I was going to write about lending and the dangers thereof, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.
There was a time when this country believed in providence. It was part of our culture and an extremely important part of the culture.
Providence is the idea that God has blessed this country. That its wealth, power and position in the world was due to God. Providence is not a reward, because it’s a gift, but it isn’t luck either, which is random (unless you believe in the Lady that should not be named and she is a lady and like many ladies she favors the ones that abuse her).
It has become a common meme in our culture that everything we have is a product of luck. Which is very intentional, and comes from the envy of others, that hope to take it away.
Luck fosters a very specific emotion. If your fortune and your nation’s fortune in life is a product of God’s providence. Then you recognize that you don’t deserve what God has given you, and you have gratitude.
Gratitude fosters acting with gratitude towards others. The parable of the debtor that is forgiven a huge sum, yet goes out and is cruel to the ones that owes him smaller amounts of money afterward is a lesson in gratitude.
God has given you all this, act accordingly. It fosters generosity. I remember Joseph Campbell speaking about the difference between the indigenous people of North America thanking the spirits of each particular animal that gave them food, or the spirit of the plant that gave them medicine and what a different mindset that was from thanking an overarching God above.
He was right about the surface difference, he was wrong about the deeper truth though.
Both ways color the world with thanksgiving.
Without them, there is only luck.
What emotion does luck engender? If everything you have is simply a product of luck, you don’t appreciate it as a gift. What do people appreciate more, the things they have, or the thoughtful gift that a friend has given them?
You are more apt to take care of gifts.
And you are more apt to be generous in your life. This is the real reason conservatives give more money to charities than liberals. Conservatives act out of generosity because God has been generous.
If it is only luck, not only do you not appreciate what you have, but you feel guilt for having something you do not deserve.
This is exactly what the world and our leaders, and the people who envy Americans, meant for the people in this country to feel because it is easy to take everything from a person that feels guilty about all the things he has that he does not deserve.
A guilty person does not protest when the government taxes the life out of him, because he does not deserve better. He does not fight back about injustice, because his life really is an injustice from his perspective. It isn’t fair that he has more.
