he real superstar is a man or a woman raising kids on $150 a week. The question is not at what age I want to retire, it is at what income. Each generation must not only preserve the gains of culture and civilization, and maintain intact those just institutions that have been established, but it must also put aside in each period of time a suitable amount of real capital accumulation. This saving may take various forms from net investment in leaning and education. Assuming for the moment that a just savings principle is available which tells us how great investment should be, the level of the social minimum is determined. Suppose for simplicity that the minimum is adjusted by transfer paid for by proportional expenditure (or income) taxes. In this case raising the minimum entails increasing the proportion by which consumption (or income) is taxed. Presumably as this fraction becomes larger there comes a point beyond which one of two things happens. Either the appropriate savings cannot be made or the greater taxes interfere so much with economic efficiency that the prospects of the least advantaged in the present generation are no longer improved but begin to decline. #RandolphHarris 1 of 23

That human-thing relationship is growing more and more temporary may be illustrated by examining the culture surrounding the little girl or boy who trades in one’s Barbie doll. This child soon learns that Barbie dolls are by no means the only physical objects that pass into and out of one’s young life at a rapid clip. Pampers, bibs, paper napkins, Kleenex, towels, non-returnable soda bottles—all are used up quickly in one’s home and ruthlessly eliminated. Corn muffins come in baking tins that are thrown away after one use. Spinach is encased in plastic sacks that can be dropped into a pan of boiling water for heating, and then thrown away. TV dinners are cooked and often served on throw-away trays. One’s homes is a large processing machine through which objects flow, entering and leaving, at a faster and faster rate of speed. From birth on, one is inextricably embedded in a throw-away culture. The idea of using a product once or for a brief period and then replacing it, runs counter to the grain of societies or individuals steeped in a heritage of poverty. However, some people are not used to disposable products. They like to keep their things, even old things, rather than throw them away. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23

We represented one company that wanted to introduce a kind of plastic throw-away curtain. We did a marketing study for them and found the resistance too strong. This resistance, however, is dying all over the developed World. From cardboard milk containers to the rockets that power space vehicles, products created for short-term or one-time use are becoming more numerous and crucial to our way of life. The recent introduction of paper and quasi-paper clothing carried the trend toward disposability a step further. Fashion boutiques and working-class clothing stores have sprouted whole departments devoted to gaily coloured and imaginatively designed paper apparel. Fashion magazines display breathtakingly sumptuous gowns, coats, pajamas, even wedding dresses made of paper. The bride pictured in one of these wears a long white train of lace-like paper that, the caption writer notes, will make “great kitchen curtains” after the ceremony. Like the reverse of what happened in the film The Sound of Music.  Paper clothes are particularly suitable for children. Writes one fashion expert: “Little girls and boys will soon be able to spill ice cream, draw pictures and make cutouts on their clothes while their mothers smile benignly at their creativity.” #RandolphHarris 3 of 23

And for the adults who want to express their own creativity, there is even a “paint-yourself-dress or suit” complete with brushes. Price: $20.00. Price, of course, is a critical factor behind the paper explosion. Thus a department store features simple A-line dresses and men’s breathable underwear, made of what it calls “devil-may-care cellulose fiber and nylon.” The dresses start off at about $50.00 dollars and the men’s underwear about $55.00 a pair. It is almost more cost effective for the consumer to buy and discard a new one than to send an ordinary dress to the cleaners. Soon it will be. However, more than economics is involved, for the extension of the throw-away culture has important psychological consequences. We develop a throw-away mentality to match our throw-away products. This mentality produces, among other things, a set of radically altered values with respect to property. However, the spread of disposability through the society also implies decreased durations in human-thing relationships. Instead of being linked with a single object over a relatively long span of time, we are linked for brief periods with the succession of objects that supplant it. #RandolphHarris 4 of 23

Thus it seems evident, for example, that the classical principle of utility leads in the wrong direction for questions of justice between generations. For if one takes the size of the population as variable, and postulates a high marginal productivity of capital and a very distant time horizon, maximizing total utility may lead to an excessive rate of disposal (at least in the near future). However, since from a moral point of view there are no grounds for discounting future well-being on the basis of pure time preference, the conclusion is all the more likely that the greater advantages of future generations will be sufficiently large to compensate for present sacrifices. This may prove true if only because with more capital and better technology it will be possible to support a sufficiently large population. Thus the utilitarian doctrine may direct us to demand heavy sacrifices of the less affluent generations for the sake of greater advantages, which balance the losses of some against the benefits to others, appears even less justified in the case of generations than among contemporaries. Even if we cannot define a precise just savings principle, we should be able to avoid this sort of extreme. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23

When people are poor and saving is difficult, a lower rate of saving should be required; whereas in a wealthier society greater saving may reasonably be expected since the real burden is less. Eventually once just institutions are firmly established, the net accumulation required falls to zero. At this point a society meets its duty of justice by maintaining just institutions and preserving their material base. Each passes on to the next a fair equivalent in real capital as defined by a just saving principle. (It should be kept in mind there that capital is not only factories and machines, and so on, but also the knowledge and culture, as well as the techniques and skills, that make possible just institutions and the fair value of liberty.) This equivalent is in return for what is received from previous generations that enables the later ones to enjoy a better life in a more just society. Only those in the first generation do not benefit, let us say, for while they begin the whole process, they do not share in the fruits of their provision. Nevertheless, since it is assumed that a generation cares for its immediate descendants, as fathers say care for their sons, a just savings principle, or more accurately, certain limits on such principles, would be acknowledged. #RandolphHarris 6 of 23

It is also characteristic of the contract doctrine to define a just state of society at which the entire course of accumulation aims. The ethical problem is that of agreeing on a path over time which treats all generations justly during the whole course of human history. What seems fair to persons in the original position defines justice in this instance as in others. Thus imagining themselves to be fathers, say, people are to ascertain how much they should set aside for their sons by noting what they would believe themselves entitled to claim of their fathers. When they arrive at an estimate that seems fair from both side, with due allowance made for the improvement in their circumstances, then the fair rate (or range of saving rates) for that stage is specified. Now once this is done for all stages, we have defined the just saving principle. When this principle is followed, adjacent generations cannot complain of one another; and in fact no generation can find fault with any other no matter how far removed in time. Justice does not require that early generations save so that later ones are simply more wealthy. Saving is demanded as a condition of brining about the full realization of just institutions and the fair value of liberty. If additional accumulation is to be undertaken, it is for other reason. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23

It is a mistake to believe that a just and good society must wait upon a high material standard of life. When humans want is meaningful work in free association with others, these associations regulating their relations to one another within a framework to just basic institutions. To achieve this state of things great wealth is not necessary. In fact, if not a temptation to indulge and emptiness, beyond some point it is more likely to be an absolute hindrance, a meaningless distraction. The shift toward transience is even manifest in architecture—precisely that part of the physical environment that in the past contributed mostly heavily to human’s sense of permanence. The child who trades in his or her Barbie doll cannot but also recognize the transience of buildings and other large structures that surround one. We raze landmarks. We tear down whole streets and cities and put new ones up at a mind-numbing rate. The average age of dwellings has steadily declined from being virtually infinite in the days of caves to approximately a hundred years for houses built in the United States of America’s colonial days, to about forty years at present. The American made one’s World yesterday, and one knows exactly how fragile, how shifting it is. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23

Buildings in New York, New York USA literally disappear overnight, and the face of a city can change completely in a way. The horror of living in New York is living in a city without a history. All eight of my great-great grand-parents lived in the city, and only one of the houses they lined in is still standing. That is what I mean by the vanishing past. Less patrician New Yorkers, whose ancestors landed n America more recently, arriving there from the barrios of Puerto Rico, the villages of Eastern Europe or the plantations of the South, might voice their feelings quite differently. Yet the vanishing past is a real phenomenon, and it is likely to become far more widespread, with Trump Tower being stripped of its name, engulfing many of the history-drenched cities of Europe. New York and even now California is a continual evolutionary process of evacuations, demolitions, removals, temporarily vacant lots, new installations and repeat. This process is identical in principle to the annual rotation of crops in farm acreage-plowing, planting the new seed, harvesting, plowing under, and putting in another type of crop. Most people look upon the building operations blocking New York’s streets as temporary annoyances, soon to disappear in a static peace. #RandolphHarris 9 of 23

Many people still think of permanence as normal, a hangover from the Newtonian view of the Universe. However, those who have lived in and with New York since the end of the century have literally experienced living with Einsteinian relativity. That children, in fact, internalize this “Einsteinian relativity” was brought home to me forcibly by a personal experience. Some time ago my wife sent my son, age twelve, to 725 5^th Avenue to get the 5^th Avenue Filet Mignon, steak fires, sauteed spinach, cobb salad without avocado, Trump’s Ice Cream. It is just five blocks from our 50-story apartment on the Upper East Side. Our little boy had been there at least six or seven times before. An hour and a half later he returned perplexed. “It must have been torn down,” he said, “I could not find it.” It had not been. New to the neighbourhood, Rickey had merely looked on the wrong block. But he is a child of the Age of Transience, and his immediate assumption—that the building had been razed and replaced—was a natural one for a twelve-year-old growing up in the United States at this time. Such an idea would probably never have occurred to a child faced with a similar predicament even a century ago. The physical environment was far more durable, our links with it less transient. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23

It is a natural fact that generations are spread out in time and actual exchanges between them take place only in one direction. We can do something for posterity but it can do nothing for us. What is just or unjust is how institutions deal with natural limitations and the way they are set up to take advantage of historical possibilities. Obviously if all generations are to gain (except perhaps the first), they must choose a just savings principle if followed brings it about that each receives from its predecessors and does its fair share for those which come later. It is now clear why the difference principle does not apply to the saving problem. There is no way for later generations to improve the situation of the least fortunate first generation. Either earlier generations have saved or they have not; there is nothing the parties can do to affect it. It seems best to preserve the present time of entry interpretation and therefore to adjust the motivation condition. We can now see that persons in different generations have duties and obligations to one another just as contemporaries do. The present generation cannot do as it pleases but is bound by the principles that would be chosen in the original position to define justice between persons at different moments of time. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23

In addition, humans have a natural duty to uphold and to further just institutions and for this the improvement of civilization up to a certain level is required. An examination of the history of humanity suggested that humans in our epoch are so different from humans in previous ties that it seems unrealistic to assume that humans in every age have had in common something that can be called “human nature.” It seems simple to know when a human individual comes into existence, but in fact it is not quite as simple as it seems. The answer might be: at the time of conception, when the fetus has assumed definite human form, in the act of birth, at the end of weaning; or one might even claim that most humans have not yet been fully born by the time they die. We would best decline to fix a day or an hour for “the birth” of an individual, and speak rather of a process in the course of which a person comes into existence. Indeed, if we look at human’s individual development in terms of historical tie, we might say that human proper was born only a few minutes ago. Or we might even think one is still in the process of birth, that the umbilical cord has not yet been served, and that complications have arisen that make it appear doubtful whether humans will ever be born or whether they are to be stillborn. #RandolphHarris 12 of 23

Does the extraordinary development of the human’s brain make up for one’s instinct deficit? To some degree it does. Humans are guided by their intellect to make right choices. However, we know also how weak and unreliable this instrument is. It is easily influenced by human’s desires and passions and surrenders to their influence. Human’s brain is insufficient not only as a substitute for the weakened instincts, but it complicates the task of living tremendously. By this I do not refer to instrumental intelligence, the use of thought as an instrument for the manipulations of objects in order to satisfy one’s needs. Human’s thinking has acquired an entirely new quality, that of self-awareness. Gifted with self-awareness and reason, humans are aware of oneself as a being separate from nature and from others; one is aware of one’s powerlessness, of one’s ignorance; one is aware of one’s end: death. Self-awareness, reason, and imagination have giving the terrestrial being a different kind of existence. Their emergence has made humans into an anomaly, the deviation of the Universe. They are part of nature, subject to her physical laws and unable to change them, yet they transcend nature. #RandolphHarris 13 of 23

Humans are set apart while being a part; they are homeless, yet not chined to the home they share with all creatures. Cast into this World at an accidental place and time they are forced out of it accidentally and against their will. Being aware of oneself, one realizes one’s powerlessness and the limitations of one’s existence. One is never free from the dichotomy of one’s existence: one cannot rid oneself of one’s mind, even if ne would one to; one cannot rid oneself of one’s body as long as one is alive—and one’s body makes one want to be alive. Human’s live cannot be lived by repeating the pattern of their species; one must live. Humans are the only beings that do not feel at home in nature, who can feel evicted from paradise, the only terrestrial being for whom one’s own existence is a problem that one has to solve and from which one cannot escape. One cannot go back to the prehuman state of harmony with nature, and one does not know where one will arrive if one goes forward. So many people are worried about climate change, but what is more worrisome about the future is corruption. If the Constitution of the United States of America is not enforced and human right are ignored, no matter what the climate is like, it will not be a safe place your future generations. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23

Human’s existential contradiction results in a state of constant disequilibrium. This disequilibrium distinguishes one from the animal, which lives, as it were, in harmony with nature. This does not mean, of course, that the animal necessarily lives a peaceful and happy life, but that it has its specific ecological niche to which its physical and mental qualities have been adapted by the process of evolution. Human’s existential, and hence unavoidable disequilibrium can be relatively stable when one has found, with the support of one’s culture, a more or less adequate way of coping with one’s existential problems. However, this relative stability does not imply that the dichotomy has disappeared; it is merely dormant and becomes manifest as soon as the conditions for this relative stability change. Indeed, in the process of human’s self-creation this relative stability is upset again and again. Humans, in their history, change their environment, and in this process one changes oneself. One’s knowledge increases, but so does one’s awareness of one’s developing state; one experiences oneself as an individual, and not only as a member of one’s tribe, and with this one’s sense of separateness and isolation grows. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23

Humans create larger and more efficient social units, led by powerful leaders—and one becomes frightened and submissive. One attains a certain amount of freedom—and becomes afraid of this very freedom. One’s capacity for material production grows, but in the process one becomes greedy and egotistical, a slave of the things one created. Every new state of disequilibrium forces humans to seek for new equilibrium. Indeed, what has often been considered human’s innate drive for progress is one’s attempt to find a new if possible better equilibrium. The new forms of equilibrium by no means constitute a straight line of human improvement. Something more painful than fire often times consumes the human body and it begins to burn within one’s soul. One starts to understand that no matter what one has done or not done, no matter what the circumstances, no punishment comes to us in this life on Earth which is undeserved. We are all guilty of putting Jesus Christ to death because of our fallen nature and our need of the atonement His death made. We either recognize our sinful selves, or our sentence of death, and our deserving of that sentence, which leads us to repent and believe—or we curse God and die. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23

Sin is within us. For if there is anything worse than our sin, it is our infinite capacity to rationalize it away. The evil deep within all of us is sometimes thrust before us by the conviction of the Holy Spirit, forcefully and painfully. And it makes us feel unclean. We become the helpless thief nailed to that cross, and what we see within us is so ugly that we can do nothing but cry out to God for help. Without the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the repentance that must follow, there is no way out of our predicament. We have the capacity to change anything about our lives—careers, jobs, homes, cars, Barbie dolls, even spouses—but we cannot change our own sinful nature. There must be an answer to the dilemma of evil within, because I have seen lives changed among the Christian inmates. However, for the rest of us and all the freedom we have, what a desperate plight. Trapped in and by our own sin. Thankfully, there is an answer to the wrenching dilemma. Loving God. When we see the reality of our sin, when we come to face to face with it and look into the raging fires of hell itself, and when we then repent and believe and are delivered from that plight, our entire being is filled with unspeakable gratitude to the God who sent His Son to that cross for us. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23

We must express that gratitude. But how? Simply stated: by living the way God commands us. By obedience. That is what the Scriptures mean by holiness or sanctification—believers are set apart for holy living. Therefore, holiness is the only possible response to God’s grace. Holy living is loving God. However, everyone who has tried to live a holy life knows, holiness is the toughest, most demanding, vocation in the World. Our progress in holiness depends on God and ourselves—on God’s grace and on our will to be holy. God loves the human nature assumed by the Word of God in the person of Christ more than He loves all the Angels; for that nature is better, especially on the ground of the union with the Godhead. However, of speaking of human nature in general, and comparing it with the angelic, the two are found equal, in the order of grace and of glory; since according to Revelation 21.17 the measure of a human and of an Angel is the same. Yet so that, in this respect, some Angels are found nobler than some humans, and some human nobler than some Angels. However, as to natural condition an Angel is better than a human. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23

God therefore did not assume human nature because He loved humans, absolutely speaking, more; but because the needs of humans were greater; just as the master of a house may give some costly delicacy to a sick servant, that one does not give to one’s own son in sound health. And now we can begin to speak of “sanctification,” as a condition of the human soul established in imparted (not just imputed) righteousness. It is the condition of soul in the mature children of light. What are we to make of it? Especially, is it to be taken as a goal for every apprentice of Jesus? Is sanctification sensible, or is it magical? What exactly is sanctification anyway? This is a matter that used to be much better understood than it is now. The work of Jesus Christ in the World is twofold. It is a work accomplished for us, destined to effect reconciliation between God and humans; it is work accomplished in us, with the object of effecting our sanctification. By the one a right relation is established between God and us; by the other, the fruit of the reestablished order is secured. By the former, the condemned sinner is received order is secured. By the former, the condemned sinner is received into the state of grace; by the latter the pardoned sinner is associated with the life of God. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23

How many express themselves as if, when forgiveness with the peace which it procures has been once obtained, all is finished and the work of salvation is complete! They seem to have no suspicion that salvation consists in the health of the soul, and that the health of the soul consists in holiness. Forgiveness is not the reestablishment of health; it is the crisis of convalescence. If God thinks fit to declare the sinner righteous, it is in order that one may by that means restore oneself to holiness. Christ designs to make us both safe and sound. Justification gives the first—safety; sanctification gives the second—soundness. Sanctification does not mean perfection reached, but the progress of the divine life toward perfection. Sanctification is the Christianizing of the Christian. Any human who thinks oneself is a Christian, and that one has accepted Christ for justification, when one did not at the same time accept one for sanctification, is miserably deluded in that very experience. Not culture, but crucifixion, is what the Holy Spirit prescribes for the natural human. Sanctification is not a matter of course, which will go on whatever we do, or o not do. It requires a direct superintendence and surgery on the one hand, and, on the other hand a practical hatred of evil on our part that cooperates with the husbandry of God. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23

The Holy Spirit enables the Christian, through increasing faith, more fully and consciously to appropriate Christ, and this progressively to make conquest of the remaining sinfulness of one’s nature. These comments fill out the meaning of the definition of sanctification as that continuous operation of the Holy Spirit, by which the holy disposition imparted in regeneration is maintained and strengthened. The intuition should be accorded the highest place among human’s faculties. It should always lead or direct them. Knowledge of the facts concerning humans and their nature, their general destiny and spiritual evolution, can be gained by the intuition; but information concerning the details of one’s personal history must be gleaned, if at all, by the physical faculty. The intuition appears indirectly in aesthetic ecstasy and intellectual creativity, in the pricking of conscience, in the longing for relief from anxieties, or peace of mind. It appears directly only in mystical realization. The intuition comes from, and leads to, God. It is the strength or feebleness of our intuition which determines the grace of our spiritual evolution. What begins as a gentle surrender to intuition for a few minutes, one day resolves into a complete surrender of the ego to God for all time. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23

The intuitive method should not be asked to solve problems which can easily solved by the reason; otherwise it may fail to respond. On the other hand, when intuition is working, intellect should retire. No human idea can account for its own existence without testifying to the prior existence of a human mind. The World as idea can only account for its own existence by pointing to a World-Mind. And it is equally a fact that the highest kind of existence discoverable to us in the Universe is mental existence. In using the name “Mind” for God, I but follow some of the highest examples from antiquity, such as Aristotle in Greece, Hermes Trismegistus in Egypt, Asvaghosha in India, and the Patriarch Hui Neng in China. For us who are philosophically minded, the World-Mind truly exists. For us it is God, and for us there is a relationship with it—the relationship of devotion and aspiration, of communion and meditation. All the abstract talk about nonduality may go on, but in the end the talkers must humble themselves before the infinite Being until they are nothing and until they are lost in the stillness—Its stillness. Blessed one, please come near to me and hear my prayer. You who have, since ancient times, listened to my people’s words, please hear my prayer now. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23

Great is your power, and perfectly is it applied, with artful skill, with respect for beauty. My own might is little indeed; yours is beyond imagining. Please use your power in my interests: please grant me my wishes, please accomplish my objectives. Let us praise the name of God for the Lord takes delight in His people; He adorns the humble with salvation. Let the faithful exult in glory; let them sing for joy ere they go to sleep. Praises of God are on their lips, and a two-edged sword in their hand; to bring judgment upon the wicked nations, and chastisement upon the peoples; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute upon them the prescribed judgment; He is the glory of all His faithful. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in the firmament of His power. Praise Him for His mighty deeds; praise Him according to His abundant greatness. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Hallelujah Blessed be the Lord forevermore. Amen, Amen. Blessed be the Lord out of America, one who dwells in the United States. Hallelujah. Blessed be the Lord God, the God of America who alone does wondrous things. Blessed by His glorious name forever; and let the whole Earth be filled with His glory. Amen, Amen. #RandolphHarris 23 of 23

Cresleigh Homes

Have your eye on #Meadows at #PlumasRanch? Today’s blog dives into Residence 1, a single story home perfect for building your future. Learn more at the link in bio! https://cresleigh.com/welcome-to-residence-one-at-meadows/

Meadows as Plumas Ranch offers versatile luxurious homes in an area rich with rustic natural beauty. The designs features single level living with the spacious feel of a two story home, and some of the largest two-story homes on the market.

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