and recreation, free from bombardment of sex, violence, or general ugliness and uncivilized behavior.

·         Flourishing art, music, literature, and architecture that uplifts and inspires.

·         Sense of safety and security in our persons and property.

·         Respect for law and authority, while feeling safe voicing our concerns and beliefs to move for needed change.

·         Peace and harmony among our civilized neighbors locally and internationally.

This list does not include things like instituting a minimum wage, or a maximum wage, or any concern about income inequality, because those things are taken care of in a free market among civilized people, who do business fairly and compassionately care for the less fortunate. Government interference always causes unintended consequences, usually which are the exact opposite of the stated concern.

This list does not include any quotas in hiring based on sex or ethnicity; those things are taken care of by civilized people who see each other as individuals rather than members of various tribes.

This list does not include any concerns about the impact of people on the environment; civilized people care for the world they live in, and free and prosperous people are the innovators who invent better, cleaner, safer products. We don't get there by alarmist regulations that prevent innovation and instill guilt simply for living on the earth--which was created by God as our home.

Image by Hawk862, found here

What I’m envisioning might seem too good to be true. But it is the vision our founding fathers had when they wrote our Constitution and embarked on the experiment of the United States of America. Were there still problems? Yes. They were unable to end slavery, even within the twenty-year time frame they proposed. But the Civil War, the bloodiest and greatest disruption to civilization, was probably a just punishment. And it’s long over. And it took a while to get out of debt from getting things underway (Revolutionary War, War of 1812, etc.)

But the first fifty years of this nation may be one of the most significant examples of growth prosperity seen in world history. That's what Alexis de Toqueville found when he wrote Democracy in America.

It was only failure to adhere to the Constitution, eroding little by little—and sometimes big by big—the laws and expectations and civility, that has led to our debt, our restricted freedoms, our economic malaise, and the calamitous state of family, with a majority of children raised without both parents, practically guaranteeing their lifelong poverty and the decay of civilization.

Many of our recent leaders have consistently failed to lead decent lives of service and example, and have sought oppressive power, calling good evil and evil good. Or have failed to stand up for right against those who have sought the failure of the American experiment.

It is said you get what you deserve. But that sounds hopeless, since I cannot control, or barely influence, the masses who fail to think and act wisely.

I want hope. I love my country, and I want it back. So this country—the shining city on a hill, as President Reagan[i] described it—is what I am envisioning. Maybe my thinking of it, creating it spiritually, you could say—even praying for it—along with any of you who also long for freedom, prosperity, and civilization will set the energy in motion to restore what our Constitution was rightly designed to provide.

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[i] In his farewell address, January 1989, Reagan said: “I’ve spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace.”

Preparing the Ground, Part II

The last post was a request not to “draft Romney” for President, even though he’s a great man, made for our times. The reason has to do with the culture—a culture that rejected him when the alternative was a known failure.

So what we need to talk about, rather than who should run, is how to improve the culture. Very quickly. Now.

Related to culture, on the Glenn Beck radio show last week, Pat and Stu were discussing “a new poll” about religion and beliefs. I tried, unsuccessfully, to track down exactly which poll—or perhaps a collection. My guess is that the info comes from the Pew Research Foundation, or possibly this Harris Poll (a Nielsen company),but they didn’t say. So I’ll just go with Pat and Stu’s numbers.

First they were talking about what American people believe:

·         62% of Americans believe in Satan and hell; 75% believe in heaven.

·         42% believe in evolution.

·         82% believe in God; 8% don’t believe in God; 10% are unsure.

·         79% believe in miracles; 74% believe in angels.

·         41% believe in ghosts; 35% believe in UFOs; 31% believe in witches.

·         74% believe Jesus is the Son of God; 72% believe Jesus was resurrected; 60% accept as truth the virgin birth.

·         25% generally attend church weekly.

So far it’s just interesting. We Americans still have a pretty strong belief in God, especially compared to other countries. But if you measure dedication to belief by attendance, one in four is not that good. That’s certainly down from my childhood. (My childhood home, Utah, still has the highest attendance of 74% attending weekly—the highest in the US.)

Then Pat and Stu started talking about a specific surprising shift in belief. I’ll let their transcript tell the story:

Stu: Right now adults now support "same-sex marriage" by 54-38%; a 16-point margin now support "gay marriage." For more than a decade only about a third of Americans supported the idea, ranging from 27% in 1996 to 35% in 2009. So in 2009 it was 35%, and today it’s 54%. A 19-point move in that type of topic is incredibly fast. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anything like it, to be perfectly honest with you. In 2011 it was the first time it crossed over the plurality level, and 2013 was the majority. Now we’re at 54%.

Listen to these numbers, though, broken down by age category. Those 60 and older oppose "gay marriage" 50-39%. They’re the only group now that opposes it.

Pat: Sixty and older.

Stu: Sixty and older, uh huh. [Age group] 45-59 favor "gay marriage" by a percentage of 49-40%. Between the ages of 30 and 44, they favor it 55-38%. So that’s a 17-point margin. But this is where you find—and this is, you know, where democrats are going, you know, because they try the same arguments over and over again. But these are the numbers they’re basing these arguments on: Those aged 18-29 favor "same-sex marriage" 75-18%. Seventy-five to eighteen!

Remember, this is a topic that Karl Rove is known as the architect because of—the idea that he organized a bunch of constitutional amendments on "gay marriage" to get conservatives out to vote, and they voted George W. Bush in for a second term in 2004. That’s the general reason he’s known as the architect, because he thought of that idea. That it was so popular to be opposed to "gay marriage" and to support traditional marriage back in 2004, that it was the thing that motivated people to go to the polls over a presidential election. Now we have a situation where it’s a 16-point margin among all people, and it’s 75-18% for younger people. Pretty amazing….

I mean, that’s just a societal study. You’re kind of seeing how people’s views change. I will say, on "gay marriage," I don’t know that I’ve ever seen something move that fast. 19 in five years is an astounding move for something that has been… You know, it wasn’t like a, you know, an idea no one had ever thought of. This is something that people considered for a really long time. And about a third of people said, “Yeah, there should be 'gay marriage.'” And all of a sudden, 19 points in five years. Interesting.

What else has happened during this five years? A civilization-hating president has been in the white house. Certainly he hasn’t helped, by lying during his campaign about what he wanted to do on this issue (lying about pretty much any issue, if he didn’t want us to make a judgment based on truth) and then going so far in the other direction that people are prosecuted for their beliefs, or forced out of business if they don’t go along with the homosexual agenda.

But it can’t be all just him. The speed of the change is alarming.

Meanwhile, more people are educated on the Constitution and basic human rights than ever before—mostly in the same time frame—about five years since the Tea Party started popping up. Albeit with the mistaken idea that Mitt Romney isn’t conservative enough, but at least making it clear that adhering to the Constitution—which we read and carry with us—is required of anyone we vote for.

If we’re looking for a reason the changes could happen so quickly, I think we have to look at the diversity of the media. We connect with each other instantaneously and widely, where such communication used to take days, weeks, or months, and was much more limited.

This blog is a tiny little example. The Spherical Model think tank is just me, and my computer, and whatever resources I put to use (which include my son Political Sphere, my son Economic Sphere, and my daughter Social Sphere). As obscure as this spot on the internet is, during the past week, it reached people not just in the US, but also in Russia, Ukraine, Taiwan, France, Singapore, South Korea, United Kingdom, Canada, Philippines, China, and New Zealand. If you add beyond this week, there were also significant readers in Turkey, Poland, Lavia…. Thank you, readers, for sharing. I write because I hope that what I have to say can help people seeking freedom, prosperity, and civilization. Such people are kindred spirits, wherever we are in the world.

Elder David A. Bednar
speaks on flooding the earth with positive messages.

David A. Bednar, former BYU-Idaho President, and now an Apostle in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, gave a talk this past week in which he suggested that we flood the world with positive messages. Use the internet for good, for uplifting one another. He said,

"I exhort you to sweep the earth with messages filled with righteousness and truth—messages that are authentic, edifying, and praiseworthy—and literally to sweep the earth as with a flood."

We need to flood the world with truth, in greater quantities than the opposition is flooding the world with lies. On the issue of same-sex “marriage,” for example, the widespread message/lie has been, “It’s discriminating to prevent gays from marrying.” In truth, no homosexual is prevented from marrying, according to the definition we’ve always had; they simply choose not to. They choose instead to force a change in the definition, so that we no longer have what marriage has always been.

What if every time any media source supported “gay marriage,” a clarifying message showed up saying, “homosexuals insist on changing the definition of marriage, so that it no longer includes permanence, exclusivity, nor the sexual act that can lead to procreation, but refers simply to any two people declaring they are currently in some sort of sexual relationship”? What if every time any media source referred to “a ban on gay marriage,” a more accurate reference showed up: “a change in the definition that would throw out the millennia-old definition of marriage and replace it with a new definition that lacks all the known benefits”?

The term “gay marriage” is quicker to say than what is actual. And the term “banning gay marriage” is quicker to say than what is actual. But going with the “quick” and “easy” over and over, in a flood of messages, has led to a change in thinking that is harmful to civilization and to freedom. (More, new, examples another day.)

How do we get out the truth, on this issue and so many others, when the message is harder and longer to say? I don’t know. Twitter might not be enough. And we don’t want to put out contention on Facebook or Pinterest. A blog, like this, at least has a chance of saying the fuller message—to people who choose to seek it.

But we have to get into the minds of young people, and older people, to get the ground ready for re-planting a great tree of civilization.

And, not to put too much pressure on, but a year from now we’ll be deciding who to put forward as president against the anti-civilization crowd currently dominating the media.

Flood! Positive, uplifting, truth! Now! Go!