Are You Successful?

Human beings are a rough lot.

I see the failure of the past sixty years as one where the elite acted as they always do [people who will do any and everything to win], the difference being that the professional and administrative classes were not in place as checks and balances to the elite's power-lust. Instead, the leadership of these two classes sold-out BIG time and the rout was on.

Just look at what has happened to finance, health care, education, the sciences, accounting, and all the individuals who sold-out for a long German Sedan and a tasteless McMansion. This will certainly go down as one of the most corrupt eras ever.

The fact the adults by the tens of millions sold-out their kids and grandchildren will probably baffle historians for centuries.

 

That's right. The main cause is called Christianity. Have a doubt? Well, who is the most notorious "doom prophet" of all times? Jesus, as blasphemous as it may sound. Doom is deeply ingrained in Christianity - all the talks about "the end times", the Apocalypse, sees roaring with perplexity, the Antichrist, abomination of desolation, Tribulation and Second coming. Jesus said "All the world will pass but my words (about the end) shall not pass.

Well, you know what, at the end God always wins. If God wants the abomination, the Apocalypse and the end of the world to happen, who can stop him? People follow God's will.

 

That's one way to look at it. But there are many others that cast a much brighter light upon human life.

For instance, you might feel better about things if you interpret the readings metaphorically, that all of these situations are challenges along each individual's path.

 

I heard a great quote from someone who said…
“Success is when your adult kids want to hang out with you.”

Success comes in all different forms depending on who you talk to. I definitely consider it a success that my adult kids want to hang out with my wife and I.

 

Not to disabuse you of your own take on things, but I most certainly do doubt it. Christianity wasn't the cause of the blindness I spoke about and I don't think it was responsible for the blindness that Solzhenitsyn talked about, which is akin to the blindness Václav Havel spoke about in "The Power of the Powerless", which is a blindness to the truth in a world filled with people's lies.

What I spoke about is the blindness to who and what we are and were, and that is part and parcel of the blindness Solzhenitsyn and Havel spoke about - a blindness to the truth - and who or what is the main cause of that? It's not some Nazarene who died 2000 years ago - it's the people who are currently trying disconnect us from who and what we are, the history that made us who and what we are and the ages old struggle for individual freedom that made us who and what we are. These people also happen to be the same people that Solzhenitsyn, Havel and countless others dealt with not so long ago. That's where the blindness I spoke of came from, and unless people speak truth to the blindness and the lies they will wind up just like Solzhenitsyn and Havel did - Living the Lie.

 

Are you concerned with the generation of kids who live with their parents spending all day on Tik Tok or some other social media platform while working dead end jobs for now? I am not that concerned. As a Gen Xer myself, I floated around for 15 years playing in bands, traveling to live in the mountains doing odd construction related jobs and on a ranch just so I could spend 3 years exploring mountains in my 20's etc. I didn't go to college until my 30's. Got my degree at 38 and a decade later, I am now being a six figure specialized engineer in a field with low competition. I could go work for any company worldwide in my field as each major manufacturer has contacted me on LinkedIn.

There is nothing holding people back but their own personal motivation. I just see alot of young people floating around right now like I did in my 20's. As far as people complaining that they are not working as hard as people in my day, I agree and disagree. There are plenty that are not motivated or contributing. I see way too many that want more for less effort. At the same time, I always see new college graduated hired that work harder than I do, so it seems about the same overall. I just cannot confirm that there are higher numbers of slackers nowadays as there were in my day.

 

I am not concerned at all, because a part of younger generations have always been like this. Millenials have moved out of their parents basements and are working, getting married, raising kids, buying houses etc, and the next generation will follow suite. As a matter of fact Millenials are said to be the most productive generation ever.

 

That's what I am talking about too. It's like in that anecdote: everybody wants to be in Heaven but nobody wants to die.
How is "the Second Coming" supposed to happen without the Apocalypse and the "abomination" happening first? There is a timeline there.

 

My balance is wage slave, eating a bag of chips while watching Jeopardy, drinking wine while watching ID channel and falling asleep. Success?

 

You tell us.

 

I would say your definition is lacking.

 

One of the ways you know your life is coming into balance is when you no longer feel the need to put others down.

 

You seem to do a lot of that in "Sacrifice" and if you feel "put down" because I criticized your definition, maybe there are some "balance " issues.