Get Used to Living in Zion

I don’t mean for the title to be misleading. I am not referring to Zionism—the movement of Jews to a homeland of Israel. The word Zion is used in a lot of ways in our scriptures (the standard canonized scriptures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). I’m picking out a few that will apply to what I’m writing about today: “the pure in heart,” “the cause of Zion,” and in the geographical sense somewhat, “all of North and South America.”

from the Bible Dictionary, here

To lay the groundwork: I wrote a couple of months ago (toward the bottom of this post) about the 42 months during which “the beast” reigned over the saints. And I speculated that these 42 months could coincide with the likely illegal administration of Joe Biden, or whoever was pulling the strings during his administration. As it turned out, he stepped down from the race for reelection exactly 42 months after his inauguration.

I just called the Biden administration illegal. While I'm not
writing about that today, this new graphic is additional evidence.
Found here and here.

So, in that sense, “the saints” were the good people of America who were living under the tyranny of “the beast”; i.e., the sea beast of Revelation 13, or the worldwide cabal, secret combinations, worldwide Deep State, Whore of All the Earth, or whatever symbolic name you want to apply to that entity. I posited that, with the conclusion of those 42 months, the beast would still be dangerous, in its death throes, but would be losing power. And then last week I wrote about the propaganda beast—the land beast of Revelation 13, which supports and gives the illusion of power to the sea beast—that it was losing power also.

And then we see the election. The sea beast is significantly disempowered by the election of Donald Trump to a second term.

I have been looking toward this election all year, trying to imagine what would happen going forward from the election, depending on various outcome scenarios. I couldn’t see beyond it. If the cabal won, America was essentially doomed. But I was hopeful that wouldn’t be the case—because of what I was seeing symbolically. But if Trump won, wouldn’t the sea beast and the propaganda beast stir up a lot of trouble, maybe riots or violence? I didn’t know. I couldn’t imagine that they would concede peacefully and allow the incoming administration to uncover all their secret works of darkness. I still can’t see them allowing that. And yet, at this point, two days after the historic landslide election, the results are so clear that accusations of cheating to get this result are meaningless. So protests have no basis of complaint.

In fact, the losing side, rather than self-reflection, is saying things like, “America is more fascist than we had realized.”

For those who feel sad that their team lost this election, I’m not without sympathy. I remember consoling myself with Philippians 4:8 after the 2012 election: “whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Thinking on the demise of the country was too devastating to contemplate. I was in mourning. Turning to lovely things (like Christmas music) helped me get through. Essentially, I turned to God for comfort, as I do, and life went on. I suggest the same for those mourning today, but I’m guessing that’s not their natural go-to.

It turned out reports of the demise of our constitutional republic were premature. We had some temporary improvement from 2017-2020. Then we’ve been hanging on by a thread, as it were, on limited life support. America might now be waking up from its near-death coma.

But those voters who have listened to the propaganda, that has been telling them a Trump victory was the end of life as we know it, and the beginning of fascist tyranny (which they didn’t recognize under Biden) are mourning what they think is a serious blow. In a year or two, many of them may come to realize, hey, things aren’t as bad as we were told. This may especially be the case if the propaganda beast is indeed weakening. They may start getting information from sources of truth, and that could make all the difference for them.

So what do I mean about getting used to living in Zion?

Maybe "shining city upon a hill" is another way of 
describing a Zion society, and it can be America.
Gif image found here

We are told to prepare the world for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, our Savior. We know this is coming. We don’t know precisely when. But soon—whatever soon means.

There’s so much to fear about the run-up to the Second Coming: earthquakes, fires, floods, famine, disease, wars. All of which we have seen, in case you hadn’t noticed. To those who keep saying, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” maybe what we have been seeing has been something.

I have wondered a couple of things. First, why the warnings from ancient prophets if there is no way to avoid the tribulations? And second, how are we to prepare the world for the Savior to come and live among us, if we’re too hampered by tyranny to make free choices to benefit ourselves and others?

I expect the tribulations will continue. But with each one, there will be people who turn to God for support in those times. And—this is important—they will find Zion. They will find people living in a way that shows their love for one another. People step up to help those in trouble, and to get them to more spiritually solid ground—as well as housed and fed and comforted until they can become self-sufficient again.

During the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, we saw glimpses of Zion—people stepping up to help those in need. These Zion people sometimes had to do it despite being hindered by the government.

Elon Musk provided Starlink service to people who had lost their communications. But they weren’t allowed into some areas—the areas with the most need—without names and contact information of the people they were going to see. Well, it kind of defeats the purpose of going in to reach those people who can’t tell you who they are—because they have no communications to let you know who they are!

Glenn Beck experienced frustration with FEMA and other government agencies, who were following directions, but hadn’t thought of ways to actually get food and water and supplies to the people who couldn’t get to their in-town centers—because they lost transportation, bridges, and roads, and couldn’t get to those places. People had to do the jobs that government couldn’t or wouldn’t do.

And, even without natural disasters, people are struggling to pay for groceries and gas for their cars. These things were called “malaise” under Obama (as with Carter a generation earlier), and were considered permanent. Then we found out they weren’t permanent; we just needed better policies. So we had better days under Trump—until the pandemic allowed the sea beast to exert control over the people in ways that were more frightening than the illness (which was easily treatable at home, if they hadn’t outlawed such treatments). Then things turned bad again under Biden. But now we know those things don’t have to be permanent.

It will take some work to build Zion. But I think we can actually do it.

Another way of talking about this is building civilization, which I’ve written about. On the Spherical Model website, I describe civilization this way:

The Social Sphere of the Spherical Model

What Does Civilization Look Like?

In the northern circle that is the goal—Civilization—families typically remain intact, and children are raised in loving homes, with caring parents who guide their education and training, dedicating somewhere between 18 and 25 years for that child to reach adulthood, and who then remain interested in their children’s success for the rest of their lives.

Civilized people live peaceably among their neighbors, helping rather than taking advantage of one another, abiding by laws enacted to protect property and safety—with honesty and honor. Civilized people live in peace with other civilized people; countries and cultures coexist in appreciation, without fear.

There is a thriving free-enterprise economy. Poverty is meaningless; even though there will always be a lowest earning 10% defined as poor, in a civilized society these lowest earners have comfortable shelter and adequate food and clothing—and there’s the possibility of rising, or at least for future generations to rise.

Creativity abounds; enlightening arts and literature exceed expectations. Architecture and infrastructure improve; innovation and invention are the rule.

People feel free to choose their work, their home, their family practices, their friendships and associations. And they generally self-restrain before they infringe on the rights and freedoms of others. Where there are questions about those limits, laws are in place to help clarify boundaries of civilized behavior. When someone willingly infringes on the rights or safety of another, the law functions to protect that victim as well as society from further uncivilized behavior from the offender.

America is set up to be such a civilization—to be a Zion.

The losing candidate, if you’ll recall, declared herself against Zion. It was at a rally shortly before the election. She was praising her favorite “right” of abortion, and two people in the crowd called out “Jesus is Lord” and “Christ is King.” And she went off script—one of the only times—and quipped, “You’re at the wrong rally. You must want the smaller rally down the street.” She is anti-Zion, anti-civilization—she is anti-Christ.

So how do we get to become Zion? We follow the rules for civilization. Again, this is from the Civilization article on the website. There are two rules:

1.     Not all religious societies are civilized (according to my definition), but every civilized society is a religious society. This absolutely does not mean state-sponsored religion or lack of religious freedom; in fact, the opposite is true. Freedom of religion is essential, and the flourishing of religion in general must be encouraged.

2.     The family is the basic unit of civilized society. Whatever threatens the family threatens civilization. So preserving and protecting the family is paramount in laws and social expectations in a civilized society.

 

There’s a fair amount more detail for each of these, which we won’t fully cover here today. For those of my faith, you might look at this as moving from savagery a telestial society (telestial referring to the brightness of the stars at a distance), which is a fallen world, to a civilized, terrestrial world (referring to the relative brightness of the moon, which is much brighter in the sky than a star). If we can get portions of the world—maybe even whole countries, but at least many communities—to be of that higher level, that would be a place Christ would visit. We want to eventually become celestial (comparative brightness of the sun)—where God dwells. But that can come later. Terrestrial, as I understand it, will be the nature of the world during Christ’s millennial reign.

The Ten Commandments, at
the Texas State Capitol

How do we become terrestrial—or civilized—now, while the world itself is still telestial? By living by those two rules. The kind of religion may still vary widely. But it will require being accountable to a higher being for your behavior in this life. And it will require living a certain way. We need to live by the Ten Commandments. We can summarize these with these five things: Honor God, family, life, truth, and property.

·        We honor God: We put God first, and recognize our adherence to His law will affect our afterlife beyond this life.

·        We honor family: We have family loyalty and fidelity. This requires, by the way, no sex outside of man-woman marriage—no arguments about that. Family is how civilization gets passed from generation to generation. Family, as defined by God, is the basic unit of civilization.

·        We value life: We value our own life and the lives of all others. We would take human life only in self-defense situations, which includes defensive war, and in protection of society from someone who has murdered. In a just, civilized society, those exceptions become more and more rare.

·        We value truth: We do not lie, or bear false witness; truth is sacred to us.

·        We value property: We do not steal or even covet, which means wanting what belongs to another—not just wanting something like theirs, but actually wanting to deprive them for your own satisfaction.

The only thing not specified there to love your neighbor. The Savior summarized all the law and the prophets (the sum of what became Old Testament scripture outlining the law and then the teachings of the prophets) as to love the Lord with all your heart, mind, and strength, and then to love your neighbor as yourself.

His is an even higher way—which we’ll have an easier time choosing from a terrestrial (civilized) society than from a telestial (savage) society. He asks us to control even our thoughts and feelings. There are summaries of what this behavior entails in places like I Corinthians 13, where the apostle Paul describes charity, the pure love of Christ: kind, not envious, not self-important or self-aggrandizing, not unseemly, not selfish, not easily provoked, no evil thinking, no rejoicing in iniquity, but rejoicing in truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things. This love never fails.

A government leader can’t make such a society happen. But such a leader can get out of the way of a free and righteous people. If we return to our Constitution, and limit government to those specified things that protect our life, liberty, and property, the rest is up to us.

Maybe this was the plan all along—to give an example of Zion to the world. Then people can self-select based on whether they love God or not. Those who choose Zion get to live a much better life—more like living in the Garden of Eden eventually—than those who choose symbolic Babylon, or the savage, telestial world.

As Trump might eventually say: “Come to Zion—but do it legally.”

There’s more celebration of the victory I’d like to write about, for the sake of history. But this will do as my first impression.

A Full Decade

Ten years ago today I pressed click and posted my first blog. I’ve been writing the blog for a full decade now. This is number 1198—so in another week we’ll hit a full 2000. Thank you or reading whatever portion of those you’ve read.

Not every post makes it obvious what this blog’s purpose is. It is to share the concepts of the Spherical Model by discussing things related to the three spheres: political (freedom), economic (prosperity), and social (civilization).

I’m on a personal crusade to change the vocabulary from the right-left model to this more accurate three-dimensional model. It makes moot any discussions about whether some fringe group is right-wing or left-wing extremist; if they go against the northern hemisphere principles that lead to freedom, prosperity, and civilization, then they are southern hemisphere, leading to tyranny, poverty, and savagery. Degrees (distance south) may differ. Lateral direction toward chaotic tyranny or statist tyranny may differ. But if they’re southern hemisphere, that’s bad.

The Spherical Model is a way to move from “What party is proposing this?” toward “Does this idea/policy follow the principles that lead north?”

We’re not talking earth-north and south; we’re talking about the directions on the Spherical Model. (For a full description of the model, see the resources below.)

The Political, Economic, and Social Spheres of the Spherical Model

The three spheres each have some questions or principles you can consider, to determine whether a policy will lead north or south.

Political Sphere: Questions to Ask

1.     Is the policy being debated something that an individual has the right to do, and therefore has the right to delegate to his/her government? 

2.     Does the policy infringe in any way on our God-given rights, including but not limited to those enumerated in the Bill of Rights?

3.     Is the idea being debated a proper role of government, some aspect of protection (including defense, protection from interstate crime, enabling international and interstate commerce, standardized weights and measures and currency, the judiciary that guarantees the protective laws), as enumerated in the Constitution?

Economic Sphere: Question to Ask

·       Who decides what will be done with the fruits of your labors? Someone always makes these basic economic decisions. Should it be the person who did the work to make the profit (north), or should it be some far distant wielder of power (south)? If you go north, you find prosperity; if you go south, you reach poverty.

Social Sphere: Principles of Civilization

1.     Not all religious societies are civilized (according to my definition, which differs from the archaeological definition), but every civilized society is a religious society. This absolutely does not mean state-sponsored religion or lack of religious freedom; in fact, the opposite is true. Freedom of religion is essential, and the flourishing of religion in general must be encouraged.

2.     The family is the basic unit of civilized society. Whatever threatens the family threatens civilization. So preserving and protecting the family is paramount in laws and social expectations in a civilized society.

 

Example

The three spheres interrelate. But it's probably easiest to see things in the political sphere, so let’s take a look at those three political sphere questions and apply them, for example, to the national $15 minimum wage, being proposed right now. 

With question one, do you have the right to force your neighbor to pay a particular wage to his employees? You can suggest. You can use peer pressure. But you don’t have that right. Nor does he have the right to impose that on you. So we, the people, do not have that power to grant to the government.

And the second question, do you have a God-given right to make an exchange with your neighbor for goods and services? Yes, assuming the exchange does not break a duly legal law (written by the legislature, signed into law, and not breaking the overriding law of the Constitution, which supports our natural rights). Do you have the right to prevent such a free exchange between your neighbor and someone else? No. Even when you think your interference is for someone’s own good? No. Nor does he have the right to prevent you from making an exchange of your choice. The exchange is a representation of the work you have done—the wealth you have created. Money is just an easy way of exchanging that representation of your spent life. To interfere with a free exchange is to interfere with your life, your liberty, and your property. 

And the third question, does the government protect your life, liberty, and/or property by either limiting or forcing an exchange against the will of the participants? No, it interferes or limits those things. Government's job is to protect those things, not infringe on them.

Here’s something we say here often:

Whenever government attempts something beyond the proper role of government (protection of life, liberty, and property), it causes unintended consequences—usually exactly opposite to the stated goals of the interference.

So, if the goal of a minimum wage is to prevent people from being taken advantage of and give them a minimum living amount in exchange for their work, let’s see if it does that.

A business exists to create wealth. It does this by providing goods and services that others are willing to pay for. The price is set by the market—by the customers’ willingness to pay. If the cost is too high, the customer won’t pay it. If the cost is too low, there may be too much buying and the supply won’t keep up. So the business owner isn't setting the price; the market is.

If the market sets a particular price for, say, a sandwich at a fast-food restaurant, and the revenue brings in enough for the business to pay a worker $8.50 an hour, but not $15.00 and hour, what happens when the minimum wage is imposed? The business cannot afford to pay the workers that. The alternative is to let go any workers who cannot bring in the needed revenue to meet their $15.00/hour pay and hope the remaining employees can work even harder than they've been doing. In other words, entry-level workers, who are building up their skills, are not legal to hire. They can’t gain the experience needed to get a $15.00/hour job. Instead, they get no pay. They are worse off.

The law has not only made it illegal for a business to pay less than $15.00 and hour; it has made it illegal for a worker to work for less than $15.00 an hour even when it’s to his advantage to do so.

If you’re looking at fairness as the goal, do you think it’s fair to enforce a $15.00/hour minimum on a small town in the Midwest—where that’s about the median income and can get you a decent home—and also in Los Angeles where it might buy your groceries but wouldn’t begin to make a dent in the rent on a one-bedroom apartment? Such a law actually imposes unfairness.

You can see how the political and economic spheres are interconnected here. We know what the northern prosperity zone would look like: healthy, prosperous economy, with each worker benefiting from his own labors, and having the opportunities to meet his financial needs and build up wealth. There would be no guarantees of the success of every single person, but there would be better opportunities than in any other system in any country at any time in history.

Maybe you can also picture how the economic sphere ties into the social sphere: wherever there are needs that a person cannot meet with their own efforts, caring people step in to fill the need. If it’s an economic need, they do that by charitable giving, or philanthropy.

However, when government takes from one person to give to another, the government isn’t charitable or generous. It is simply thieving. That’s a southern hemisphere policy, and it makes for tyranny, poverty, and savagery. An honest look at data bears that out.

While the Spherical Model is new—and still obscure a decade later—the principles are what our founders tried to design our US Constitution to adhere to. What I believe we’d find, if we had an honest look at the historical data, is that every time the principles are met, we get the desired outcomes of freedom, prosperity, and civilization. But mostly we have experienced people in power insisting they’re “helping” us by limiting our freedom, limiting our use of the fruits of our labors, and leading us away from a thriving civilization—and then saying they’re there to solve those problems for us if we just turn over power to them.

I’m hoping the Spherical Model gives us a better way to think about ideas, and a better way to talk about them.

 

Resources

If you’d like a better look at the Spherical Model concept, here are some resources:

The long version is at the website SphericalModel.com. This contains an introduction and four longish articles:

 

·         The Political World Is Round

·         The Economic World: Free Enterprise vs. Controlled Economy

·         Civilized vs. Savage

o   The Family Is the Basic Unit of Civilization

 

The short version is available in print form in this blog:

 

·         The Political Sphere Is Round. December 29, 2014

·         Spherical Model Review, December 31, 2015 

·         What the Spherical Model Is All About, December 31, 2020. 

 

Since the concept is three dimensional, maybe you’ll understand it better visually, with this very low-tech video of me explaining it in under ten minutes:

 

 

Interrelated Spheres

I started the Spherical Model blog in March 2011, to support and expand on the ideas on the website, which remain there pretty much unchanged since fall 2010. While I still stand by the original ideas, I continue to practice better ways of saying things.

The Spherical Model
Political Sphere

The Spherical Model itself is still pretty obscure. So, I occasionally explain the model. The start of a new year seems like a good time. I’ve been doing this the last several years.

I usually start with links to the model:

Condensed version here: The Political Sphere Is Round 

Video here: https://youtu.be/IGoh5X-CPGA

The whole website here: www.sphericalmodel.com

In that condensed version—which is the last post of 2014—I give this reason:

Next time someone suggests you are (or an idea is) far-right extreme, check to see whether their position is more accurately some level of southern statist tyranny. Missing the possibility of the entire northern hemisphere of freedom is common. Most of world history shows an oscillation between statist tyranny and anarchic tyranny, or from one statist tyranny to another. Change the discussion by changing the terms and then dealing with principles. Then move north to freedom.

In January 2018 I talked more about why the Spherical Model is needed, what misunderstandings it resolves. And then I linked to some of the collections and “best of” posts of the previous year of 2017. I recently did a “best of” list for 2018.

Back in January 2017 I covered the principles that will lead to north on the sphere for political freedom, economic prosperity, and civilization. As I concluded then,

If we can agree that we want freedom, prosperity, and civilization—as opposed to tyranny, poverty, and savagery—that’s a lot of agreement. And then we can move the conversation on to how we get those outcomes.

In January 2016, we defined freedom and some other terms basic to understanding the model. 

In March of that year I did a “Review of the Proper Role of Government,” one of the model’s basic principles.

In other words, I’m not trying to keep this a secret. I really believe people would be better off thinking in terms of the Spherical Model, rather than the more common error-ridden left/right model.

The Political, Economic, and Social Spheres
of the Spherical Model

As I say in the subheading of the blog, the political, economic, and social spheres are interrelated. Evidence for that comes up frequently. Several evenings ago we had dinner with a friend from Uganda, who was visiting Texas during the holidays. (Unfortunately, it was cold while she was here.) She had lived in Venezuela for a while—while things were bad but not as horrendous as they are now. She loves her native Africa, but her country and others, she admits, can’t move forward quickly because of rampant corruption. Even when a new leader comes in and tries to make things better, the same people who were corrupt before go on to get similar jobs, based on their previous experience, and continue their corruption. The social sphere affects the economic sphere.

Another example was a radio broadcast I heard earlier this week on the economic talk show that comes on at noon daily here (STA Money Hour)[i]. The financial planners were talking with a lawyer who offers advice on financial planning for families—wills, trusts, etc. One thing he said was that it was rare to get the various experts hired to help the same family business in a room at the same time: the accountant, the investment banker, the financial planner, the lawyer. Their tasks interrelate, and they could do a better job if they communicated.

But one other point he made was that successful family businesses differ widely in their ability to sustain their wealth. And the difference has more to do with family strength and cohesion than any business/economic ability. Two hypothetical families could grow identical-sized businesses, creating wealth they hope will help the family for generations. This could be true whether or not the next generation actually wants to work in the business. One could go on generation after generation, while the other could lose everything by the second or third generation.

The qualities required for long-term success are working together, recognizing one another’s strengths, being honest, and having integrity. Those that don’t have these qualities tend to lose the wealth. It gets squandered with profligate spending or unwise attempts for growth, losing sight of the company’s mission and how that affects the family. Sometimes it gets squandered by spoiled rich kids, who were lavished with the wealth without being taught how to earn it and value it. But, any way you look at it, the main cause of loss of wealth to a successful family-owned or closely held company is weakness in the family.

Family is the basic unit of civilization. And economic prosperity is closely tied with civilization.

Graphic found here

That is also true in the larger world. A nation that ignores the requirements of honoring God, life, family, property, and truth engender corruption rather than wealth. A nation where a critical mass of people do honor those things—which happen to be the basics of the Ten Commandments—are likely to prosper in personal freedom, economic prosperity, and thriving civilization.

I’m not just saying you have to be a social conservative as well as an economic conservative; I’m saying you can’t get north, to freedom, prosperity, and civilization, unless you abide by the principles of all three of those spheres—because they all interrelate.

---

[i] This was New Year’s Day. I’m guessing it was a “best of” rebroadcast, because that date wasn’t available as a podcast.

Happy 7th Anniversary, Spherical Model

Today (or, specifically yesterday) is the 7^th anniversary of the Spherical Model blog. We’re approaching 900 posts. Usually on an anniversary day, I do some reminding about what the Spherical Model is. I’ll do that today. But I also want to talk a bit about what it’s for, what is the purpose or mission.

Those who control the language control the thoughts, because language is what we use to represent our thoughts.

We as a people are divided—more divided than ever in many ways. But I believe, on the level of human beings, we’re not so different. We’re divided because we use language that divides. Framed a different way, we might be nearly on the same page.

This past Friday, Mr. Spherical Model and I spent some time campaigning for congressional candidate Dan Crenshaw. I’d never held up campaign posters and done actual campaign work like that before. But I thought this candidate was worth it.

We only had a couple of hours. The usual early voting location near us is closed due to flooding, so we asked where we were needed, and we were directed to an early voting location up in Spring (a further northwest suburb of Houston). There were plenty of other campaigners there, just beyond the campaign limit line, holding up signs, handing out materials, for various candidates and races. 

At early voting sites, both parties enter the same place, and then you’re given the ballot for your precinct and chosen party. So there were Democrat campaigners there too. We all got along fine.

Many campaigners were there for the whole day, so they had chairs, and water, and whatever they needed with them. One of Sheila Jackson Lee’s campaigners kindly offered me a chair and water. I was fine, but I let her know I appreciated her thoughtfulness. A little later a voter came out to talk with her and a small group. The voter was disappointed not to find Sheila Jackson Lee on her ballot. I stepped in to help. If you look at the top of the voter registration card, it tells you which district you’re in. She was in CD 2, my district. Lee’s district is 18. So she voted for one of the five Democrat candidates in that congressional race (there are nine on the Republican side). 

The voter was new to Texas; this was her first time voting here. But she was disappointed not to get the chance to vote for Sheila Jackson Lee, about whom she said, “She’s a real spitfire.” There are other thoughts we Republicans have about Rep. Lee, who has quite the list of ridiculous things she has said (like assuming the Mars Rover would see the flag the astronauts had planted, forgetting they’d been to the moon, not Mars, or like believing the US Constitution is 400 years old already, or like denouncing Wikipedia rather than Wikileaks for leaking government documents).

Lee’s district is highly partisan. Occasionally a Republican runs against her, but it’s a windmill-tilting affair. She regularly gets well beyond 80% of the vote. Still, we could be friendly and helpful to one another. That’s hopeful.

A little later, a Democrat state representative candidate came by. His people were down just a bit from where I was. He stopped and talked to a lady near me, who was campaigning for a different CD 2 candidate from mine. The man very briefly, and naturally as part of the conversation, told us about his background. What he’d studied. What he does. I believe he’s a pastor. The things he said, about people, about responsibility and hard work—those were all things that resonate with us Republicans. He was an inspiring and charismatic sort of person. I could see why he’d have a following.

I could imagine, talking with him, that if we could steer away from partisan politics and talk about what we really believe and want in the way of freedom, prosperity, and civilization, we would have a lot we agree on.

But I knew, because I know what is on the Democrat party platform for Texas, that there is almost nothing policy-wise that we agree on. They believe in abortion rights as an ultimate right that trumps life; they believe in taking money from earners to give to those they deem more worthy of it; they believe in limiting speech of those who disagree with them; they believe in full socialized education and medicine.

Some of what they want—as an actual outcome—is what I want. I want everyone to have opportunities, and freedom to choose what to do with their lives. And when you get the partisan conversation out of the way, many of them recognize that hard work and perseverance are necessary for success, and if they had true data and information in front of them, they would stop assuming their “opposition” is full of haters putting roadblocks in their paths.

Getting to that conversation on common ground is a good goal. Using language differently might help. 

Instead of talking about left or right, or even conservative or liberal/progressive/socialist, we might be able to agree that living in freedom is better than living under tyranny. And we might agree that prosperity is better than poverty—and from there we can see what economic principles interrelate with the principles of freedom. And we might agree that civilization is better than savagery—and from there we can see how the principles of civilization interrelate with the principles of freedom and prosperity.

There’s a lot to agree on. The Spherical Model is an alternative way to arrange the ideas, so we can get to that conversation, so we can find where we agree and stop working against each other and actually reach the outcomes we all really want.

So, here are some links, from previous anniversary posts, to help bring you up to speed on what the Spherical Model is:

·         The Long and Short Versions, including the video: 2016  

·         My Bio: 2017  

·         More “Best of” posts: 2015

o   Part I: Overview 

o   Part II: Political Sphere 

o   Part III: Economic Sphere 

o   Part IV: Civilization  

Start with the End in Mind, Part II

Mondays post was mainly about education (specifically, educating for accomplished citizenship). But the process of figuring out what and how to teach is something that can be applied in a larger context. So I thought I’d apply it to the Spherical Model today. I’m doing this as an exercise; I can’t say I’m expert at this process. So we’ll find out together whether the exercise is fruitful.

So that we’re on the same page, I’ll start with reminders of what the Spherical Model is, and what human performance expert Joe Harless says is the process for coming up with what to teach.

The Spherical Model is about the interrelationships of the political, economic, and social spheres. In each of these interrelating spheres, the goal is north: freedom, prosperity, and civilization respectively. We want to stay away from—or move up from—the south: tyranny, poverty, and savagery respectively. East/west is neutral, relating to the appropriate interest, from most local ( furthest west longitude) to global (furthest east longitude)—with one proviso: issues should be handled at the most local level possible. When a higher level tries to control a lower level’s issues, the result is movement southward on the sphere.

To review the process outlined by Joe Harless in the book on education, here’s the order:

1.       Identify the results you want.

2.       Identify the measurable outputs/accomplishments that indicate accomplishment of the result.

3.       Identify behaviors/skills that must be used in order to get the outputs.

4.       Teach those behaviors/skills in the context of their purpose.

There’s probably more to it than that, if you’re going to use the process in developing a school system or a training program in the business world. But this will do for our purposes today. I don’t think we can even cover all four steps in a blog post (not sure I’ve covered them fully in the 800+ posts on this blog). But maybe we can identify what we want, plus a few measurable outputs that would show we are getting there.

The Results We Want

We want freedom, prosperity, and civilization. What do each of those look like?

Freedom: I used this definition in “What Is Freedom” a year and a half ago:

The Political Sphere

Absence of hindrance, restraint, confinement, repression. In the political sense, it is ownership of one’s own life and the production of wealth and property that results from one’s use of life and effort. A government should protect the freedoms of life, liberty, and property; it does not grant these things, but protects them from infringement. A government that takes life, liberty, or property unjustly—when the person has not unlawfully infringed on those rights of another person—that is a tyrannical government, which is the opposite of freedom.

Political freedom means living in a society in which our God-given rights are protected rather than infringed. These would include freedoms of belief and expression, such as freedom of religion and freedom of the press, as well as freedoms of property and security, such as freedom from illegal searches and seizures and the right to bear arms.

So, in the language of results, we have freedom when our rights are protected, and government is limited to that protective role of securing life, liberty, and property. The Preamble to the Constitution delineates the limits of government’s role, and the rest of the Constitution enumerates the powers the government is granted to accomplish its role.

Specific measurable outputs might include these:

·         Secure borders.

·         Sovereignty respected; peace with other civilized nations.

·         Effective and disciplined law enforcement and judicial system.

·         Representative government strictly limited to government’s proper role.

·         Adequate infrastructure.

·         No slavery or indentured servitude.

Prosperity: We’re born naked, impoverished, and inexperienced. It is by growth, hard work, and gaining in expertise that we try to overcome this condition throughout our life. Prosperity, then, means having a standard of living in which basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter are met, and opportunities for improved living standard abound. This comes from a free economy, in which we choose how we work, and more particularly how we spend what we have earned. This encourages the incentive to work harder and innovate, so that we can enjoy the fruits of labor.

The Economic Sphere

But one reason “the poor are always with us” is that some are unable, for reasons that are no fault of their own, to take care of themselves, either temporarily or permanently. Some might lack physical or mental capacity to earn enough to care for themselves. Some might be in the position of taking care of a loved one, which prevents them from earning income. Prosperity means that even those incapable of caring for themselves will have their basic needs met.

So let’s try re-wording prosperity goals as somewhat measurable outputs:

·         No death from lack of access to food or shelter.

·         Property ownership is protected.

·         Choices on how to spend earnings in hands of earners.

·         Limited taxes—that pay only for government’s proper role.

·         Fair taxes—same percentage for all income beyond subsistence earnings.

·         Low or non-existent unemployment.

·         Entry-level work opportunities.

·         Skill improvement opportunities.

·         Skilled workers well-match to business needs.

·         Entrepreneurship.

·         Parental responsibilities met (children cared for until adulthood).

·         Philanthropy—source providing basic needs to those who cannot care for themselves.

·         Upward mobility in standard of living.

Civilization: Civilization thrives when we have a critical mass of people who are moral by choice, meaning they honor God the Creator and grantor of life and liberty and definer of ultimate Good. It means they also honor family, which is the basic unit of civilization and the means of perpetuating it. Moral people also honor life, property ownership, and truth.

The Social Sphere

What does it look like? Here’s the description from the Spherical Model:

Civilized people live peaceably among their neighbors, helping rather than taking advantage of one another, abiding by laws enacted to protect property and safety—with honesty and honor. Civilized people live in peace with other civilized people; countries and cultures coexist in appreciation, without fear.

There is a thriving free-enterprise economy. Poverty is meaningless; even though there will always be a lowest earning 10% defined as poor, in a civilized society these lowest earners have comfortable shelter and adequate food and clothing—and there’s the possibility of rising, or at least for future generations to rise.

Creativity abounds; enlightening arts and literature exceed expectations. Architecture and infrastructure improve; innovation and invention are the rule.

People feel free to choose their work, their home, their family practices, their friendships and associations. And they generally self-restrain before they infringe on the rights and freedoms of others. Where there are questions about those limits, laws are in place to help clarify boundaries of civilized behavior. When someone willingly infringes on the rights or safety of another, the law functions to protect that victim as well as society from further uncivilized behavior from the offender.

So, now, for the attempt to re-word into measurable outputs:

·         Law-breaking rates low and easily handled by police.

·         Contracted commitments kept.

·         Businesses with integrity—errors toward consumers or employees corrected voluntarily and quickly.

·         Volunteer offerings of time and money to alleviate suffering of the less fortunate.

·         Thriving churches, charities, and philanthropies—shown by needs of less fortunate being met.

·         Citizen engagement high: voters educate themselves before voting; elected officials legislate no laws beyond the proper role of government.

·         Very low divorce rates.

·         Reproductive rates well above replacement—children are valued

·         Unwed parents rare; adoption is the expected result of the rare unintended pregnancy.

·         Sex outside of marriage unaccepted—not portrayed as normal and accepted in media.

·         Free expression of respectful opinions intended to preserve/repair civilization.

·         Justice that is clear, quick, and fair; creative sentences for law-breaking, including efforts toward repayment and rehabilitation.

·         Abortion and euthanasia near nonexistent.

·         Art, music, and other creative works.

One of the points of Harless’s book is that separating curriculum into discrete subjects doesn’t work. Similarly, separating the political, economic, and social spheres into discrete segments doesn’t work. They interrelate.

As I wrote in “Choosing to Solve Poverty” a year ago,

Prosperity requires a free people engaged in a free market—all of which requires a law-abiding, righteous people. Things are interrelated. There’s something that comes up in all three spheres—political, economic, and social—and that is choice. 

So this exercise at least lets us examine what we would see in a free, prosperous civilization.

Inculcating the behaviors to get there? That’s the lifelong job of every civilized person. And it’s done most effectively by example in the home. If we started with strengthening families, much of the rest would follow.