CAUSATION, CONFLUENCE, COMPLICITY, AND RESULTS continued

 CAUSATION, CONFLUENCE, COMPLICITY, AND RESULTS

When people post that "Conservatives," or "Progressives," or "Anarchists," or "Communists," or "Fascists," or the "Wealthy," or what ever "undesirable group" is to be blamed for this or that trouble in our nation (world), I cringe--because statements like that imply a single and "direct causation" between one group and whatever unhappiness the post-er is citing.

However . . .
I see life as more layered, subtle and complex than that. Wouldn't it be great if blaming others so simplistically would work every time. But it doesn't. Many factors are at play, and just voting out the "evil-doers," or "draining the swamp," doesn't work. Never did. Never will.

In the realm of "causation" there is often an unexpected relationship between confluence of influences/events, coupled with complicity in wrong-doing among a variety of players/groups -- a perfect storm, as they say. Everyone's hands are dirty, and that cannot be denied.

No single person, group, party or persuasion of people could possibly be responsible for all the problems of America, or the world. Many sins and evils cause these things. Evils often subtle, tasteless, odorless, and colorless continually combine to create the ills of our world. The hungry are so not because there is not enough food to feed them, but because of greed and laziness, lack of motivation to create adequate distribution systems and forces to suppress the thieves who steal resources for personal profit, and so forth and so on. This is not a political problem. It is a problem of corruption.

If we want to stop evil we need to look no farther than the corruption and arrogance of our own hearts. No one can force, buy, vote, protest, imprison, or kill their way into a utopian ideal. Only a personal change from within will move us in that direction. That - is why I am a servant of Christ, that, through me and others, He might make the world a better place . . . beginning with "my own" repentance and reclamation. Betterment of the world cannot happen via the masses. It's always one person, one heart, at a time.

By Daniel Rice
January 19, 2022