The ugliness
of unintended consequence twists its way into our collective lives.
Ignorance of the future caused by today’s
actions are all around us. As a society,
we have mistakenly condoned, as parents we have fueled, and as educators we have
failed, and as leaders we have given permission to act out. In our country "We the People” have the
right to dissent, to disagree and to enact change. As a society, we have given permission to act
out however we want. We have given
permission for rappers the right to spew out profanities, race baiters to
embolden age old hatreds and politicians the right to lie and educators the
right to instill personal bias into the minds of children. It’s little wonder that we find ourselves at
the precipice of anarchy.
The new face
of ignorance, fueled by anger and intended manipulation, is one of death. Under the guise of justified right and
permission we are watching a small percentage of our society rip our way of
life from the rest of us. We are not
alone receiving the ill effects instilled hatred, prejudices and
indoctrination. On the World’s stage we
can see the results of century’s old indoctrination and implied permission. No one with any degree of civilization would
condone any of the horrors perpetrated by those hiding behind the mask of Islamic
jihadism. In the same manner’ no member
of our society with any knowledge of right and wrong would condone the murder
of law and order. Unfortunately, we face
another result of unintended consequence.
Our society has given permission and our media has magnified the voice
of those promoting the rise of anarchy.
As
individuals, each of us acts out our lives according to our beliefs the best we
know how. It is almost impossible to act
against what we truly believe. Our
beliefs are what give basic permissions to act in one way or the other. The
appearance of agreement from other people simply re-enforces that permission. In some cases, in which society wants to
bring awareness to a situation, in order to bring about change, the act of
magnification continues long after awareness has been achieved. The use of violence to promote social change
comes out of an ignorance of the law of cause and effect. Sometimes what we have been taught, what we perceive
and what we believe are blatantly wrong.
If those we continue to learn from are affected by the same ignorance,
we will continue to act out in ways that are going to cause a detrimental
effect. Violence may change action but
it is never going to change belief.
The results
of historical blame are something we all have to live with but not always entirely
justified. Our collective belief focuses
on the bad and the ugly while ignoring factual truth in its entirety. There is no doubt in our collective memory
that bad things occurred between white and black historically. We are already aware of that. Anger, riots and killings are not going to
make our society more aware. The
unintended consequence is not the creation of repair but the ugliness of
confirming and affirming justification for new fears. If you want someone to trust you and to
listen to your viewpoints, smashing them in the face is not going to advance
your point of view. Think about what you
are doing and don’t maintain an ignorance of result.
Infusion of
hatred is not going to have a desired effect, nor is the injection of fear and
mistrust. Recognizing why someone is
angry and hateful is not going to have the effect of cure. Effecting a correction entails a lot more
than explaining the “why”. Shouting the “why”
from the rooftops has a corresponding unexpected result. The result is increasing the feelings of
mistreatment and the search for revenge.
Politicians today in their divisive rhetoric give permission to everyone
to show their worst. Instead of speaking
about positive correction, they speak on how one side is against the other. That understanding of why they act badly sometimes
appears as permission to continue with the bad activity. Understanding why you are smashing me in the
face doesn’t give you the right to help correct your form of communication. To
change the direction, we need to understand each other; to change interaction
between both sides; and wanting improvement. To have a positive effect requires positive
action. The law of cause and effect is
universal and is absolute. If I act out
of fear and misunderstanding the result is predetermined by cause and
effect. Anger is not a positive fuel,
violence is not a positive fuel and as such their effect is bad for us all.
Recognizing
fault is easy unless it lies on our own shoulders. It’s always easier to see when we are looking
away. Like it or not, if we look to the
common sense of proverbs the unintended consequence of looking at the “log in
your own eye before the splinter in the other person’s eye” is one of positive
action and correction. If you want to
fix a problem, be brave enough to ask yourself, are you partially responsible
for it in the first place?
Pray for our
country and our people for understanding of the truth.
God Bless
America
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