Real Strength

I used to think that in order to be strong I had to be cool and tough and cynical. I'd heard about 'the meek shall inherit the earth', but I thought that it was more an empty promise than anything else. I thought that the strong and the rich and the cynical would really inherit the earth. Ah, but I was wrong. At least in a way. The strong really will inherit the earth, but the strong aren't the people with the biggest sticks. Real strength doesn't come in a weapons locker or a gym, or a smart comment, for that matter, and meek doesn't mean you let everyone push you around.

 

Meek, in this sense means humble. Deeds rather than words. A person who feels the need to blow their own trumpet and brag about everything they do, or even shout others down because they think that's the only way they can make a point is not really strong. That person is really afraid that what they have to offer isn't good enough to stand on its own. Real strength means working hard or doing the right thing even when it isn't easy. It means showing people what you can do rather than padding your resume. People who can do that really will inherit the earth.

Fear and Manipulation From the Left

I talked last time (a long, long time ago) about fear and manipulation from the right, which in fact does nothing to promote a good, honest conservative movement. Now I'll touch on the same from the left. This goes back quite a ways, but I'll try to focus on a few notable and recent instances,

 

Watching recent left-sponsored ads selling the socialized health-care package, I see that we are being told how bad things will be if we don't hand over control of yet another aspect of our lives to the government. Rather than saying what good it will do, the ad brings forth actors who will suffer this or that tragic fate. Rather than selling it (which in fact they don't have to... they own two out of three branches of government and control the purse strings) with positive arguments and benefits, they have to use fear. We know what is best for you. We will spend the money from that shadowy evil 'rich' to save you from the right. Oh, and be afraid of the 'rich'. Don't think about the fact that they employ us and buy big ticket items that we build in order to bring a paycheck home. They are also people who take a chance opening businesses that can get people off of unemployement. But the left doesn't want you to think about that. They need you to fear the 'rich' because otherwise their agenda would be exposed. And what is that agenda? The power of the state over the individual. I could use some labels here, like communism or fascism, but I'd rather just talk about them and let you draw your own conclusions. Welfare, which is a program of the left, is ostensibly a safety net, but has become a way for the state to control what the individual has and can do. They actually encourage you to stop working, stop creating wealth, stop defining your goals and aspirations. Stop trying to improve yourself. Stop trying to become independent. The idea that our rights and powers as individual come from the state, and that the state is the only entity wise enough to hand out our allowances... to distribute the wealth, as it were, runs contrary to everything that our country was founded on. But really, their ads will never speak in such clear language. They never publicly admit these things, for obvious reasons, but they never really counter them either. No, they cannot use facts and truth to sell their agenda, so they use fear and manipulation.