Next Generation Christian Kingdom Ch. 05

"Another day we'll get more into politics, but for now I want you to contemplate how we in this kingdom define the difference between good and bad politics. Bad politics is nothing more than tyranny of the majority. With good politics, all involved participate of their own free will without any threat of coercion.

"There is nothing political about the message of grace and redemption that Christ brought to mankind. He was neither a conservative nor a liberal. If you honestly believe that Christ's message was meant to be delivered by the force of law, then you have much yet to learn about him.

"Listen carefully now. Laws are what you pass when you no longer wish to respect those that you disagree with. If you can construe that He wanted you to follow His words by disrespecting others, then you are missing out on so much of the beauty that He can bring to your life."

Anthony wanted Chris to think about what he said for a few moments before continuing. "The reason why believing that Christ is a liberal creates problems for us is that once you have become emotionally invested in the concept of liberalism, then the only way you can be converted to conservatism is by identifying with a conservative, and realizing that the reason why you respect that person is because of his conservative principles. Reason has nothing to do why anyone is a liberal, so reason cannot be used to lead anyone away.

"Once you get it into your head that Jesus is a liberal, no mere mortal can ever live up to that, so there isn't much hope in converting you to a conservative. That is why no squad leader wanted to take you on. Personally, I don't care what you call yourself. I might be proven wrong later, but I think there is a lot of potential in you.

"I meant what I said earlier. I like diversity of thought. Perform your duties and you can believe what ever you like. Now, before we get into those duties, do you have any questions so far?"

"Sure," said Chris. "What makes you think I want to be a conservative?"

"I guess you weren't listening to me," Anthony flatly replied. "A change of politics does not mean a change in who you are. I'm not asking you to change what you want in life, I'm only asking you to reconsider your means for accomplishing them."

Chris had another question. "You said earlier that I had no say in my duties. What if I don't like them? What if I think they aught to be different? Am I a slave in this kingdom?"

Anthony was clearly annoyed by these questions, and his replies showed it. "Only a liberal could see slavery in something that he can freely walk away from.

"As for changing your duties, you will have to do something no liberal elite would ever consider, and that is to show respect for those you disagree with. You will have to look upon anyone up your chain of command as someone that is not a monster, and see them as someone who actually wants what is best for those that he leads. You will have to treat him as someone that can be reasoned with, and use logic, not emotion, to change his mind.

"There is no democracy here, so you can't employ the liberal's favored weapon of class envy and hatred to gain what you desire. If you want to move up the chain of command, and directly effect the goals of the kingdom, and in turn the duties the men must perform, then you must show respect for that chain of command."

"Hey," exclaimed Chris. "What are your getting mad at me for? You're the one who told me to speak my mind. If you don't like what your hear, then don't ask."

Anthony strummed his fingers on his desk a few times. "Touché." He strummed a few more times before continuing. "This is precisely why I need someone like you in my squad. You have a different perspective on things, and you're prepared to stand your ground."

"Besides," continued Chris. "I didn't much care for your 'liberal in name only' comment. I'm a proud liberal. What makes you so sure I'm going to fit in around here? The more you talk, the more I think I have no business here."

"Maybe you don't," conceded Anthony. "Nothing is perfect, maybe the crucible will let me down. There is one thing that is for sure, and that is you can't honestly take your oath and have the core values of the liberal elite. So let's get on to it.

"The oath you will take is your prime responsibility. From it flows all of your other responsibilities. The difference between your oath and all of the other duties assigned to you is that you will be expected to succeed in living up to your oath. For your other duties, all you need to do is give a good faith effort, nothing more.

"But not your oath. Any failure in executing your oath will result in your immediate dismissal from this kingdom. There will be no do-overs, or second chances. You will be gone. Simple as that.

"So what is this oath? As a man of this kingdom, you are commanded to protect and empower the women and children of this kingdom. That is what you will swear an oath to in order to be a member of this kingdom."

Anthony paused to see what reaction he would get from Chris. Chris, for his part, looked a little nonplused. "That's it?" exclaimed Chris. "I don't get it. Why couldn't a liberal take that oath? It even sounds more like what a liberal would say; not a conservative."

"Bless your liberal-tool heart," laughed Anthony. "There is nothing liberal about it. The part about empowerment might sound like what a liberal would say, but only because liberals have no clue what it means.

"Let's begin with the oath in general. There is no corresponding oath for women, so this is clear sexual discrimination. Then there is the protect part. No feminist worthy of calling herself one would claim that men should protect women. As far as they are concerned, women need to be protected from men, not by men. Although who will be doing the 'protecting' is a mystery.

"So what do we mean by protect? Let me put it as bluntly as I can. If your death means that a woman or child will live, then you die. Even the King ranks below all women and children. As a low ranking man of this kingdom, you are the most expendable of anyone.

"This is another thing that liberal elites have a problem with; the idea that some people have more value than others. They like to spout that everyone is equally worth anyone else when it is convenient for them, but they clearly don't practice it. If the principle of 'woman and children first' doesn't sit right with you, then you shouldn't take the oath.

"As for the empower part, like I said, liberals have no clue what this means. They view power like they view money. As if it can be taken from someone they feel has too much, and given to another they feel has too little. This is nonsense. When someone is empowered, they have the power. If they have to go to someone else for protection, then they have no power.

"To understand what I mean, let's look at labor unions. They could be great sources of empowerment for their members. By training them so that they are highly valued and sought after by companies, and by being a focal point for companies to find them, unions would convey to their members what we refer to as the power of the individual. This type of power is the only form of power that can be referred to as empowerment.

"It's to bad that unions not only have no faith in that power, they actively seek to destroy it. The only power union leadership recognizes is the power of the collective, not the power of individual. The power of the collective is used for protection, not empowerment. This is a destructive force that is only effective against an enemy. Any labor strike should be viewed, at best, as a war of attrition. Sometimes strikes, like war, are necessary, but that still doesn't make it empowerment.

"When I first retired from the army I went to work for a manufacturing company whose workers were represented by a labor union. I didn't last long there because I couldn't stomach the environment. When I was in the army I knew some guys who just hated being in the army, and when their enlistment was up, they left. Yet none of those guys I served with could hold a candle to the hatred of some of the union employees I saw had for the company they worked for. Yet they never left!

"What an absolute miserable existence to have to work for a company you despise, and only by working for a union can that be possible. Only a union could convince you that your enemy is the company you work for, and not the competition of the company. Union leadership only believes in the power of the collective, so it is in their interest to convince their members they are powerless without their protection, and that their company only wants to 'exploit' them."

"Hold on a second here," Chris interrupted. "Are you saying that companies don't exploit their workers? That it's all just a figment of their imagination?"

"Not at all. Let me ask you. When you go out shopping, do you seek the least quality product for the highest price, or the best quality product for the lowest price?"

When Anthony saw he wasn't going to get an answer from Chris, he continued. "Of course you look for the best quality product for the lowest price. So if it's OK for you, why not companies? Why can't companies seek to pay their work force as little as possible?"

"You're kidding me, Right!?!" exclaimed Chris. "We're talking about peoples' jobs here. How can you be so heartless!?!"

Anthony kept his cool and said, "So I can take it from your response that you always buy the higher priced product, because that is someone's job also. If you don't buy it, someone is going to be losing their job there too. Do you actually believe that companies can keep their employees when no one is buying their products?"

Anthony waited a bit for Chris to think, then continued. "Unions instill in their workers that when a company does the same thing you do every day, then some great evil has occurred. They do this because it serves the interest of their so-called leadership. There is absolutely no way any liberal elite or union boss is ever going to tell the truth, and that is that the only guaranteed effective means of protecting workers is through marketable job skills, and a strong economy. This empowers the workers, which in turn weakens the union's power of the collective. Because of this, empowering their members is just not an option.

"Look, I could go on all day long about the great damage unions inflict on their members, but that will have to be left for another day. Right now we are discussing empowerment, and how it applies to your oath. With what we have discussed so far, what would you say is your role in empowering the women and children of this kingdom?"

Chris just sat there shaking his head for a few minutes before continuing. "I don't know. I'm confused. They way you describe protection and empowerment they sound like they would contradict each other."

"Very good, Chris," Anthony exclaimed. "Very good indeed. You are exactly correct. You cannot protect and empower someone at the same time. In order for the power of the collective to exist, the power of the individual must be surrendered.

"Just as an over protective parent destroys a child's ability to deal with life on their own, you need to make sure your protection of the women and children of this kingdom does strip them of their power.

"Life is a balance, and your oath is a big part of making you understand such balances. To protect and empower may seem easy enough, but it is no such thing. One of the many ways that liberal elites confuse empowerment is that they see it as the individual makes their decisions for them selves; in theory this is true, but in practice they couldn't be more wrong.

"Let's say a union were to actually perform the proper role that it should in empowering its members. Would it do it by letting their members decide for themselves what they should learn? Of course not. Unions need to make sure that their members learn the things that will make them valuable to employers. If they make them valuable, then they will make them powerful.

"Put simply, people who are valuable are people who are powerful. No big mystery. So, do you have a better idea of what you need to do to carry out your oath?"

"No," said Chris. "No, I do not. My father was a shop steward for the I.A.M. You make union leaders out to be evil people, and I can't reconcile with what you are saying with what I know these people to be like. I cannot believe that they are trying to harm the members they represent."

"I never said they were evil, Chris," responded Anthony. "I don't believe that they have done what they have done because they want to harm their members. They just have no faith in the power of the individual. They firmly believe that without the power of the collective their members will be harmed. If the power of the individual is destroyed by their actions -- and to some degree they do know what they are doing -- then so be it. It is what they believe is necessary to protect their members.

"This is also why they can't make it through our crucible. Without a belief in the power of the individual, they can't see how personal development that is not coupled with some recognition from a support group, such as a diploma from a university, could ever be beneficial.

"As you will come to learn, a major difference between our kingdom and labor unions is that we believe the opposite of what they do. We have no faith in the power of the collective. We only believe in the power of the individual, which is why we demand the men of our kingdom to foster it in our women and children. And as they foster it in others, they learn it for themselves.

"You need to see that the vast majority of the difficulties that the individuals of this country are faced with, have nothing to do with enemies that are out to destroy us, which is the only time the power of the collective should be considered. We believe that when you resort to the power of the collective, you end up making people into enemies that never should be.

"So let's try it again. I hope one day you will have kids. If so, what do you believe you should do to empower them?"

After a brief pause, Chris said, "I want it understood that by answering your question, I am not conceding the point about unions harming their members."

"I don't expect you to," replied Anthony. "I only expect you to empower the women and children of this kingdom."

"Well, I know you have talked negatively about college, but I think that would be a great source of empowerment," said Chris.

"Not really," replied Anthony. "Like unions, they should be, but they aren't. The vast majority of children -- and I do mean children -- who go to college are more interested in getting grades than they are with gaining knowledge; more interested in receiving a diploma than they are with acquiring the confidence they need to succeed in life.

"A very sad fact is that the four years a person invests in college has a very poor return on that investment. I look at most people who thought their college education was good for them like I would look at someone who invested $100K on a business, got back $50K, then said 'Woohoo fifty grand!'

"Let me ask you. How much information that is offered at a college can only be attained at a college?"

"Probably not much," conceded Chris.

"Not much at all. In today's information age, relying on a college to gain knowledge is down right ignorant.

"There is no question that knowledge is power, but not all knowledge has the same power. Another serious problem with colleges is that they are predominantly run by liberals. I have already demonstrated that liberals have no grasp of empowerment, so to believe they have put together a curriculum that will empower their students stretches credulity. Any empowerment that occurs at colleges is by accident; not by design."

"I find what you're saying very hard to believe," said Chris. "Sure. I didn't go to college, but I don't think I did the right thing by not going. Why is it that everyone believes that going to a college is a good thing?"

"Two reasons really," replied Anthony. "The most important is the power of false rewards, and colleges are just filled with them. There are many false rewards in life, where a person can convince themselves they have achieved something when in fact they have achieved nothing. And there is no bigger nothing than the grades handed out in colleges. What exactly do grades -- in and of themselves -- get you?"

When Chris could only shrug, Anthony continued. "That's right. Nothing. Yet at the same time it fills you with a sense of accomplishment. That is the lure of false rewards. There are many highly seductive false rewards in life, such as the things that casinos do. They allow enough winners to occur to convince people that gambling can actually pay off. Yet it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that casinos are not in the business to give away money. You must be constantly aware of these things in order to be an empowered individual.

"What most people don't understand about colleges is that the knowledge that will benefit them the most is the knowledge they would learn on their own without coercion, or false rewards like grades. Even the degree itself is a false reward because all it will do is get your foot in the door of your desired career. It actually contributes nothing tangible to your success.

"The other big reason people believe that going to college is a good thing to do is that most people, particularly liberals, are very bad with connecting the dots on what causes things to happen. They see things like studies that show how much more money people with degrees make than those that don't have one, then assume that the college degree is what caused this. We don't. We believe the evidence points more to successful people are more likely to go to college, than it points to college making people successful.

"If you are a young foolish child coming out of high school, a for more empowering decision for you to make is to join the military. Our young need to start making adult decisions, and taking on adult responsibilities as soon as possible. Decisions that delay adulthood, such as going to college, will actually hamstring them in the long run.

"I'm sure you have heard the saying 'practice makes perfect?' We believe more in the lesser know saying 'practice makes permanent.'

"Although, we don't believe that college is a waste of time for everyone. Assuming the person going college is an adult -- such as after four years in the military, and knows exactly what they are looking for in college, so that they are pursuing knowledge they would have otherwise sought even if they knew they would not get any grade for it, then college can be very empowering.

"Yet I can assure you, if you raise a child in this kingdom to believe that they need a college degree to succeed in life, you will have failed your oath."

Chris thought some more about how to empower a child, then said, "I'm sure it has something to do with making them smart and self-confident, but I'm not sure exactly how to accomplish that."

"Fair enough," replied Anthony. "I wasn't looking for the specifics, but I already told you the answer. To empower your children you need to make them valuable. You need to make them into a person other people would want to be around. Being smart and self-confident are important elements, but not everything.

"Let me ask you a question, what kind of child do you think you will get if you let them decide everything they should do?"

"Probably a spoiled brat," answered Chris.

"Exactly," replied Anthony. "And what kind of child will you get if you made all of their decisions for them?"

"I suppose someone who lacks the confidence to decide things for themselves," answered Chris.