Monday, December 18, 2017

December 18, 2017

Phil Beaver seeks to collaborate on the-objective-truth, which can only be discovered. The comment box below invites readers to write.
Note 1:  I often dash words in phrases in order to express and preserve an idea. For example, frank-objectivity represents the idea of candidly expressing the-objective-truth despite possible error.
 Note 2: It is important to note "civic" refers to citizens who collaborate for the people more than for the city.
A personal paraphrase of the June 21, 1788 preamble:  We the civic citizens of nine of the thirteen United States commit-to and trust-in the purpose and goals stated herein --- integrity, justice, collaboration, defense, prosperity, liberty, and perpetuity --- and to cultivate limited services by the USA. Composing their own paraphrase, citizens may consider the actual preamble and perceive whether they are willing or dissident toward its principles.   

Our Views, Dec 16 (theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/article_41faa140-d861-11e7-9ec8-83e329aeda19.html)

To Matthew White:

Here's the view I've had all along: the world is a conflicted place. (Then) even my birth family and friends don't know how to deal with it. Therefore, my opportunity for freedom is my responsibility. I never decided I knew enough to relinquish the quest to learn.

Fortunately or not, my mom and dad were excellent, middle-class providers---so good that it took me five decades to overcome the conflicting memes (packets of information) they and theirs' shared. Civic loved ones and friends influenced me. "Civic" means collaborating for private liberty with public morality in human connections and beyond.

I just finished the book "The Discovery of Freedom," by Rose Wilder Lane, 1943. I consider it among the notes from the American underground. Like all others in my random path of reading, I perceive it came just in time.

I put it on the sparse shelf for re-reading with General George Washington's June 8, 1783 farewell address, loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/amrev/peace/circular.html; Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Divinity School Address," 1838, archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/emerson/essays/dsa.html; William Faulkner's "Barn Burning," wchs-wcusd-ca.schoolloop.com/file/1241325285002/1240666211355/6581091789892073599.pdf; and Anton Chekov's "Rothschild's Fiddle," online-literature.com/anton_chekhov/1272/ .
 
I've moved on to a book about how natives to this continent influence my psychology if not physics. The Inuits alone are amazing!

Our Views (theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/our_views/article_f5ae0ffc-caeb-11e7-ab5c-4b4a9ac0e7e3.html)

I don’t fault Loren Scott for expressing a widespread concern among a class of economists:  What will the world’s long term response to President Trump be like? Scott is, after all an economist who specializes in Louisiana data. For Scott’s work legacy all Louisiana citizens may be grateful.

However, by now, liberal democrats, who seem to control The Advocate, ought to be cautious about Donald Trump’s success and therefore cautious about predicting (hoping for?) USA failure. In fact, The Advocate is obligated to be responsible to both their readers and the people of Louisiana. I think The Advocate is failing that duty for reasons perhaps they understand. I doubt it is that either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders was a better choice.

Trade unfairness rather than isolation is Trump’s target; it’s much like ending NATO free-loading by European members. Look at it like the otherwise happily employed person who wants a co-worker to succeed but cannot risk employment under abuse.

The Advocate should know and report that the US has an $800 duty-free limit, whereas Canada’s is $20. Quoting the White House, “The goal of the Trump study is to quantify exactly how much of the U.S. global trade deficit is due to supposedly unfair practices, and seek remedies for the imbalance.” See theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/freeland-says-us-has-trade-surplus-with-canada/article34533311/ . This article re-assures good will between Canada and the US, but also does not report the $800 vs $20 imbalance favoring Canada.

The biggest offender in the White House’s study list is China. China routinely steals US inventions, music, movies, popular toy designs, etc. Why doesn’t The Advocate write to protect US citizens including Louisiana citizens? What’s The Advocate’s motive? Do they want to replace Trump and Pence with the likes of whoever has the DNC label? I think The Advocate begs woe.

The Advocate promotes Scott’s (erroneous) scare statement recalling the Great Depression of 1930. It’s the typical liberal democrat approach to freedom of the press: irresponsibility.

Today’s thought, G.E. Dean (Matthew 24:9-11 CJB)
“At that time you will be arrested and handed over to be punished and put to death, and all peoples will hate you because of me. At that time many will be trapped into betraying and hating each other, many false prophets will appear and fool many people.”

Dean says, “Christians should not be surprised when persecution comes. Jesus said it was a possibility.”

When daily living brings us into contact with other people, we can readily tell whether they collaborate for civic justice or are dissident to mutual, comprehensive safety and security. For example, if we want to buy a special cake, we ask, and if one baker says they don’t make such cakes, we ask other bakers. Say we want a German-chocolate cake and the baker responds, “We don’t make them,” we may ask, “Do you know of a baker who does?” Often we get a referral. Such public connections are typical of civic people. Dissidents quarrel for reasons they may or may not understand. Sometimes, dissidents change from quarreling to violence. A civic people collaborate for just, statutory laws and just statutory law enforcement so that dissidents may reform or be constrained.

The need for civic peace is made plain by the misery and loss that is imposed on the people by dissidents. However, 6000 years of cultural evolution has introduced a consideration that spoils the utility of personal reactions to day-to-day difference of agreement:  Most people are reared in a culture that inculcates an authority to which all citizens are either coerced or forced to conform. Machiavelli reviewed the types of coercion or force in “The Prince,” 1513. Dean promotes Chapter XI Machiavellianism.

The variety of methods of establishing authority is evident by a short review of the world’s 200 governments. The list of types at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_ideologies is amazing. Republicanism is not directly listed, but is suggested on the right as “Monarchy vs republic.” It seems the American republic is not well understood. I think that is because the preamble to the constitution for the USA leaves it to the people to develop justice, and in 229 years they have resisted jusice.

On September 17, 1787, 1/3 of delegates to the constitutional convention in Philadelphia expressed dissidence to the results of the convention by not signing the draft constitution. The 2/3 who signed created an opportunity that had never existed in the world. On June 21, 1788, 2/3 of delegates to 2/3 of the state constitutions advanced the opportunity by establishing the USA. The USA hoped the dissident four free and independent states would either reform or relent and join. A divided country did not make sense. However, operations began on March 4, 1789, with only ten of thirteen states having joined the USA; dissidence continued.

The opportunity that was created on September 17, 1787 and established on June 21, 1788 is the opportunity for each person to take the authority that each human being is entitled to take. Each newborn has the opportunity to discover and develop responsibility for justice in his or her connections during, both with other people and with all things. Humans discover justice by collaborating on the-objective-truth, or actual-reality. For example, no one comes to a 2017 civic meeting on traffic control with the message, “First we must agree that the world is flat.” Civic citizens do not lie to each other, because they want to communicate, so as to reduce personal misery and loss; they can observe pain in each other’s faces and speak the-objective-truth in order to discover the cause of pain. Dissidents lie for reasons they may or may not understand, but civic citizens cannot allow lies to prevail in the work to discover justice. Likewise, no one comes to a civic meeting on traffic control with the message, “First, we must agree that my God controls everything,” yet Dean tacitly makes that claim daily.

In 2017, we may observe that living beings deserve and need freedom in order to fulfill their innate functions. Of all the species, only one---the human being---has the physical and psychological power to develop freedom. The newborn has the opportunity to develop fidelity to the-objective-truth or actual-reality. It is a comprehensive fidelity that spawns fidelity to self, fidelity to immediate family, fidelity to extended family and friends, fidelity to the people or the nation, fidelity to the world and fidelity to the universe, both respectively and collectively.

Religion may serve the believer, for example, inspire and motivate, provide comfort in a confusing world, or offer hope for a favorable afterdeath. However, the list of world religions is amazing: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religions_and_spiritual_traditions. The original spirit on this continent is a sky spirit: see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_deity#Americas. A brief study draws attention to native-Americans’ cheerful pursuit of survival (is that justice?) based on the-objective-truth or actual-reality. The Inuit are among the Arctic people: nsidc.org/cryosphere/arctic-meteorology/arctic-people.html. Try to survive in the arctic without the Inuit technology they freely share.

I am fed up with dissidents who insist on imposing their God on all people. The USA offers not a return to the coercion and force Christianity thrives on, but the responsibility to establish freedom: private liberty with civic morality.
    
Letters

Defending gun carriers (Shultz) (theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/letters/article_da37b2e6-db8f-11e7-82f7-bb5fda561944.html)

Writers may realize that a civic people never lie or endorse falsities. Integrity requires a person to discover and eliminate honest privation (error or misunderstanding). On any account, Shultz doe not make me comfortable with carriers in our midst. (BTW, in the fifty years I have lived here, I always regarded Livingston Parish as the most dangerous parish I knew of. onlyinyourstate.com/louisiana/dangerous-places-la/)

One exaggeration of facts makes the reader doubt the entire letter. In this case, about Australia, “A person who possesses or uses a firearm must have a firearm licence. Licence holders must demonstrate a "genuine reason" for holding a firearm licence and must not be a "prohibited person". All firearms in Australia must be registered by serial number to the owner, who also holds a firearms licence.” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overview_of_gun_laws_by_nation

Whether or not the license system has improved life in Australia is controversial, but the law has not been changed in two decades. Some studies indicate reductions in suicides more than other crime reductions. Perhaps the licensing is helping, and therefore the people allow it continue.

I own guns and shoot but do not want to carry for self-defense.

Human beings have physical and psychological power that may develop personal responsibility for public freedom. However, cultural evolution developed the majority attitude that a higher power carries the authority. Government or God or a partnership of the two shields us from responsibility. Thereby, we have repressed into a dystopia, where a civic people are threatened by dissidents.

We cannot restore the ineluctable path toward civic peace until most citizens recognize that we need a civic culture, wherein all voluntary associations are aware that human, comprehensive safety and security is required for freedom and at least 2/3 of volunteers collaborate for justice. Considering the threats in this repressed state, justice does not look too different from survival.

In 2017, only 229 years after the USA was established by 2/3 of the people’s representatives in 2/3 of the then thirteen free and independent states, it is time to put aside both religious institutions and government institutions as well as their partnerships as the founders of civic peace and look to a civic people. With a confident, resolved, and collaborative super-majority, the dissidents for whatever reasons may perceive incentives for reform, and the nation (the people) may gradually approach We the People of the United States---total trust and commitment to the preamble.

Priests conflict with civic morality (Kammer)
(theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/letters/article_0131dbd6-db8d-11e7-8012-87ef034a92e1.html)

The Catholic canon is an immoral document. It protects child molesters and other sexual predators. It condones existing slavery (what will the final outcome be?). It expresses hate rather than appreciation for civic peace.

Pride in priestly wisdom distracts the Church from its own immorality. See for example, theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/article_1b40d10c-e2be-11e7-aef2-2776cc1ff73e.html and theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/courts/article_36b30190-844e-11e7-8deb-13a7db139041.html.
  
Even the pope behaves unseemly: theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/18/donald-trump-pope-francis-christian-wall-mexico-border. Self-proclaimed authority for the hereafter may collaborate for civic morality---justice for non-believers and believers for life.

Civic immorality (Cantin)
(theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/letters/article_5e0f01cc-db91-11e7-a15e-0b4f17134da6.html)

"Who cares?"
You erroneously care.

Sensible trash schedules (Sammonds)
(theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/letters/article_4e0ce28e-db92-11e7-9745-f3ebc3abb59f.html)

I agree in principle and would need to see the facts to agree in whole.
  
Columns. (The fiction/non-fiction comments gallery for readers)
  
Cuba markets (Mike Strain) (theadvocate.com/new_orleans/opinion/article_00883fdc-e0fa-11e7-ab56-175f1479e6d6.html)

I do not condone the boondoggle vacations to Cuba Louisiana-official entourages take and don’t want to read about any more of them.

I admit I do not trust Louisiana officials, and that disappoints me. In this article I read “sell up to $302 million to Cuba each year . . . new revenue [against] $1 billion shortfall.” Strain mixes commodity revenue with taxes.

If Louisiana revenue is 8% of sales, that’s $0.026 billion/year. That 2.4% of the shortfall and 0.09% of the Louisiana budget.
  
Criminal poverty (Kevin McGill) theadvertiser.com/story/news/2017/12/17/analysis-when-poverty-treated-like-crime/959948001/

Civic citizens ought to pay attention to McGill’s concerns. Adolescents are being turned into criminals.

The Louisiana prison release program does not touch the civically immoral courts and judges. Their behavior tends to turn relatively innocent dissidents to civic morality in to criminals and worse. See Arthur Riser’s article on judges keeping arrested people in jail at judicial discretion: nationalaffairs.com/authors/detail/arthur-l-rizer-iii or rstreet.org/policy-study/the-conservative-case-for-jail-reform/.
  
Alabama (George Will) washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-moore-endorsement-sunk-the-presidency-to-unplumbed-depths/2017/12/13/3c245482-e036-11e7-bbd0-9dfb2e37492a_story.html?utm_term=.c4262c91f383

If America is to have a civic culture, “The self-described “values voters” and “evangelicals” of pious vanity . . . henceforth . . . reaction to their “witness” should be resounding guffaws.”

As someone who voted for Donald Trump twice, I saw him as having the potential to reform America’s 228 year subjugation to legislative theism, or Chapter XI Machiavellianism. You’d think Will would be smart enough to perceive the possibility, but then, Will has always been fascinated by his writing. Hubris about writing can keep a person from thinking.

Will’s misguided reference to George Washington is sad. Washington’s Four Pillars necessary for a nation to survive (June 8, 1783) totally accommodated both Darwin and Einstein.

It is doubly sad that at this late stage Will erroneously bets on failure of the USA. We are at the nadir of five decades of liberal democracy attempting to upset the American republic.

Will could go to coffee with Cal Thomas and learn what Will is missing with his mind in the gutter; baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-op-1216-thomas-trump-20171215-story.html.
 
Industrial tax exemptions (theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/article_5333b8fc-cb23-11e7-8b31-37b36a5b0b1d.html)

So far, each Louisiana job created by Cameron LNG is costing taxpayers roughly $13.7 million in lost revenue.”

Other forums 

Thank you Fara, for the opportunity to clarify.

First, I wrote “the-objective-truth” to invite you, the reader, not to separate the three words. By writing “objective truth,” you write of a different subject, and that act allowed you to relate it to “responsibility.”

The-objective-truth exists and humans can only discover it. Once discovered, the human being is obliged to conform to it. For example, jumping off a high cliff almost always causes death die to the force of gravity, so humans observe gravity (that’s physics). Similarly, lying may be discovered, and ruin the liar's reliability in communication, so civic citizens do not lie (that’s psychology).

Evolution informs us that every species either adapts to its changing environment or perishes. However one species, the human species, has the physical and psychological power to change his environment.

The species we know as human—-the group that is able to develop language and grammar—-has developed cultures that foster war. The individual persons are acclimated to an authority that has the power to wage war.

But individuals who publicly connect to trade do so in mutual satisfaction. A person wants a product or service and he or she shops around for a vendor and negotiates a mutually satisfactory price. The product or service is delivered in good quality, the payment is made, and both parties are happy. Or there is a mistake and it is reported and satisfactorily resolved. In another example, concert attendees queue to present their tickets without dispute. In other words, it is well known that individuals can live in civic peace.

The human individual has the power to establish mutual freedom, and therefore he or she has the responsibility to so behave. If not, he or she is a dissident to civic justice.

With a majority of individuals collaborating for civic justice, a civic culture may emerge. The civic culture would include many arbitrary associations, such as religions, fine arts, vocations, avocations, sports, etc., all collaborating in responsibility for freedom in the presence of dissidence.

The-objective-truth is the standard against which dissidence is observed: jumping off a cliff invites death and lying invites exclusion from civic collaboration.

These ideas come from my experiences and observations after seventy-four years’ determination to discover—-by living, reading, writing, and communicating—-why, in such as wonderful world with so many wonderful individuals, there is so much misery and loss.

At this time, I think the answer is: During the past 6000 years, cultures evolved that influence individuals to seek an authority rather than to personally take the responsibility to establish freedom. Freedom requires justice; that is, fidelity to the-objective-truth rather than opinion.

No two ova are equal. Fertilization of the two ova could produce two persons, who also would not be equal. Further, each person may either produce ova or spermatozoon. Each person is unique. To speculate that they are equal requires precise explanation of the basis. The only basis that makes sense to me is that they have equal opportunity to develop fidelity to the-objective-truth.

I may modify this post and am happy to receive comments or questions.


Phil Beaver does not “know” the-indisputable-facts, or actual-reality. He trusts and is committed to the-objective-truth of which most is undiscovered and some is understood. He is agent for A Civic People of the United States, a Louisiana, education non-profit corporation. See online at promotethepreamble.blogspot.com.

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