Flaws

I mention on the purpose page that all humans have flaws. So how can you tell whether the most renowned men and women of the past are deserving of their reputation? Furthermore, how do you begin to compare our generation – our leaders to theirs?

For starters, you can’t – one’s outer persona and reputation often have very little to do with their probity and how they treat those around them.

子曰:「君子不以言舉人，不以人廢言」

What we attempt to do is judge their character by their speech and actions.

“It’s not who I am underneath, but what I do…that defines me”

– Bruce Wayne, ‘Batman Begins’

*Felt like part of the jigsaw was missing for the longest time as speech is easily manipulated; anyone who pays any attention at all to politics surely realizes this. Yet, scripture has an emphasis on the Word and of Truth. Why? It is because a perspective, or wisdom, or truth can only be conceptualized and then articulated by a person who understands it seriously.*

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.”

– Matthew 7:15-19

And so the greatest books contain their own unique truth.
Ultimate, unsurpassable due to their inimitability – they are complete in this sense. Fully fleshed and explored as proof of the time and genuine spirit devoted to its analysis.

Just as great works of art are time immemorial – the Mona Lisa, The Creation of Adam, the Statue of David – the greatest perspicacity is found in the words uttered by those whose shoulders we stand on. Following on from a previous post, it is also crucial to realise that at some point: their intentions cease to matter. That’s a peculiar thing to realise, you know? Peterson points it out in Part 1 of his Biblical Series, ‘Introduction to the Idea of God’. The Holy Bible, this ancient tome has outlasted kingdoms and empires spanning the entire globe; it has witnessed the fall of Rome, The Renaissance, the Age of Discovery; it was present throughout the French and American Revolutions and it has hung by a thin thread through the World Wars into the twenty-first century. Would it be more adept to conceptualize the Bible as a volume with pages of text, or perhaps its deeper symbolic significance, the distilled Word?

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

– John 1:1

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth”

– John 1:14

We know politicians lie yet we choose to elect them as the leaders of millions if not hundreds of millions of people. It really beggars belief how arduous and stressful the title should be – most ‘sane’ people don’t want or cannot handle that kind of responsibility. Just take a look at the lines on Barack Obama’s face before he went into office and after he left. Thus, the fundamental question is – as Peterson emphasizes – why would anyone want that title? This is also patently why politics is filled with disagreeable people, some people call them sociopaths, assholes or occasionally (if you’re being very generous), tough fighters. They prepare and expect war. If you don’t fight back then they automatically win. Consequently, we ‘allow’ people who say, have the tendency to gravitate towards issues of governance, power and justice to reign over us; so long as they do their jobs. I don’t think it would be an understatement to say a presidency of a population as large as the United States would become extremely corrupt if not for state and local governments.

Here are the ten largest countries by population according to the U.N.

Suffice to say, the majority of those countries do not boast of immense individual freedom or democracy. I truly hope we are not beginning to see the unraveling of the paradigmatic republic of the West.