Our fine arts were developed, their types and uses were established, in times very different from the present, by men whose power of action upon things was insignificant in comparison with ours. However, the amazing growth of our techniques, the adaptability and precision they have attained, the ideas and habits they are creating, make it a certainty that profound changes are impending in the ancient craft of the Beautiful. In all the arts, there is a physical component which can no longer be considered or treated as it used to be, which cannot remain unaffected by our modern knowledge and power. For nearly a century, neither matter nor space nor time has been what it was from time immemorial. We must expect great innovations to transform the entire technique of the arts, thereby affecting artistic invention itself and perhaps even bringing about an amazing change in our very notion of art. The transformation of the superstructure, which takes place far more slowly than that of the substructure, has taken more than a century to manifest in all areas of culture the change in the conditions of production. Only today it can be indicated what form this has taken. The range of experience of conscience does not extend to the fact that this unity itself presupposes disunion with God and with men, and that consequently, beyond the disobedience to the prohibition, the prohibition itself, as the call of conscience, arises from disunion with the origin. This means that conscience is concerned not with man’s relation to God and to other men but with man’s relation to himself. However, a relation of man to himself, in detachment from his relation to God and to other men, can arise only through man’s becoming like God in the disunion. #RandolphHarris 1 of 30
Conscience itself reverses this relation. It derives the relation to God and to men from the relation of man to himself. Conscience pretends to be the voice of God and the standard for the relation to other men. It is therefore from his right relation to himself that man is to recover the right relation to God and to other men. This reversal is the claim of the man who has become like God in his knowledge of good and evil. Man has become the origin of good and evil. He does not deny his evil; but in conscience, man summons himself, who has become evil, back to his proper, better self, to good. This good, which consists in the unity of man with himself, is now to be the origin of all good. it is the good of God, and it is the good for one’s neighbour. Bearing with himself the knowledge of good and evil, man has become judge over God and men, just as he is judge over himself. Knowing of good and evil in disunion with the origin, man begins to reflect upon himself. His life is not his understanding of himself, whereas at the origin, it was his knowledge of God. Self-knowledge is now the measure and the goal of life. This holds true even when man presses out beyond the bounds of his own self. Self-knowledge is man’s interminable striving to overcome his disunion with himself by thought; by unceasingly distinguishing himself from himself, he endeavours to achieve unity with himself. All knowledge is based upon self-knowledge. Instead of the original comprehension of God and of men and of things there is now a taking in vain of God and of men and of things. Everything now is drawn in into the process of disunion. Knowledge now means the establishment of the relationship to oneself; it means the recognition in all things of oneself and of oneself in all things. And thus, for man who is in disunion with God, all things are in disunion, what is and what should be, life and law, knowledge and action, idea and reality, reason and instinct, duty and inclination, conviction and advantage, necessity and freedom, exertion and genius, universal and concrete, individual and collective; even truth, justice, beauty and love come into opposition with one another, just as do pleasure and displeasure, happiness and sorrow. #RandolphHarris 2 of 30
One could prolong the list still further, and the course of human history adds to it constantly. All these disunions are varieties of the disunion in the knowledge of good and evil. “The point of decision of the specifically ethical experience is always conflict.” However, in conflict, the judge is invoked; and the judge is the knowledge of good and evil; he is man. Man’s art, though at its best, is ever feeble when compared with the majestic handiwork of God. No great architect or sculptor would allow subordination to his favorite art. According to many religious texts, humans are considered God’s most special creation because they are made in the “image of God,” which gives them a unique role and relationship with the divine. Genesis tells us that as God created the universe, He saw that each thing was good. Then, Genesis 1:27 reads, “God created mankind in His image; in the image of God, He created them; male and female He created them.” After that, God looked at creation and found that it was very good. Man and woman completed and crowned creation. Therefore, do not let your circumstances define you. You were sent here to do great things. Where you live, what do people expect you to achieve and to become? Sometimes the people around you form expectations of you based on your past, on what other people in your family have done, or on stereotypes for your community—not on who you really are. However, one thing we must always remember is that God is the great architect who created us, and He is not subordinate to us, His favorite creation. Because Heavenly Father knows you are amazing and can do extraordinary things, He has high expectations for you. #RandolphHarris 3 of 30
Heavenly Father wants us to be as good as we possibly can throughout our lives: compassionate, full of the Spirit, humble, loving—everything in the scriptures that He tells us to be. Even though it can be hard to live up to them, those high expectations should make you feel special. It can be difficult as you go through life, and people make mistakes. It can make one feel inadequate. However, know that God believes in you, and he expects it of you, which means nothing is impossible. Make the principles and ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ, such as faith, repentance, baptism, and confirmation part of your life, and this will bring you closer to the Lord and help you meet His expectations. God expects you to be a good person, a wonderful person. He expects you to do good things and be a leader to others. Therefore, choose to be strong every day. All of us can meet God’s high expectations, however great or small our capacity and talent may be. It is a diligent, devoted effort on our part that calls for His empowering and enabling grace. In principle, a work of art has always been reproducible. Men could always imitate man-made artifacts. Copies are made by pupils in practice of their craft, by masters for diffusing their works, and, finally, by third parties in the pursuit of gain. Mechanical reproduction of a work of art, however, represents something new. Historically, it advanced intermittently and in leaps at long intervals, but with accelerated intensity. The Greeks knew only two procedures of technically reproducing works of art: founding and stamping. Bronzes, terra cottas, and coins were the only art works which they could produce in quantity. All others were unique and could not be mechanically reproduced. With the woodcut graphic, art became mechanically reproducible for the first time, long before script became mechanically reproducible by print. The enormous changes which printing, the mechanical reproduction of writing, has brought about in literature are a familiar story. #RandolphHarris 4 of 30
However, within the phenomenon which we are examining from the perspective of world history, print is merely a special, though particularly important, case. During the Middle Ages, engraving and etching were added to the woodcut; at the beginning of the nineteenth century, lithography made its appearance. With lithography, the technique of reproduction reached an essentially new stage. This much more direct process was distinguished by the tracing of the design on a stone rather than its incision on a block of wood or its etching on a copperplate, and permitted graphic art for the first time to put its products on the market, not only in large numbers as hitherto, but also in daily changing forms. Lithography enabled graphic art to illustrate everyday life, and it began to keep pace with printing. However, only a few decades after its invention, lithography was surpassed by photography. For the first time in the process of pictorial reproduction, photography freed the hand of the most important artistic functions which henceforth devolved only upon the eye looking into a lens. Since the eye perceives more swiftly than the hand can draw, the process of pictorial reproduction was accelerated so enormously that it could keep pace with speech. A film operator shooting a scene in the studio captures the images at the speed of an actor’s speech. Just as lithography virtually implied the illustrated newspaper, so did photography foreshadow the sound film. The technical reproduction of sound was tackled at the end of the 19th century. These convergent endeavours made predictable a situation which Paul Valery pointed up in this sentence: “Just as water, gas, and electricity are brought into our houses from far off to satisfy our needs in response to minimal effort, so we shall be supplied with visual or auditory images, which will appear and disappear at a simple movement of the hand, hardly more than a sign.” Around 1900, technical reproduction had reached a standard that not only permitted it to reproduce all transmitted works of art and thus to cause the most profound change in their impact upon the public; it also had captured a place of its own among the artistic processes. For the study of this standard, nothing is more revealing than the nature of the repercussions that these two different manifestations—the reproduction of works of art and the art of the film—have had on art in its traditional form. #RandolphHarris 5 of 30
Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be. This unique existence of the work of art determined the history of which it was subject throughout the time of existence. This includes the changes which it may have suffered in physical condition over the years, as well as the various changes in its ownership. The original has spirits, wisdom, and emotions attached to it, painful and beautiful memories. The traces of the first can be revealed only by chemical or physical analyses which it is impossible to perform on a reproduction: changes of ownership are subject to a tradition which must be traced from the situation to the original. Although far removed from the beginnings of mankind, the Victorian house, too, when it has lived its time, may speak the wisdom of the years and say with truth, “All has its time. There is a time to leap with joy, and a time to drag oneself along the earth; there is a time to run with the herd, and a time to go apart to die; there is a time to build nests with one’s beloved, and there is a time to sit alone on the roof; there is a time to soar freely among the clouds, and a time to sink heavily to the earth. All has its time; ‘what profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?’” And, in case you should say to the chandelier, “Is there, then, nothing left to tell?” then it will answer you, “No, when the chandelier is dead, the story is over.” Otherwise, the story must have been different from the beginning and been different as it went along, not merely becoming different at the end. Let us assume that the chandelier concluded its story in another fashion and added, “The story is not over, for when I am dead, I am immortal.” #RandolphHarris 6 of 30
Would this not be a strange story? If the chandelier were really immortal, then immortality must be just that which prevented it from dying, and therefore immortality must have been present in each instant of its life. And the story of its life must once again have been wholly different in order to express continually immortality’s difference from all the changeableness and the different kinds of variations of the perishable. Immortality cannot be a final alternation that crept in, so to speak, at the moment of death as the final stage. On the contrary, it is a changlessness that is not altered by the passage of the years. Therefore, to the old man’s words that, “all has its time,” the wise Solomon adds, “God made all things beautiful in this time; also He hath set eternity within man’s heart, (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Thus, says the self-actualized Christian. For the talk about change, and the varied ways of talking about change is indeed confusing, even when it comes from the mouth of an old man. Only the wisdom of eternity is edifying. If there is, then, something eternal in a man, it must be able to exist and to be grasped within every change. Nor can it be wisdom to say, indiscriminately, that this something eternal has its time like the perishable, that it makes its circle like the wind that never gets further; that it has its course like the river that never fills up the sea. Nor can it be wisdom to talk of this eternal element in the same vein, as if one were speaking of the past and in the sense that it can never, not even in repentance, relate itself to a present person but only to an absent one. For repentance is precisely the relation between something past and someone that has his life in the present time. It was unwise of the youth to wish to talk in the same terms of the pleasure of dancing and of its opposite. For this clear act of folly betrayed that the youth, in his youth, would like to have outgrown youth. However, as for the Eternal, the time never comes when a man has grown away from it, or has become older—than the Eternal. #RandolphHarris 7 of 30
The period during which the human organism develops towards its completion in interrelationship with its environment is also the period during which the human self is formed. The formation of the self, then, must also be understood in relation to both the ongoing organismic development and the social process in which the natural and the human environment are mediated through the significant others. The genetic presupposition for the self are, of course, given at birth. However, the self, as it is experienced later as a subjectively and objectively recognizable identity, is not. The same social processes that determine the completion of the organism produce the self in its particular, culturally relative form. The character of the self as a social product is not limited to the particular configuration the individual identities as himself (for instance, as “a man,” in the particular way in which this identity is defined and formed in the culture in question), but to the comprehensive psychological equipment that serves as an appendage to the particular configuration (for instance, “manly” emotions, attitudes and even somatic reactions). It goes without saying, then, that the organism and, even more, the self cannot be adequately understood apart from the particular social context in which they were shaped. The common development of the human organism and the human self in a socially determined environment is related to the peculiarly human relationship between organism and self. This relationship is an eccentric one. On the one hand, man is in a body, but that, on the contrary, has that body at its disposal. In other words, man’s experience of himself always hovers in a balance between being and having a body, a balance that must be redressed again and again. This eccentricity of man’s experience of his own body has certain consequences for the analysis of human activity as conduct in the material environment and as externalization of subjective meanings. An adequate understanding of any human phenomenon will have to consider both these aspects, for reasons that are grounded in fundamental anthropological facts. #RandolphHarris 8 of 30
The statement that man produces himself in no way implies some sort of Promethean vision of the solitary individual. Man’s self-production is always, and of necessity, a social enterprise. Men together produce a human environment, with the totality of its sociocultural and psychological formations. None of these formations may be understood as products of man’s biological constitution, which, as indicated, provides only the outer limits for human productive activity. Just as man can’t develop as man in isolation, so it is impossible for man in isolation to produce a human environment. Solitary human being is being on the animal level (which, of course, man shares with other animals). As soon as one observes phenomena that are specifically human, one enters the realm of the social. Man’s specific humanity and his sociality are inextricably intertwined. Homo sapiens is always, and in the same measure, homo socius. Obviously, a good way to obscure the “higher” motivations, and to get a lopsided view of human capacities and human nature, is to make the organism extremely and chronically hungry or thirsty. Anyone who attempts to make an emergency picture into a typical one, and who will measure all of man’s goals and desires by his behaviour during extreme physiological deprivation, is certainly being blind to many things. It is quite true that man lives by bread alone—when there is no bread. However, what happens when there is plenty of bread and when his belly is chronically filled? At once other (and “higher”) needs emerge and these, rather than physiological hungers, dominate the organism. And when these in turn are satisfied, again new (and still “higher”) needs emerge and so on. This is what we mean by saying that the basic human needs are organized into a hierarchy of prepotency. #RandolphHarris 9 of 30
Truly new insights, however, are hard to formulate in a balanced way. It is probably a result of the long-undisputed existence of the universal blind spot discussed here that the sudden emergence in our time of insight into the importance of childhood have tended to develop another, compensatory loss of perspective: I mean the tendency on the part of the psychologists and psychopathologists to explain societal phenomena such as totalitarianism by equating them with particular infantile or juvenile stages (“adolescent”), with specific mental illness (“paranoid”), or with particular “character structures” “the “authoritarian personality”). From the personological approach, suggestive generalizations have emerged in regard to certain analogies between patterns of child rearing, ways of conceptualizing the world, and inclinations toward political creeds. This approach, however, has contributed little to the all-important question, namely, under what conditions does the energy invested in given patterns of thought and action (for example, authoritarian) become available for relevant political indoctrination and for effective mass action? The psychopathological approach, in turn, has weakened its case by diagnostic name-calling, designating peoples and people actively or passively involved in totalitarian revolutions as either pathological or immature human beings, and attempting by this means to explain their political behaviour. However, man can be many things, on many levels, and history rarely permits him that unification of defined creed, conscious attitude, and pragmatic action which we in the Protestant world have come to demand of a “mature” or, at any rate, a “logical” human being. #RandolphHarris 10 of 30
What follows, then, is not an attempt at fixing the origin or cause of totalitarianism in the fact of childhood, or in particular forms of childhood training. Nor shall I treat it as a transient affliction or localized epidemic; I begin with the assumption that totalitarianism is based on universal human potentialities and is thus related to all aspects of human nature, wholesome and pathological, adult and infantile, individual and societal. Totalitarianism has probably often been a near reality in history, but to wait for “its” historical moment. This moment is determined by the advance of technology in communication and organization and by the varieties of conditions which gave rise to the fanatic idea of the total state, favour its realization in well-timed revolutionary acts, and furthermore, maintain it through the realities of power and terror. Only such a historical perspective can give the proper measure of the different degrees and kinds of ideological involvement on the part of the many types that make up a totalitarian state: fanatic apostles and shrewd revolutionaries; lonely leaders and oligarchic cliques; sincere believers and sadistic explotiers; obedient bureaucrats and efficient managers, soldiers, engineers; willing followers, apathetic toilers, and paralyzed opponents; unnerved victims and bewilder would-be victims. My training and experience permit me to attempt a contribution to only one of the more basic and yet often less tangible factors in all these forms of participation, namely, the psychological prerequisites for an inspiring or paralyzing sense of the legitimacy of totalitarianism. In all neurotic developments, the alienation from self is the nuclear problem; in all of them, we find the search for glory, the shoulds, the claims, the self-hate, and the various measures to relieve tension. The inner constellation produces a fundamental uncertainty about the feeling of identity. Who am I? Am I the proud super-human being—or am I the subdued, guilty, and rather despicable creature? Unless he is a poet or a philosopher, the individual usually does not raise such questions consciously. However, the existing bewilderment does appear in dreams. In many ways, the loss of identity can there by expressed directly and succinctly. #RandolphHarris 11 of 30
The dreamer may have lost his passport, or when asked to identify himself, may be unable to do so. Or perhaps an old friend of his will appear in his dream, looking quite different from the way he remembers him. Or he may look at a portrait, but the picture frame encloses an empty canvas. For example, the miners of Thuringia were reported to have been even more superstitious than the peasants; and the Thuringian peasant to this day, remains the most superstitious in Germany. Into this kind of miner’s world Hans Luder was forced to go in his early twenties; the work-ideology and cosmology he acquired there his early years. The saying that all is not gold that glitters has a fateful meaning for the miner; it is his job to look for that which glitters, look for it with avaricious but disciplined attention which allows him to avoid wrong leads and recover quickly from disappointment. In those days, of course, the avarice which might make the miner look too eagerly and so doubly fail was attributed to the devil. “In the mines, the devil vexes and fools people, and makes apparitions before their eyes so that they are quite sure they see a big pile of ore and of solid silver where there is nothing.” The feeling that some glistening pile might turn out to be dirt or worse may have been such a basic and constant superstition that we may have to learn to recognize it in the father’s general suspiciousness, and even in his later admonitions to his ordained son that in the most resplendent manifestations of divinity, he had better be on the lookout for “ghosts.” And Martin Luther, having almost literally absorbed such superstitions with his mother’s milk (for the mother is said to have been the more superstitious parent, though she put greater emphasis on benevolent magic), may never have been able not to believe his father when he invoked the sinister wisdom of those who worked in the bowels of the earth. Even a few days before his death, Mr. Luther saw the devil sitting on a rainpipe outside of his window, exposing his behind to him. Such “reality” always existed for him alongside Aristotle and St. Augustine, St. Paul and the Scriptures. #RandolphHarris 12 of 30
It will not harm our spiritual affairs to being more clarity into them. It will not help them to keep our thinking about them muddled. Usually, the patient comes to therapy for two reasons, neither of which places the script in jeopardy. His Adult comes in order to find out how to be more comfortable living in his script. The most forthright example of this is the homosexual of either gender, who usually makes an honest declaration in this respect. The male homosexual, for example, does not want to leave his script world which is populated by women who are either dangerous and hateful schemers, or else innocent and occasionally amiable weirdos. All he wants is to love more comfortably in that world, and only rarely does he wish to see women as real people, which is why several men are trying to replace women, having their genitals removed, and playing on women’s sports teams. Other therapeutic goals of a similar nature are: “How to live more comfortably while bashing your head against a stone wall,” “How to live more comfortably while holding on to the sides of a tunnel,” “How to keep other people from making waves when you are up to your chin in Sh*t Creek,” and “How to outcrook the crooks when the whole world is Crooksville,” Any vigorous attempt to change the script world itself must be postponed until after the patient is firmly established in therapy and understands how it fits into his script. Besides the rational Adult desire to live more comfortably, there is a more urgent Child reason why the patient comes to therapy, and that is to advance his script through transactions with the therapist. He who can conquer language conquers men. Such semantic self-vigilance will have a chastening effect on his private thoughts, quite apart from his public talk or writing. We start by elucidating the information contained in a single word or in a sentence construction, and our procedure is to question not the word or sentence itself but the meaning assigned to it. #RandolphHarris 13 of 30
We have to get the meaning of certain words by going within, to find by internal experience the correct definition of Spirit, Thought, and Love. If this new scrupulousness requires him to reform his speech, he should do so. If a spiritualized semantics is needed for his thinking about truth, he should take it up. The philosopher must ask each word to yield thoroughly a definition which possesses an exactitude that may well terrify the ordinary man. He must become a hunter and wander through the forests of verbal meaning to track down real meaning. He will not rush prematurely into utterance. Words are cheap for the ordinary man, but dear to him. His studied hesitations lead, however, closer to the truth. This interpretational discipline must be vigorously applied until it leads to a thorough understanding of all concepts which are the essential counters in philosophical research. For when men go astray in the definitions of these highly important terms, they will surely go astray in their thinking, and thence be led astray altogether from truth. There are no words in human language in which Truth can find adequate expression. When a Christian came to Sacramento, CA, from Oakland, CA, he said to himself, “He has turned the shadows of death into morning. Looking back over the way he had come, he wondered how the Lord had gotten him through. He remembered the verse: “He discovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of death.” He was deeply moved when he saw all the dangers from which he had been delivered. Now the sun was shining, and this was indeed a great blessing because the worst part of the road was still ahead. Before him, to the end of the valley were snares, traps, pitfalls, slippery places, large gaping holes, and deep pits. No one could have ever avoided them all in the dark, and not to avoid them would have meant certain death. However, now, he could see his way, and he went on past them all, saying, “His candle shines on my head, and by His light I go through darkness.” In this light from above, he came to the end of the valley. #RandolphHarris 14 of 30
Now, in his dream, he saw these at the end of the valley: blood, ashes, bones, and thousands of mangled bodies of faithful pilgrims who had gone this way. While he was wondering what had caused this wholesale murdering of human beings, he saw a little before him a cave where two giants, Pope and Pagan, dwelt in old time. By their power and tyranny, the men and women whose bones and ashes lay before him were cruelly put to death. When Christian went by this place without danger, he wondered why he was not molested. Then he learned that Pagan had been dead many a day and that Pope was very old. He also learned that because of Pope’s many brushes with the government, in his younger days, he had grown so crazy and stiff in his joints that about all he could do now was sit in the mouth of his cave, grinning at pilgrims as they went by and biting his nails because he could not now get at them. At the sight of the old giant, Christian, he did not know what to think, until the giant said, “You will never mend your ways until more of you are burned.” However, Christian held his peace with an unperturbed face, and went by the Pope’s slaughter ground unhurt. Whatever our motivation, when we set out to turn our lives again toward God and God’s commandments, we are engaged in holy work. Perhaps this is why they insist that the gates of repentance are always open (Lamentations Rabbah 3.43). Repentance is always available—for those who are righteous and for those who are wicked, for those motivated by fear no less than those motivated by love. However, it does not follow that all forms of repentance are created equal, as it were. For those motivated by fear, remorse is a driving force. We see what we have done or gaze into the abyss that we are falling into, and we feel genuine regret for the mistakes we have made. For those of us motivated by love, on the other hand, serving God ever more fully is the driving force. We realize that each error presents us with an opportunity to grow morally and so redeem a part of ourselves that, until now, has sometimes led us astray. #RandolphHarris 15 of 30
So, it is that repentance of fear and repentance of love have different consequences. Once we truly regret our transgressions, the deliberate, willful quality of them can be set aside. We are left with a simple mistake, a lapse of judgment, something we now wish we had never done, and so our current intention to do good in effort replaced our former intention to do wrong. Repentance of love, however, has more far-reaching effects. By turning each transgression, we commit into a new opportunity to serve God more fully, we raise those transgressions, in effect, into new opportunities to serve God more fully, we raise those transgressions, in effect, into merits. Both types of repentance are transformative of the individual penitent. Both result in moral renewal and involve a turning from one course of action into another. However, the repentance of fear, motivated as it is by the circumstances in which we find ourselves, can alter only the circumstances surrounding the transgression; what was deliberate now becomes unintentional. Only the repentance of love, motivated by the desire to grow ever closer to God, has the power to transform our transgression into merits, for the sin itself has now become the impetus to cleave to truth and righteousness. Persons’ various public selves are important to them. They can feel assured others will be like them only when they believe that other people see them as the kind of persons that they can like. It is important to be well-liked. Consequently, it is not enough simply to construct public selves; a person usually feels obliged to defend them. The most general means of defending the public self is by means of selective suppression of behaviour that is inconsistent with the public self, replacing authentic with false self-disclosure. #RandolphHarris 16 of 30
To further highlight the illustration, a mother may have heard reports about her son’s behaviour that conflict with her concept of him. She confronts him with the report, and he denies it flatly. He does not want her to believe that he behaves in such a way. Secrecy is more common than lying as a means of defending our public selves. In some cases, if no one discovers what we have done, we can do almost anything without fear (though not necessarily without guilt). The secret activities may be incredibly disparate with the public selves of the individual. If their family and neighbours hear reports of their conduct, people at conventions sometimes display behaviour markedly different from their usual hometown behavior and are quite disconcerted. A really intelligent person can construct public selves with ingenuity and finesse—sometimes fantastically diverse and contradictory selves. The more diverse they are, however, the greater the difficulty in maintaining them; persons who hold contrasting concepts of the individual may meet this person simultaneously, and then the individual is at a loss to know how to behave. Living up to the Lord’s expectations does take diligent devoted effort, but it is worth it. No matter what the world tells you you are expected to do or be, remember that you are a child of God and that He wants you to live with Him again. You can God’s expectations for you, because you were sent to this earth to do great things—and because God will help you do them. Like putting together a puzzle, each time you study the scriptures, you get a larger view of God’s truths. During His Sermon on the Mount, the Saviour taught, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect,” reports Matthew 5.48. Every accountable person on earth is tempted. Even the Saviour was tempted. However, was He capable of sinning? Had there been no possibility of His yielding to the enticement of Satan, there would have been no real test, no genuine victory in the result. Jesus Christ was perfect and sinless, not because He had to be, but rather because He clearly and determinedly wanted to be. Through the redeeming power of Jesus Christ and His Atonement, we can eventually become perfect. #RandolphHarris 17 of 30
Ensure that the firefighter is okay and has sufficient air. If not, remove his mask. If heat and smoke are beginning to vent around the firefighter, use positive-pressure ventilation (PPV) or a hose on fog stream at the window and vent on the other side or up the stairway into the house. Remove the cement block above the window to the still plate while protecting the victim from falling debris. Be aware of anchor bolts that could attach the top course of block to the still plate. If a bolt obscures the area, remove it with bolt cutters. If possible, remove one block on either side of the window. A sledgehammer works best, but a flathead axe can also be effective. If the firefighter is unable to climb out, place a ground ladder over the victim and attach more straps or ropes for lifting. Put one or two members on the ladder and members on either side to facilitate lifting a heavy victim out. Total extrication should be completed in less than five minutes. After practicing several times, you become proficient at it, taking pictures to document the technique. It is advisable to pick a magazine based on its format. Some are best suited for apparatus ideas, some are geared toward training, and others excel in procedures and management. A submission like this would probably be run by a “hands-on: magazine and practiced around the country. This is a great way to take near-miss results that hit close to home and disseminate the information quickly to a large audience. The overall responsibility for ensuring the safety of firefighters lies with the fire agency having jurisdiction for the area. Once a fire ignition occurs, it is too late to take the steps that are essential to ensure a safe and efficient fire suppression operation. Each fire agency must address several key areas as part of its preplanning effort for fires in the wildland-urban intermix. #RandolphHarris 19 of 30
If you see a fire truck stopped in the street without the lights on, be very careful. Sometimes there is an emergency, and you should not pass the fire truck. It might be a good idea to safely turn around and go another way because if you hit someone and they happen to die, you could be charged with manslaughter. Sometimes fire firefighters are getting back into their vehicle, and if you pass the apparatus, you may collide with a firefighter who is on foot. Also, be sure to look at their signals; sometimes emergency vehicles are in motion, albeit slowly, and drivers try to pass them, and this could lead to a dangerous situation. Also, if you are in an intersection when you see an emergency vehicle, continue through the intersection. Drive to the right as soon as it is safe and stop. Obey any direction, order, or signal given by a law enforcement officer or a firefighter. Even if they conflict with existing signs, signals, or laws, follow their orders. When their siren or flashing lights are on, it is against the law to follow within 300 feet of any fire engine, law enforcement vehicle, ambulance, or other emergency vehicle. If you drive to the scene of a fire, collision, or other disaster, you can be arrested. When you do this, you are getting in the way of firefighters, ambulance crews, or other rescue and emergency personnel. The concept of professional courage does not always mean being as tough as nails, either. It also suggests a willingness to listen to other people’s problems, to go to bat for them in a tough situation, and it means knowing just how far they can go. It also means being willing to tell the boss when he or she is wrong. #RandolphHarris 20 of 30
America is becoming so expensive that Americans are moving to Mexico in record numbers. The United States of America’s State Department reports that the number of American citizens living in Mexico has increased by 75 percent from 2019 to 2025 and has continued to grow to a total of 1.8 million. Many Americans are moving to Mexico and working at home for companies that are in the United States of America to take advantage of the lower cost of living, the natural beauty and the culture, and they are thriving. California is the third most expensive state in the nation, and is facing a $20 billion budget deficit, which is also illustrates the hardships its citizens are facing. In 37 percent of counties, in California, a family of four living on a six-figure income is now considered low-income. The average home price in California is nearly $1,000,000.00 USD, while the average salary is $96,036.00, meaning that most Californians cannot even afford to buy a home. California is having an affordability crisis. A single person making an income above $100,000 is now considered low-income in five counties in California. This distinction now applies to individuals living in Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Francisco, and Marin counties. The maximum percentage of your gross income that you should earmark for a monthly mortgage payment is calculated at 28 percent, and no more than 36 percent of your gross income to all debts, including mortgage. If you take 28 percent of the median household income per home in Sacramento County, homeowners can only afford a mortgage of $2,070.23 per month. And if you take 36 percent of their gross income to all debts, including mortgage, they should be devoting no more than $2,661.72 a month to these debts. The mortgage lenders must be using some kind of sorcery to get buyers into these expensive homes. To afford one of these homes using traditional guidelines, a household would need to gross $11,280.24 per month or $135,362.88 per year, but the median household in Sacramento County is grossing $7,393.67 a month or $88,724.00 annually, and that typically means two to four people in the home are working and contributing to the mortgage. Home prices in Sacramento County are rivaling the Bay Area, and in some cases, homes in the Bay Area are more affordable. Historically, homes in the Bay Area have been more expensive because they have higher-paying jobs, a larger population, and the Bay Area is a tourist destination. Contributing to the housing affordability crisis is Gavin Newsom, who has been lavishing illegal immigrants with taxpayer-funded resources and cash aid, when state workers should be receiving a 25 percent wage increase instead. #RandolphHarris 21 of 30
In 2025, many people in California saw their bills increase by an estimated $500 a month. This includes items such as food, automobile insurance, homeowners’ insurance, and electricity. In fact, more than 3 million people in California are facing household hardship, and more than 300,000 of them are facing eviction soon. This comes at a time when California is having a shortage of affordable housing. The crisis is caused by nearly half a century-old laws that discourage home sales and encourage higher rents. The incompetence in California is very easy to see. From 2018 to 2023, California received $24 billion, which they used to fund 30 homeless and housing programs. These programs created 100,000 units. That is an average cost of $240,000 per unit. In comparison, Roger Lucas, owner of Grand Castle, LLC, spent $50 million to build The Grand Castle, which is a 522-unit residential apartment community in Grandville, Michigan. The community includes studios, 1 bedroom, 2 bedrooms, 3 bedrooms, and even a multi-level penthouse. Rents generally range from $1,000 to $2,500. The community is a 23.6-acre site. It features 750 covered parking spaces, a clubhouse, a resort-style swimming pool, and was built over a period of 12 to 18 months. The average cost was about $95,785.45 per unit, which is $144,214.55 less per unit than California spent. California also has the highest unemployment rate in the country at 5.4 percent, while the national average is 4.5 percent. As people are seeing their bills skyrocket, and minimum wage has increased to $20 an hour, people on Social Security retirement are really bearing the burden with the checks the typically equate to $5-$7 an hour. Furthermore, while Americans are struggling to find and afford housing, Gavin Newsom, Democrat governor of California, signed two bills into law on February 7, 2025, to protect illegal immigrants. Bills SBX 1 1: Budget Act of 2024, and SBX 1 2: Budget Act of 2024, allocates $50 million to protect illegal immigrants from deportation. Governor Gavin Newsom also granted 700,000 illegal immigrants free health care, which costs taxpayers $3 billion annually. At the same time, Newsom cut vital programs for veterans, school children, the disabled, and the homeless. The California crisis created by Democrats is driving up home prices and mortgages, and rents all over the nation and the world, making living unaffordable for all, and advocates say the crisis is far from over. #RandolphHarris 22 of 30
Meanwhile, China, where we are sending all our jobs and money, has more than 50 ghost cities, with 65 million vacant homes. Ghost cities are regions where housing has been overdeveloped to the point that these places are uninhabited. If they are all officially counted, California has approximately 4 million homeless people. The highest home prices in the nation, the highest taxes, and the most unfriendly business regulations known to man. Because California is so hostile towards people and businesses, more than 360 companies have fled the state since 2020. Businesses like Chevron, SpaceX, Oracle, and Hewlett-Packard are among the names on that list. Also, more than 500,000 people a year are abandoning California because it is too expensive to live in, Gavin Newsom has criminalized homelessness and actually started arresting people without homes, crime is out of control, and they are losing their jobs due to companies relocating. More than 100 companies have announced layoffs in California for 2025. Intel is cutting 15,000 jobs, PayPal is cutting 2,500, and Meta has terminated 4,000 employees. California also has the highest unemployment rate in the country at 5.4 percent, while the national average is 4.1 percent. The California crisis created by Democrats is driving up home prices and mortgages, and rents all over the nation and the world, making living unaffordable for all, and advocates say the crisis is far from over. Accordingly, California has more than 3.5 million illegal immigrants. Having the Southern American border open and not having American farmland protected, not producing beef, poultry, fish, fruit, produce, and dairy in America, and without American goods and services being our number one manufactured and selling items, America has created a dangerous and significantly elevated risk to national security, national economic security, and national public health. Some people may believe that these claims are overstated, but by not routinely monitoring Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CEVs) or other security-relevant alerts, such as the end-of-life of machinery is how the Oroville Dam Crisis occurred in 2017. #RandolphHarris 23 of 30
Additionally, Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom seems to be uneducated about economics. Newsom has spent $1.2 billion taxpayer dollars renovating the State Capitol building and $300 million to try to stop proposition 50. Proposition 50 would replace the maps drawn by the state’s independent commission with districts drawn by legislators solely to gain or protect Democratic seats. Newsom only cares about the environment when his policies allow him to raise taxes and restrict freedoms. To further highlight this illustration of incompetence by Governor Gavin Newsom, Mexico has been causing one of America’s worst environmental disasters. Fifty million gallons a day of industrial chemicals, untreated sewage, and trash flow from Tijuana, Mexico, into southern San Diego County daily. This toxic waste has been turning up on Imperial Beach and is causing the miles of white sands to become polluted and the ocean breeze to smell of feces, which has been sickening residents and wildlife and costing San Diego millions in the form of lost tourism and health problems. The problem has been going on for more than a century, and by 2030, Mexico plans to dump one hundred and twenty million gallons of sewage a day into Imperial Beach. Other crises that have occurred due to neglect of critical infrastructure such as the 2025 Palisades fire. Southern California ran out of water because Newsom is totally neglecting the state and the American people. And while the fire departments in California are critically understaffed and underfunded, Governor Newsom vetoed firefighter pay raise. The Palisades fire cost $275 billion, which is money that could have been used to insure the State of California had the resources it needed. Furthermore, when Southern California is located next to an ocean, Newsom should have invested in desalination plants to help with the water shortage in California. The water in the ocean is so plentiful that it is currently eroding land and causing homes to fall into the sea. Desalination has been identified as one technology that will help solve California’s water scarcity problem. Desalination is a cost-effective technology that can transform an abundance of salt water into a reliable supply of potable, fresh water, which is a great way to fight climate change and have enough water for our region’s water requirements. Ras Al Khair, Saudi Arabia, is producing 1,036,000 meters (273,682,192) per day of desalinated water. #RandolphHarris 24 of 30
America needs an approach to eliminate safety vulnerabilities in American cities. There needs to be a road map by the end of 2025, outlining a prioritized approach to eliminate crisis situations in America. There is enough money to send aid to foreign nations, but the American government does not have enough money to care for its infrastructure, provide adequate resources, or end the affordable housing crisis. Nor is there enough money to fund other national critical functions (NCFs). These bad practices of putting America and Americans last are considered exceptionally risky, particularly to national security, national economic security, and national public health and safety. In 2024, Americans spent $100 billion on Japanese cars. As a result, the American automobile trade deficit with Japan was $39 billion. Additionally, Japan exported 1.4 million cars to the United States of America, but only imported 16,000 American-built automobiles. However, Japan imported approximately 143 thousand motor vehicles from the European Union. This is why President Trump created tariffs. We need to balance the trade deficit that America faces with other nations so we are not taken advantage of and so America can go bank to being a creditor nation, instead of borrowing money for other countries. Each year, President Trump is bringing $400 Billion in Tariff revenue into America and hundreds of thousands of new jobs. With this money, America is paying down debt, and with a portion of it, President Trump plans to send Americans a stimulus check anywhere in the range of $1,000 to $2,000. However, if President Trump’s Tariffs are deemed illegal by the Supreme Court, taxpayers will have to pay back trillions and trillions of dollars. As we literally and /or figuratively see gangs, federal judges, and Governor Gavin Newsom fighting with federal law enforcement and President Trump– states and cities refusing to honor federal laws. Politicians are also showing an utter disregard for the Constitution of the United States of America, and anarchy is becoming increasingly common. #RandolphHarris 25 of 30
Anarchism is a cluster of doctrines and attitudes centered on the belief that government is both harmful and unnecessary. Derived from the Greek root anarchos, meaning “without authority,” anarchism, anarchist, and anarchy are used to express both approval and disapproval. The anarchist denies man-made laws, regards property as a means of tyranny, and believes that crimes are merely the product of property and authority. However, the anarchist would argue that their denial of constitutions and governments leads not to “no justice” but to the real justice inherent in the free development of human sociality—the natural inclination, when unfettered by laws, to live according to the principles and practice of mutual aid. Anarchism is also a form of treason. Treason, the crime of betraying a nation or a sovereign by acts considered dangerous to security. In English law, treason includes the levying of war against the government and the giving of aid and comfort to the monarch’s enemies. In the United States of America, treason was defined restrictively by the framers of the Constitution. Treason against the United States of America “shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them aid and comfort,” which is something that many politicians are currently guilty of. The American government should know all exploitable vulnerabilities and fix them before the situation becomes a crisis. Failure to take such mitigating actions is dangerous and significantly elevates risk to national security, national economic security, and national public health and safety. The American government must understand that significant time and resources must be invested in America. They must also encourage corporations to plan for both mitigating safety vulnerabilities in the short term and eliminating them in the long term. For instance, a company might begin by reaching out to the federal, state, or local government and requesting tax incentives to provide security to dangerous communities, to help the government repair bridges and potholes. #RandolphHarris 26 of 30
Drug cartels have been threatening the health and safety of Native American communities. The trafficking of dangerous and illegal drugs into their territories is leading to a second genocide. The overdose rate for Indigenous people is 42 percent higher than the national average. A recent bust on Montana’s Blackfeet Nation’s Tribal Reservation resulted in the seizure of more than 700,000 fentanyl pills, which was the largest bust in Montana history. Recently, the Blackfeet Nation had to declare a state of emergency after facing 17 overdoses in just one week. There are only 6.8 million Native Americans left in the world, which is 2 percent of the American population. We should be doing more to protect these proud and honorable people; they should not want for anything. People rush and give away resources to illegal immigrants, but totally disregard the Indigenous people of this land, as their race silently fades away into extinction. We must secure our borders and increase federal funding to Native American tribes so we can save this precious population. Meanwhile, Gavin Newsom has given billions of taxpayer dollars away to illegal immigrants and protected them from law enforcement, while arresting law-abiding Americans because they cannot afford to pay rent or mortgage, and the homeless shelters are unsafe, overcrowded, and have restrictions on who is allowed inside. He has also totally ignored the cartel problems on American lands. Clean air, water, land, and preserving our heritage are extremely important. We cannot just allow criminals to kill off the people who are native to this land and do nothing about it. Wars have been started over governments that tax citizens without representation. Taxation without representation is what led to the American Revolution. #RandolphHarris 27 of 30
Much like the land crisis in Las Vegas, we could also run out of land to farm and will not be able to grow or cultivate our own food. We can protect American farmland and support American farmers by buying American made beef, poultry, dairy, and produce. Also, country of origin labeling is very important so Americans can know where their food is coming from and can support American farmers and ranchers. As money flows, it influences further investment. Save the land that sustains us by protecting American farmland. Once the land is built on, we lose it forever. And in the future, there may be food wars. Also, to ensure that we have farmland and buildable land for future use, we need to start limiting the number of people allowed to immigrate to America. Perhaps with the immigrants we do allow into America, there needs to be a diversity program to make sure we have a population that equally represents all races of people. If Americans continue to spend money on American products, then more need to be made to keep up the inventory. When investors notice these goods are selling, it gives them the confidence to pour more money into that local business. It shows that people want these goods made in America and pressures investors to keep these goods and services in America. The jobs stay here, the business stays in America, wages naturally increase, and more money is invested to keep up with demand. This reduces the burden on the taxpayer. When you support American businesses, that money stays in our economy and can help to reduce the national debt. The government creates debt by borrowing from businesses in the private sector or from foreign countries. It also increases the national debt by spending more than it gains in tax revenue in a fiscal year. #RandolphHarris 28 of 30
When people shop locally, more tax money stays in the economy and goes to the government. This way, it keeps more money in our national economy and keeps more jobs located in America which also sends more taxes to the government, which can again help to reduce the national debt. When you buy foreign goods, these companies usually have lighter tax loads or exemptions, meaning less money for the national debt, plus you are helping to strengthen these foreign nations by sending more money overseas. Buying American-made products is also better for the environment and helps to reduce the carbon footprint because these products do not have to travel nearly as far. Furthermore, American companies and manufacturers are held to much higher standards on pollution. American companies must be more careful about air, land, and water pollution and have proper ways to dispose of waste. Under President Trump’s administration, he has make America a priority. President Trump has closed the southern border, illegal crossings have fallen to an all time low, and are 90 percent lower than under the previous administration. Since President Trump’s crack down on crime, violent crimes in Washington D.C. have dropped by approximately 80 percent. He has stopped thousands of pounds of drugs from entering America and killing citizens. And since President Trump took office, investments in America have increased by trillions of dollars in U.S.A. manufacturing, production, and innovation. As you can see, President Donald Trump and his pledge to “Make America Great Again” is exactly what America needs to save the country and the American people. And yes, diversity is important, so you can see why it is also important to preserve blonde hair and blue eyes, as the people with these characteristics are becoming a minority in America. #RandolphHarris 29 of 30
We must think before we can understand the soul’s existence; we must understand before we can realize it. The earliest beginnings of thought, as apart from instinct, when it was itself still but a lurking tendency, belong far back in primeval time. The human intellect as we find it today, so rich and developed an instrument for the consciousness of the ego, did not arrive at this fullness without a series of graduated stages. We have had plenty of scientific thinking, business thinking, and political thinking long enough, but we have had very little inspired thinking. That is the world’s need. The intellect is cradled in selfishness but runs the evolutionary track into reason, where it will one day finish at the winning-post of selflessness. As a reminder, parents, please teach your children to love America and be patriotic citizens, and to buy goods and services made in America. It is also important to respect law and order and treat your elders with respect. It is inborn in the human mind to wish to know. If this begins with the endless surface questions of a child’s curiosity, if it continues into deeper questions of a scientist’s probing investigation, it cannot and does not stop there. For the higher part of the mind will eventually come into unfoldment, that union of abstract reflective thought with mystical intuition, which is true intelligence, which needs and sees a view of the whole of things. And so, the knowing faculty enters the realm of philosophy. A lot of children are having problems in school and cannot even write a paragraph because they are not reading their books. When you actually read books, you get an example of how to write and will become a better student. Therefore, remember to take your education seriously so that you will be successful in life and make your family proud. Also, to make sure they have all the resources required, please donate to the Sacramento Fire Department to help improve our national security. “Oh, thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand between their loved home and the war’s desolation! Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause is just, and this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust.’ And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.” #RandolphHarris 30 of 30
According to locals, over a century ago, the land that houses The Winchester Mansion had been vacant forever. Then, sometime in the early afternoon of Saturday, March 13, 1886, Sheriff Angel Camilio began getting reports that a massive castle made of wood had suddenly appeared. Gables rose, towers peaked into the sky as the mansion mushroomed into a labyrinth overnight. The house’s sudden manifestation had been both disconcerting and fascinating to the community.
Some felt dark curses flowing from the estate, and things moving around in the darkness. Others saw a fairytale castle glimmering in the spring sunlight. Perhaps this is why there are no records of construction, no blueprints, and no permits filed with the county. And then one day, a hearse came tearing through the gates, and in that hearse was a coffin, some believed it contained Mrs. Winchester.
Legend also says, when Sarah Lockwood Pardee (Winchester) married William Wirt Winchester in 1862, she enjoyed a life of extravagant luxury. William Winchester, President of the Winchester repeating rifle, became a very wealthy man through the sale of his guns, and the couple were among the elite New England society. She also told Mrs. Winchester they would kill her too, unless she moved out West and built a great house for the spirits.
In addition, Mrs. Winchester was told construction on the house must never end in order to appease the spirits and keep her alive, perhaps even give her eternal life. Mrs. Winchester followed the medium’s suggestions, and in 1886, she moved to the Santa Clara valley just outside San Jose, where she bought an 18-room farmhouse and property to build her mansion. At its peak, the Mansion once stood 9-stories tall and had as many as 600-rooms. Today, the stately mansion is 4-storys, and over 100,000 square feet.
It would be a pleasure to have you come and enjoy a delicious meal at Sarah’s Café, stroll along the paths of the beautiful Victorian gardens, which once spanned 740 acres, all the way down to Stevens Creek Boulevard; wander through the miles of hallways in the world’s most mysterious mansion.
For further information about tours, including group tours, weddings, school events, birthday party packages, facility rentals, and special events please visit the website: https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/
Please visit the online giftshop, and purchase a gift for friends and relatives as well as a special memento of The Winchester Mystery House. A variety of souvenirs and gifts are available for purchase. https://shopwinchestermysteryhouse.com/
Harris Plumbing, Heating, Air, & Electric has been in business for 30 years. How many businesses can say that? We take pride in everything we do – no matter how big or small the service call might be. We’re here to help your home be as safe and comfortable as possible for you and your family. We take that responsibility very seriously as a company.
Harris will ensure you have the information you need to decide what to do next, whatever your home is facing. We’ll perform a diagnosis and detail what issues are present before starting any work. This gives you a personalized quote and service plan specific to your home’s needs, not some random quote based on the best guess. The only way we can do our best work is to make sure we handle the issues at hand. https://www.callharrisnow.com/about-us/
With its top ranking in Consumer Reports’ Auto Brand Report Card and consistent market share growth, BMW, The Ultimate Driving Experience, has demonstrated its ability to produce high-performing, reliable vehicles that meet consumer demands. BMW stands out due to its focus on driving dynamics and engineering excellence. While other luxury brands prioritize comfort and opulence, BMW is known for creating cars that are fun to drive and offer a unique connection between the driver and the machine. This is why BMW is known as The Ultimate Driving Machine. https://www.brianharrisbmw.com/
Randolph Harris San Francisco Taxation & Mergers
Building strong and lasting client relationships is crucial for a successful legal career. Many lawyers mistakenly believe that mastering legal skills alone ensures success, but law is fundamentally a service industry—our job is to solve problems through the time we sell. To build long-term relationships, attorneys must focus on three core elements: knowing their clients, understanding how their legal issues fit into a larger context, and consistently delivering exceptional service.
Randy advises clients with regard to business transition, taxable and tax-deferred mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, restructuring, integrated tax planning, federal and state tax controversy resolution, and real estate transactions. Trust is the cornerstone of any client relationship. Ultimately, my clients feel they are in capable hands with someone who genuinely understands their problems and goals. https://www.jmbm.com/l-randolph-harris.html
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Millhaven Homes savors the sanctuary of awe-inspiring spaces, unique architectural details and fine craftsmanship that has earned us a reputation as a trusted home builder. The key to a successful relationship is communication. We will incorporate your thoughts and ideas into your new home.
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Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in. Whether you are considering building a dream home or simply fascinated by architectural marvels, Millhaven Homes is the builder for you. https://millhavenhomes.com/
Thank you, Lord, for the blessings you have bestowed on my life. You have provided me with more than I could ever have imagined. You have surrounded me with people who always look out for me. You have given me family and friends who bless me every day with kind words and actions.
Randolph Harris II International 