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Of Happy Times, when All He Had Endured Would Seem a Feather to the Mighty Prize!
I must be getting absent-minded. Whenever I complain that things are not what they used to be, I always forget to include myself. Humans grow and fulfill their peculiar possibilities—physical, mental, and spiritual—only through struggle, and, moreover, struggle to find one’s own way. To eliminate it is virtually to annihilate all possibilities save the one actualized, the possibility of being like somebody else. Behavioural engineers are correct when they discuss the undisputable value of programmed instruction, say, of the content of textbooks. It removed “needless struggle” from the teachers’ effort to impart knowledge. They argue that elimination of struggles saves time, and frees teacher and pupil alike for free dialogue, discussion, and other unprogrammable encounters. What is overlooked is that there is something monstrous, at least to me, of having one thousand pupils reading the same book in the same way—which is what a “programmed text” requires the reader to do. The fact is, there are many ways for people to master skills or subject matter, and many ways to read a book. It has by no means been proven that programmed materials are better, than, say, lectures, demonstrations, and the struggle on a student’s part to learn efficient ways to tackle subject-matter. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21
We may have been sold a bill of goods. We may be so enamored of the scientific aura exuded by “learning packages,” that we have become blind to shortcomings. However, since there may be something of value in programed instruction for schools and universities, “P.I.” should be optional, not compulsory. One high school student I know is obliged to study English grammar from a programmed text, and it is driving him silly. I advised him to get hold of an old fashioned book and read it sub rosa. Programmers can program humans who conform to Hitler’s or Himmler’s image of the ideal, useful (to the state) human. They can program humans who conform to the image of humans who have made it in the United States of America. They only thing they cannot so far program is commitment itself. Perhaps soon they will, and scientific knowledge will thereby be advanced. That is good. However, each human must, by oneself and for oneself, select goals worth one’s struggle to achieve them. It is the meaningful struggle itself—not the product, the success or failure—that makes humans. Guaranteed success without full engagement produces suave but moronic “nebbishes.” We may have to develop a new kind of specialist, as automation and programming of behaviour eliminate struggle and risk from more realms of existence. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21
The new specialist might be called a struggleologist, or a “de-programmer” (in fact, this is what the guru and therapist are). It will be one’s task to treat with “programmed humans” who have enough soul left to realize one is bored to death. Perhaps one too can develop a program, whereby, in small incremental steps, one will reintroduce one’s client to tolerate increasing degrees of uncertainty, increasing degrees of challenge. One will be a coach of spiritual weightlifting. One’s will be an “antiprogram” program. As I see them, programmers are invaluable in settings where humans want or need to function like interchangeable parts in a social system, where “training” is the objective. Some kind of learning-programs is necessary to train soldiers, or to indoctrinate people in traffic rules, or the rules in Emily Post etiquette book. Perhaps programmed instruction is best seen as the swiftest way for a society to impart some of its past—its culture, knowledge, and skills—to the oncoming generations. However, for education, which entails inventing and actualizing the future, I do not believe packaged teaching programs are relevant. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21
Imagine the fully programmed human sitting, waiting for the next frame in one’s teaching machine to appear—and the electricity breaks down. One no longer knows how to search for facts, though one may be surrounded by them. One is like the city boy who starves to death in the jungle, surrounded by enough protein and carbohydrates to feed a million humans—but not in the form of bread, streak, caramel apple tarts, New York cheesecake, cobb salad, and espresso. Survival training in the army and outwardbound training in the Peace Corps are embodiments of antiprogramming. However, as fast as these antiprogram programs are evolved, new programs spring up. I think that like antibiotics, programming is a mixed curse-blessing. A sterile gut produced by massive doses of penicillin and aureomycin cannot cope with minor infection. A sterile soul, produced by massive doses of programming, cannot cope with the unprogrammed disclosure of the World. Once one is on those giant shoulders of the master one chooses, if one is to grow, one must leap, grope, and struggle to fulfill new possibilities. The quest cannot be simplified, and it takes courage in the face of repeated failure to make actual what was an invented possibility. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21
Scientific programming may be the way in which humans skills are quickly attained for this new Utopia we face. However, if a human is not to go mad, or become wholly robot-like oneself in this impending World, ten Education—with a capital E—must be reorganized, so as to awaken imagination and courage to struggle in millions. Imagination is called for so people can invent new values, beyond comfort, ease, and sensual enjoyment, worth pursuing (these latter will be produced automatically, by machines). And courage will be called for, so that meaningful struggle, that vital ingredient, will remain in the World. Then, the new World will be populated by humans, not humanoids. And these humans will have the inner resources to keep inventing and producing new Worlds, whenever their present World becomes static and not fit for the whole human to live in. The implication for education is clear: where training is called for, let it be done quickly and efficiently with all the technical help available. However, let the schools and universities have on their staff those who expertise is, not training, but rather the talents of the guru. These humans will aim at helping learners to transcend their own programming, to invent new goals, and to address them with vigour and courage. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21
Change is in the World. The being of the World is always changing. My body is in the World, and it changes from instant to instant. Things and other people are in the World; and they metamorphose swiftly or ever so slowly. I may not be aware of the change that is the World. The World-for-me may not appear to change; but rather it may seem congealed, constant, fixed. I may also experience my own being as unchanging. In fact, people strive to construct a stable World, a World they can control and get their bearings in. A view of the World exclusively as constant is an achievement—a praxis, not a “given.” A naïve view of the World sees it as both a “buzzing, blooming confusion” and as stable and “structured.” We simply cannot navigate in a World that changes swiftly. And so we “freeze” it by pledging not to notice change until it has reached some critical degree, until it has gone so far it can no longer be ignored. Then, we might acknowledge it. If everything changed during the night, and you awakened to a new experience of yourself and the World, you might be terrified. However, if suddenly, the World froze, so that as everything now is, it would remain for eternity, you would be horrified. It would be hell—a hell of perfect predictability and boredom. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21
A growth cycle can also be triggered when goals and projects turn stale; when money can no longer buy anything that the person wants; when the fame that was once the person’s glory has turned to ashes; and when the love of that woman, long-pursued, is now experienced as cloying, suffocating possessiveness. The lack of fulfillment when long-enjoyed goals are achieved signifies, however, indirectly, that our personal being has changed, unnoticed by us. Our concept of ourselves, as the person who would be fulfilled by this pleasure or be made happier by that “success,” has gotten out of touch with the reality of our being. We are in for some surprises. The boredom signified the imminence of growth. The time is ripe for the experience of new goals, and new unfoldings of our being. It is time to let the World and ourselves disclose their being to our experience. We may undergo this new experience (if we let it happen) in delight, or in the terrifying realization that we are going out of our minds. The World is full of Being, of many beings—some human, some animal, some inanimate. Being has many forms. Every being in the World can be likened to a kind of broadcasting station, transmitting signals of its being to the World. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21
This transmission is ceaseless. As people and things and animals exit, they change; and they broadcast the fact of this change into the World. You and I are both beings, but beings of a special kind. We have (or are) awareness. We are embodied consciousness. We experience the transmissions that originate in our bodies; and through our bodies, we experience some of the transmissions of being that originate elsewhere. As human beings, we originate transmissions of our being, and we receive transmissions from other beings. My being discloses itself to me—I experience my own being—and it is disclosed to you through my appearance and behaviour. My experience of my being is different from your experience of my being. And my experience of the being you disclose to me differs from your experience of your own being. Humans are concept-makers. They form concepts of the being of the World, and of one’s own self-being. A concept is an abstraction from what is. From a phenomenological and existential perspective, a concept is a commitment to stop noticing the changing disclosures (disclosures of change) incessantly being transmitted by the beings in the World. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21
I will suspend my concepts when my projects in life (which depend on accurate concepts of reality for their fulfillment) are thwarted, when my predictions about how things will act or react prove wrong. Then, if I adopt the attitude of “let the World disclose itself to me,” I will have grown. My concepts of being can change under more pleasant circumstances than failure. In those rare moments when I have gratified all of my urgent needs—I have done my work, I feel good and fulfilled, and I want nothing out f the World just now—then the World will disclose all kinds of new faces to me. I am letting the World “be itself, for itself.” I may then notice all kinds of things about my friends, trees, the beautiful Sky, animals, whatever is there; things that call upon me to enlarge my previous concepts of those same beings. Thus, success and gratification can be psychedelic (consciousness-expanding). They can open up my World for me and let me experience it in new dimensions. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21
You may notice that I appear different from the last time you saw me. My behaviour and my verbal disclosures will show a change to you. You will say of me, “He has changed, he has grown.” You will have to modify your concept of me at that time. If you do, then you will have grown. Your action toward me will reflect your changed concept of me, your changed experience of me. And I shall then say to you, “You have changed; you have grown.” You will feel confirmed in your being. You will feel understood; you will feel that the disclosure of your changed being—in words and actions—has been received and acknowledged by me. I have a certain concept of my being, of myself. This is my self-concept. It is my belief about my own being. My being discloses itself to me in the form of my intentional experience of myself. I experience the feel of my body’s existence. I experience my own action from the inside. I form a concept of myself—what I am like, how I react, what I am capable of and what I cannot do—on the basis of this self-experience. You may also tell me what and who you think I am, on the basis of your experience of the outside of my being; and I take your belief into account. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21
We may agree that I am thus and such a kind of person—a man, a psychologist, kind, strong, able to play a fair game of handball, unable to sing in keys, et cetera. Once I have formed this concept of who and what I am, I proceed to behave in the World as if that is all and everything I am or can be. My behaviour, my self-disclosure, endlessly confirms my self-concept. It is as if I have taken a pledge to present this and only this as my being. In fact, my being, like all Being, is changed. This change discloses itself to me though my experience and to others through my behaviour. However, if you and I have formed a concept of my being, neither of us pays attention to the ceaseless transmission of my changing being. It is transmitted, but no receiver is tuned in to acknowledge the change. Things can get more complicated. I may notice the changes, and change my concept of myself accordingly. You may not notice the changes. You treat me as if I were the same person. I do not recognize myself as the one you believe I am. I feel you are talking to somebody else, not me. Or, you may notice the changes before I do, and change your concept of me accordingly. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21
Again, I may not recognize the “me” that you seem to be addressing. Your concept of me is disjunctive from my self-concept. Or, I may display and disclose the newly experienced facets of my being to you. You may say, “I do not recognize you. You are not yourself today. I do not like the person you seem to be. I will come see you when you have gotten back into your ‘right mind.’” If you thus disconfirm my newly experienced and tentatively disclosed being, and if I am unsure of myself, I may try to suppress and repress my newly emerged being and seek to appear to you and to me as the person I was. If I do this chronically, and successfully, I enter an untenable situation; and I may become mad. When I experience you, I may not be undergoing a perceptual experience, but rather an imaginative experience of your being. I tune out your disclosed being, and I replace it by an imaginative experience. Or a fantasy experience. Imagination veils perception. In fact, much of our experience of the people in our lives, even when they are face-to-face with us, is not perceptual, but imaginative, or fantastical. It is like a mode of experience embodied in one’s conscious experience of the World, but may not be true. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21
Sometimes we have to realize that our instincts and intuition may not be accurate or there may be some reason they are not applicable in this situation. We may be reading the person correctly, but there may be something about their being that is acting as an obstruction to our desires. Perhaps the person is just fascinated by our attention, perhaps the person is in a relationship, or perhaps the individual is just nice? The perceptual mode of experiencing entails the readiness to receive inputs of disclosure from the other, such that one’s awareness of the other is a changing awareness. However, the imaginative and fantasy modes of experiencing “tune out” fresh disclosures. My image of you remains fixed, unhanged by your disclosures, because I do not pay them any attention. Now, if you can break through my imaginative experience, or my fantasy image, of you; if you can catch my attention, by a shout, a blow, a scream of pain or joy—I may, as it were, “wake up” from my daydream-like experience of your being and undergo a fresh perceptual experience of you. You will surprise me. If you do this, if you get me “un-hung” from fixation on these modes of experiencing you—the imaginative and the fantasy modes—so that I can now perceive you, I shall have grown. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21
My consciousness of you will have expanded. My awareness will have grown; and where I had previously been aware of you only as an image or a concept (though I was not reflectively aware that his was an image), now I can experience you perceptually. If my consciousness expands so that I can experience you or the World in many more modes than I could hitherto—imaginatively, perceptually, recollectively, in the mode of fantasy—then I have grown. I am my awareness; and if my awareness expands, I have grown. My World of awareness may not only be fixed in one mode of experiencing, exempla gratia, the abstracting, conceptual mode or the imaginative mode; my World may also be confined to some one or two sensory “channels” of awareness. For example, I may limit my clear awareness only to visual and auditory impressions and exclude the Worlds of smelling, tasting, or the feel of my own being. If you can turn me on to my feelings, to smells, to tastes; if you can wake my imagination; if you can get me to experience my being–you will have expanded my awareness and helped me to grow. In deep moments of intercession with God, we let the World disclose more of its changing being to us; and we may find ourselves experiencing more of the variety in the World. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21
When we let our personal being happen—we do not try to monitor and control it so that it conforms to a concept, yours or mine, of my being. Fascinated engagement at anything can let change happen and be experienced such that the next time I reflect upon myself, I find my experience of myself different from how I remember it the last time I reflected. And my concept of myself will have to change to encompass the new experiencing I have undergone. Challenge, fascination, total involvement in some task or project such that self-consciousness and self-conceptualizing is not the mode of experience, will permit the changed self-being to experienced. Certainly the will of a spiritual being is the one thing in His creation that God chooses not to override and force to take on a specific character. He allows it to go its way or ways. However, that does not mean that such a being gets what it wants. Indeed, that proves to be impossible for such a will, which is following a delusion. It only means that God will not force it to do what He wants. It has its choice-though it does not have its choice of the consequences of choosing what it wants. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21
And one of the consequences of choosing what one wants without regard to God’s will is enslavement to one’s own self-conflicted will. On the path of self-will people eventually come to the place where they cannot choose what God wants and cannot want God. They can only want—themselves! “I wake and feel the fell of dark,” the poet Gerard Manly Hopkins wrote, “The lost are like this and their scourge to be as I am mine, their sweating selves.” This is the condition of the “lost.” Obviously there is something very deep here and something crucial to God’s purposes in creating human beings, which we at present cannot understand. Thus God permits there to be a World such as we live in, where the wills of human beings are often set on what is evil, wrong, or foolish and where even good and wise inclinations are frequently defeated by other components of the persons involved: the “sin in our members,” social influences, mistaken ideas, overwhelming feelings, or disconnections and ruptures in the depths of the soul. The outcome may be a whole person (or even a whole society) intently focused upon accomplishing evil, or it may be a person (or society) baffled and torn by the chaos and evil it finds within itself—as the “modern liberal” person and society of today. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21
Some self-actualized beings do not wish to enter into any precise relationship with others. They do not give personal initiation or accept disciples formally. However, the sensitive will feel that some sort of inner benefit was got by the contact, non-visible and impersonal though it was. The meeting with a higher personage, whether on the physical plane or on an inner one, is to be considered fortunate, and a blessing upon one’s own higher endeavours. The body is a battery and there are electrical radiations from certain parts of the body, certain centers—the most important center being the eye—and that through those radiations, a part of the aura is actually projected outwards. This would also explain why some do not like to have their food looked at by others, which they consider a polluting act. “Behold, now it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words he looked round about again on the multitude, and he said unto them: Behold, my time is at hand. I perceive that ye are weal, that ye cannot understand all my words which I am commanded of the Father to speak unto you at this time. Therefore, go ye unto your homes, and pinder upon the things which I have said, and ask of the Father, in my name, that ye may understand and prepare your minds for the morrow, and I come unto you again. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21
“However, now I go unto the Father, and also to show myself unto the lost tribes of Israel, for they are not lost unto the Father, for he knowneth whither he hath taken them. And it came to pass that when Jesus had thus spoken, he cast his eyes round about again on the multitude, and beheld they were in tears, and did look steadfastly upon him as if they would ask him to tarry a little longer with them. And he said unto them: Behold, my bowels are filled with compassion towards you. Have ye any that are sick among you? Being them hither. Have ye any that are lame, or blind, or halt, or maimed, or leprous, or that are withered, or that are deaf, or that are afflicted in any manner? Being them hither and I will heal them, for I have compassion upon you; my bowels are filled with mercy. For I perceive that ye desire that I should show unto you what I have done unto your brethren at Jerusalem, for I see that your faith is sufficient that I should heal you. And it came to pass that when he had thus spoken, all the multitude, with one accord, did go forth with their sick. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21
“They also went forth with their afflicted, and their lame, and with their blind, and with their dumb, and with all them that were afflicted in any manner; and he did heal them every one as they were brought forth unto him. And they did all, both they who had been healed and they who were whole, bow down at his feet, and did worship him; and as many as could come for the multitude did kiss his feet, insomuch that they did bathe his feet with their tears. And it came to pas that he commanded that their little children should be brought. So they brought their little children and set them down upon the ground round about him, and Jesus stood in the midst; and the multitude gave way till they had all been brought unto him. And it came to pass that when they had all been brought, and Jesus stood in the midst, he commanded the multitude that they should knew down upon the ground. And it came to pass that when they had knelt upon the ground, Jesus groaned within himself, and said: Father, I am troubled because of the wickedness of the people of the house of Israel. And when he had said these words, he himself also knelt upon the Earth; and behold he prayed unto the Father, and the things which he prayed cannot be written, and the multitude did bear record who heard him. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21
“And after this manner do they bear record: They eye hath never seen, neither hath the ear heard, before, so great and marvelous things as we saw and heard Jesus speak unto the Father; and no tongue can speak, neither can there be written by any man, neither can the hearts of men conceive so great and marvelous things as we both saw and heard Jesus speak; and no one can conceive of the joy which filled our souls at the time we heard him pray for us unto the Father. And it came to pass that when Jesus had made an end of praying unto the Father, he arose; but so great was the joy of the multitude that they were overcome. And it came to pas that Jesus spake unto them, and bade them arise. And they arose from the Earth, and he said unto them: Blessed are ye because of your faith. And now, behold, my joy is full. And when he had said these words, he wept, and the multitude bare record of it, and he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them. And when he had done this he wept again; and he spake unto the multitude, and said unto them: Behold your little ones. And as they looked to behold they cast their eyes towards Heaven, and they saw the Heavens open, and they saw Angels descending out of Heaven as it were in the midst of fire. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21
“And the Angels came down and encircled those little ones about, and they were encircled about with fire; and the Angels did minister unto them. And the multitude did see and hear and bear record; and they know that their record is true for they all of them did see and hear, every man for himself; and they were in number about two thousand and five hundred souls; and they did consist of men, women, and children,” reports 3 Nephi 17.1-25. Look up, look up, at the glorious Sun, the World calls to me, and says, “Look up!” From high above, I can feel the heat descending, warming me as I walk here below. I wish to look up, but my eyes are not meant for such power. I will feel the warmth, though, and thank you, Lord. Our God and God of our fathers, please accept our rest. Please sanctify us through Thy commandments, and please grant our portion in Thy Torah. Please give us abundantly of Thy goodness and please make us rejoice in Thy salvation. Please purify our heart to serve Thee in truth. In Thy loving favour, O Lord our God, please gran that Thy holy Sabbath be our joyous heritage, and may Israel who sanctifies Thy name, rest thereon. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who hallowest the Sabbath. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21
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Music, When Soft Voices Die, Vibrates in the Memory—If Music be the Food of Love, Play on!
There is a young and impressionable mind out there that is very hungry for information…It has latched on to an electronic tube as its main source of nourishment. As a whole, the Democratic Republic of the Congo contains 615,942 square miles of forest. and it is known for its high levels of biodiversity, including more than 600 tree species and 10,000 animal species. Some of its most famous residents include forest elephant, gorillas, chimpanzees, okapi, leopards, hippos, and lions. Researchers has found that Central African forests generally have taller trees but lower density of small tress than forest in the Amazon or Borneo. That is because Elephants, gorillas, and large herbivores keep the density of small trees very low through predation, reducing competition for large trees. However, in areas where these animals have been depleted by hunting, forests tend to be shorter and denser with small trees. However, between 2000 and 2010, the country lost 14,331 square miles of forest. It risks being left in a fragmented and severely degraded state due to the growing threat of deforestation carried out to clear the illegal logging. If the current trend continues, the entire forest will be gone by the end of this century, 2100 A.D. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20
Understanding tropical deforestation is important because forests store vast amounts of carbon. Deforestation releases carbon to the atmosphere and prevents the forest from taking up more carbon, and this increases global temperatures and poor air quality. Deforestation also leads to the death of animals and makes it hard for the native to find much needed food. Also, the natives are not allowed to cut down trees because every tree that cut down costs them a fine that is ten times the minimum wages, and a jail sentence. However, since this country is poor, big corporations cannot be stopped from logging trees, and cut them down to plunder. The first inhabitants of these lands, the indigenous, are left forgotten in a corner, while the looters grow and become stronger. The natives have their history and try to defend themselves and their homes so they will not die. The threat to the rainforest seems like a joke because it is a single county, the country of money, put itself above all flags. When they utter, “Globalization,” many think it is absurd because it is an order in which money is the only country served and the borders are erased, not our of fraternity but because of the bleeding that fattens the powerful without nationality. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20
The lie of globalization became a universal coin, and for a few in the Congo, it wove a dream of prosperity above everyone else’s nightmare. Corruption and falsehoods are used to deceive the masses. Being poor, the people are dressed in the wealth of their scarcities, and because the lie is so deep and so broad, they end up mistaking it for truth. The people prepared for the great international forums and, by the will of the government, poverty was declared an illusion that faded before the development proclaimed by economic statistics. The people of the land became even more forgotten, and their history was not enough to keep the from dying, forgotten and humiliated. However, death did not hurt them as much as being forgotten did. They discovered that they no longer existed, and those who govern had forgotten about them in their euphoria of statistics and growth. A similar phenomenon is happening in the City of Sacramento with the hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on sports complexes and theater expansions, which cannot even be used, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but nothing being done to make sure people have affordable housing. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20
A country that forgets itself is a sad country. A country that forgets its past cannot have a future. I have said that the original position is the appropriate initial status quo which ensures that the fundamental agreements reached in it are fair. This fact yields that name “justice as fairness.” It is clear, then, that I want to say that one conception of justice is more reasonable than another, or justifiable with respect to it, if rational persons in the initial situation would choose its principles over those of the other for the role of justice. Conceptions of justice are to be ranked by their acceptability to persons so circumstanced. Understood in this way the question of justification is settled by working out a problem of deliberation: we have to ascertain which principles it would be rational to adopt given the contractual situation. This connects the theory of justice with the theory of rational choice. If this view of the problem of justification is to succeed, we must, of course, describe in some detail the nature of this choice problem. A problem of rational decision has a definite answer only if we know the beliefs and interests of the parties, their relations with respect to one another, the alternatives between which they are to choose, the procedure whereby they make up their minds, and so on. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20
As the circumstances are presented in different ways, correspondingly different principles are accepted. The concept of the original position, as I shall refer to it, is that of the most philosophically favoured interpretation of this initial choice situation for the purposes of a theory of justice. However, how are we to decide what is the most favoured interpretation? I assume, for one thing, that there is a broad measure of agreement that principles of justice should be chosen under certain conditions. To justify a particular description of the initial situation one shows that is incorporates these commonly shared presumptions. One argues from widely accepted but weak premises to more specific conclusions. Each of the presumptions should by itself be natural and plausible; some of them may seem innocuous or even trivial. The aim of the contract approach is to establish that taken together they impose significant bounds on acceptable principles of justice. The ideal outcome would be that these conditions determine a unique set of principles; but I shall be satisfied if they suffice to rank the main traditional conceptions of social justice. One should not be misled, then, by the somewhat unusual conditions which characterize the original position. The idea here is simply to make vivid to ourselves the restrictions that it seems reasonable to impose on arguments for principles of justice, and therefore on these principles themselves. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20
Thus it seems reasonable and generally acceptable that no one should be advantaged or disadvantaged by natural fortune or social circumstances in the choice of principles. It also seems widely agreed that it should be impossible to tailor principles to the circumstances of one’s own case. We should ensure further that particular inclinations and aspirations, and persons’ conceptions of their good do not affect the principles adopted. The aim is to rule out those principles that it would be rational to propose for acceptance, however little the chance of success, only if one knew certain things that are irrelevant from the standpoint of justice. For example, if a one knew that one was wealthy, one might find it rational to advance the principle that various taxes for welfare measures be counted unjust; if one knew that one was poor, one would most likely propose the contrary principle. To represent the desired restrictions one imagines a situation in which everyone is deprived of this sort of information. One excludes the knowledge of those contingencies which sets humans at odds and allows the to be guided by their prejudices. In this manner the veil of ignorance is arrived at in a natural way. If we keep in mind the constraints on arguments that it is meant to express, this concept should cause no difficulty. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20
At any time we can enter the original position, so to speak, simply by following a certain procedure, namely, by arguing for principles of justice in accordance with these restrictions. It seems reasonable to suppose that the parties in the original positions are equal. That is, all have the same rights in the procedure for choosing principles; each can make proposals, submit reasons for their acceptance, and so on. Obviously the purpose of these conditions is to represent equality between human beings as moral persons, as creatures having a conception of their good and capable of a sense of justice. The basis of equality is taken to be similarity in these two respects. Systems of ends are not ranked in value; and each human is presumed to have the requisite ability to understand and to act upon whatever principles are adopted. Together with the veil of ignorance, these conditions define the principles of justice as those which rational persons concerned to advance their interests would consent to as equals when none are known to be advantaged or disadvantage by social and natural contingencies. There is, however, another side to justifying a particular description of the original position. This is to see if the principles which would be chosen match our considered convictions of justice or extend them in an acceptable way. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20
We can note whether applying these principles would lead us to make the same judgments about the basic structure of society which we now make intuitively and in which we have the greatest confidence; or whether, in cases where our present judgements are in doubt and given with hesitation, these principles offer a resolution which we can affirm on reflection. There are questions which we feel sure must be answered in a certain way. For example, we are confident that religious intolerance and racial discrimination are unjust. We think that we have examined these things with care and have reached what we believe is an impartial judgment not likely to be distorted by an excessive attention to our own interests. These convictions are provisional fixed points which we presume any conception of justice must fit. However, we have much less assurance as to what is the correct distribution of wealth and authority. Here we may be looking for a way to remove our doubts. We can check an interpretation of the initial situation, then, by the capacity of its principles to accommodate our firmest convictions and to provide guidance where guided is needed. In searching for the most favoured description of this situation we work from both ends. We begin by describing it so that it represents generally shared and preferably weak conditions. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20
We then see if these conditions are strong enough to yield a significant set of principles. If not, we look for further premises equally reasonable. However, if so, and these principles match our considered convictions of justice, then so far well and good. However, presumably there will be discrepancies. In this case we have a choice. We can either modify the account of the initial situation or we can revise our existing judgments, for even the judgments we take provisionally as fixed points are liable to revision. By going back and forth, sometimes altering the conditions of the contractual circumstances, at others withdrawing our judgments and conforming them to principle, I assume that eventually we shall find a description of the initial situation that both expresses reasonable conditions and yields principles which match our considered judgments duly pruned and adjusted. This state of affairs I refer to as reflective equilibrium. It is an equilibrium because at last our principles and judgments coincide; and it is reflective since we known to what principles our judgments conform and the premises of their derivation. At the moment everything is in order. However, this equilibrium is not necessarily stable. It is liable to be upset by further examination of the conditions which should be imposed on the contractual situation and by particular cases which may lead us to revise our judgments. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20
Yet for the time being we have done what we can to render coherent and to justify our convictions of social justice. We have reached a conception of the original position. I shall not, of course, actually work through this process. Still, we may think of the interpretation of the original position that I shall present as the result of such a hypothetical course of reflection. It represents the attempt to accommodate within one scheme both reasonable philosophical conditions on principles as well as our considered judgments of justice. In arriving at the favoured interpretation of the initial situation there is no point at which an appeal is made to self-evidence in the traditional sense either or general conceptions or particular convictions. I do not claim for the principles of justice proposed that they are necessary truths or derivable from such truths. A conception of justice cannot be deduced from self-evident premises or conditions on principles; instead, its justification is a matter of the mutual support of many considerations, of everything fitting together into one coherent view. We shall want to say that certain principles of justice are justified because they would be agreed to in an initial situation of equality. I have emphasized that this original position is purely hypothetical. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20
It is natural to ask why, if this agreement is never actually entered into, we should take any interest in these principles, moral or otherwise. The conditions embodied in the description of the original position are ones that we do in fact accept. Or if we do not, then perhaps we can be persuaded to do so by philosophical reflection. Each aspect of the contractual situation can be given supporting grounds. Thus what we shall do is to collect together into one conception a number of conditions on principles that we are ready upon due consideration to recognize as reasonable. These constraints express what we are prepared to regard as limits on fair terms of social cooperation. One way to look at the idea of the original position, therefore, is to see it as an expository device which sums up the meaning of these conditions and helps us to extract their consequences. On the other hand, this conception is also an intuitive notion that suggests its own elaboration, so that led on by it we are drawn to define more clearly the standpoint from which we can best interpret moral relationship We need a conception that enables us to envision our objective from afar: the intuitive notion of the original position is to do this for us. When I am your president, I hope you will come see me. Please do not leave me up there in the White House all by myself. I grew up watching PBS, and still watch it. For enlightened news coverage, tune in to PBS. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20
Love must be aggressively translated into simple justice. “Each one should use whatever gift one has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms,” reports 1 Peter 4.10. Peter and Paul are saying the same thing. The spiritual gifts we have, and the ministries we perform are gifts of God’s grace. None of us deserves the gifts one has been given. They are given to us by God’s undeserved favour to us through Christ. This means the most “worthy” and the most “unworthy” of all Christians both receive their gifts and their ministries on the same basis. The “unworthy” person surely does not deserve one’s gift, but neither does the most “worthy.” They both receive them as unmerited favours from God. There are quotations marks around worthy and unworthy in above because in reality there is no such distinction in God’s sight. In His sight, we are all totally and permanently bankrupt spiritually. Paul’s statement, “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3.22-23), is just as true for believers as for unbelievers. We never earn our privileges of ministry because of our heard work or faithfulness in previous service to God. I taught adult Saturday school for many years in a small church before God launched me into a much wider sphere of ministry. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20
However, I did not earn an enlarged ministry through my “faithful” teaching; rather, it was a gift of God’s grace. We are so accustomed to thinking of spiritual gifts in terms of abilities to minister that we lose sight of the ordinary meaning of the word. A gift is something given to us; something we do not earn. However, even our ordinary meaning fails to adequately convey the biblical sense. We tend to give gifts to people who, even though they have not earned them, in some sense deserve them because of their relationship to us or because they have done us a favour of some kind. However, God gives spiritual gifts to people who do not deserve them. None of us deserves to be in God’s service on some far away mission field. It is an awesome thing to attempt to speak on behalf of God. Yet that is exactly what we do when we teach, or preach, or write. It matters not whether our audience is one person or fifty thousand, whether they are kindergarten pupils or graduate theological students. Any time we say or write something that we hold out to be biblical truth, we are putting ourselves in the position of being God’s spokes-person. Peter said, “If anyone speaks, one should do it as one peaking the very words of God,” reports 1 Peter 4.11. I suspect that most people who these essays do teach the Scriptures occasionally if not regularly. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20
Do we appreciate the awesomeness of our responsibility, to be speaking on behalf of God? Do we consider the accountability that comes with being entrusted with the divine message? Paul himself was keenly conscious of his immense responsibility when he said, “Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like humans sent from God,” reports 2 Corinthians 2.17. He said he spoke like a human sent from God, but he also said he spoke before God, or in the sight of God. That is, God not only sent him, but observed him. One Saturday as I stood up to teach my adult Saturday school class, to my dismay, I realized the president of our denominational seminary was sitting in the class. To make matters more intense, he also happened to be the professor of homiletics (the art of preaching). I was sure he was critiquing everything I said, both in content and delivery. Now if the presence of a seminary president in my class was an awesome experience, how much more awed should I be when I realize I speak, or write, in the very presence of God and on His behalf. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20
What, then, will gives us the courage to undertake or continue to teach the Scriptures or, for that matter, to exercise any other spiritual gift? The heartfelt conviction that we have our ministry by God’s grace. Again, as Paul said, “Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart,” reports 2 Corinthians 4.1. It was a sense of God’s mercy that gave Paul courage or, as he expressed it, caused him not to lose heart. Mercy is God’s grace expressed specifically toward people who are viewed by Him as guilty, condemned, and helpless. It is generally expressed in terms of relieving the misery due to their sin. However, God not only relieved Paul’s misery, He elevated him to the office of apostle and gave him the ministry of proclaiming the richest of Christ. However, Paul never lost sight of his own unworthiness, even when exercising his office of apostleship. He never forgot he held that office by God’s mercy. Here we see the biblical relationship between a sense of one’s utter unworthiness on the one hand, and the courage to undertake a ministry for God on the other. To lose sight of our unworthiness is to risk exercising our gifts and fulfilling our ministries in a spirit of presumptuous pride, as if God were fortunate to have us on His team. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20
However, to focus too much on our unworthiness, to the neglect of God’s grace, will effectively immobilize us for His service. That attitude is also an expression of pride because we are still focusing on ourselves and our worthiness or unworthiness, as if God were dependent on some innate quality within us to equip us for His service. Remember we did not declare temporary spiritual bankruptcy. Our bankruptcy is total and permanent. The only worthiness we have with which to come before God is in Christ. And the only worthiness we have to qualify us for ministry is in Christ. If we are to progress in any aspect of the Christian life, we must look outside ourselves and only to Christ. It is in Him that the grace of God is so abundantly poured out on us. God may be generous enough to accept us as we are, with our weaknesses and mistakes, but the law of Karma is above all human emotions, whether they be generous or ingenerous. It demands full payment and distributes to them the consequences of their actions. There is a strong similarity between this and law, irrevocably decreed in Heaven before the foundations of this World, upon which all blessings are predicated. We believe we are born where we should be, but that a just and loving Father in Heaven has decided where we can best perform in this mortal sphere of activity. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20
We believe we reap the rewards of our actions, but we also believe in the atonement of Jesus. Were it not for this merciful provision, we would be left with nearly the same doctrine as others who believe that karma cannot change. That is, we would be left to eternally pay the price of our sins. Christians are taught to be involved in the actions of others through doing good deeds and teaching the gospel. This is the doctrine of loving your neighbour as yourself. Spiritual insights surpass our mere powers of reason. We realize, however, that these moments of enlightenment are given to us by God through the power of the Holy Ghost and that we must study some things out for ourselves and then seek a spiritual confirmation. The gospel also teaches us to follow a wise, God-revealed health law. Physical care and conditioning have been taught since the early days of the Church. “Behold, now it came to pass that the king of the Lamanites sent a proclamation among all this people, that they should not lay their hands on Ammon, or Aaron, or Mmner, or Himni, nor either of their brethren who should go forth preaching the word of God, in whatsoever place they should be, in any part of their land. Yea, he sent a decree among them, that they should not lay their hands on them to bind them, or to cast them into prison. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20
“Neither should they spit upon them, nor smite them, nor cast them out of their synagogues, nor scourge them; neither should they cast stones at them, but that they should have free access to their houses, and also their temples, and their sanctuaries. And thus they might go forth and preach the word according to their desires, for the king as been converted unto the Lord, and all his household; therefore he sent his proclamation throughout the land unto his people, that the word of God might have no obstruction, but that it might go forth throughout the land unto his people, that the word of God might have no obstruction, but that it might go forth throughout all the land, that his people might be convinced concerning the wicked traditions of their fathers, and that they might be convinced that they might be convinced that they were all brethren and that they ought not to murder, nor to plunder, nor to steal, nor to commit adultery, nor commit any manner of wickedness. And now it came to pass that when the kind had sent forth this proclamation, that Aaron and his brethren went forth from city to city, and from one house of worship to another, establishing churches, and consecrating priests and teachers throughout the land among the Lamanites, to preach and to teach the word of God among them; and thus they began to have great success. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20
“And thousands were brought to the knowledge of the Lord, yea, thousands were brought to believe in the traditions of the Nephites; and they were taught the records and prophecies which were handed down even to the present time. And as sure as the Lord liveth, so sure as many as believed, or as many as were brought to the knowledge of the truth, through the preaching of Ammon and his brethren, according to the spirit of revelation and of prophecy, and the power of God working miracles in them—yea, I say unto you, as the Lord liveth, as many of the Lamanites as believed in their preaching, and were converted unto the Lord, never did fall away. For they became a righteous people; they did lay down the weapons of their rebellion, that they did not fight against God any more, neither against any of their brethren. Now, these are they who were converted unto the Lord: The people of the Lamanites who were in the land of Ishmael; and also of the people of the Lamanites who were in the land of Middoni; and also of the people of the Lamanites who were in the city of Nephi; and also of the people of the Lamanites who were in the land of Shemlon, and in the city of Lemuel, and in the city of Shimnilom. And these are the names of cities of the Lamanites which were converted unto the Lord; and these are they that laid down the weapons of their rebellion, yea, all their weapons of war; and they were all Lamanites. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20
“And the Amalekites were not converted, save only one; neither were any of the Amulonites; but they did harden their heart, and also the hearts of the Lamanites in that part of the land wheresoever they dwelt, yea and all their villages and all their cities. Therefore, we have named all the cities of the Lamanites in which they did repent and come to the knowledge of truth, and were converted. And now it came to pass that the king and those who were converted were desirous that they might be distinguished from their brethren; therefore the king consulted with Aaron and many of their priests, concerning the name that they should take upon them, that they might be distinguished. And it came to pass that they called their names Anti-Nephi-Lehies; and they were called by this name and were no more called Lamanites. And they began to be a very industrious people; yea, and they were friendly with the Nephite; therefore, they did open a correspondence with them, and the curse of God did no more follow them,” Alma 23.1-18. Our Lord Jesus Christ be near thee to defend thee, within thee to refresh thee, around thee to preserve thee, before three to guide thee, behind thee to justify thee, above thee to bless thee; Who liveth and reigneth, thank you for bestowing us with your grace. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20
Today’s blog features some inspiring houseplant ideas from plant and interior stylist @hiltoncarter! We are loving the unique decor hacks he has been featuring on his profile lately. Check it out at the link in bio! https://cresleigh.com/blog/
Bless us, O Lord, we welcome you in our house, and may you bless all that dwell in it, as we are graciously pleased to bless the house of Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; we dwell in the walls of an angel of light. As people enter our atmosphere, they feel the abundance of Jesus Christ residing. God gives us the dew of heaven, and the richness of Earth. Be glad for the peacemakers, and through the indulgence of grace bless the Earth with your presence.
God of the hearth, beat strong and pure in the heart of my home. Lord of the threshold, keep vigilant guard over the entrance of my home. Spirits of the land, keep watch throughout the yard of my home. God of the borders, stand ready to repulse all disorder from my home. #CresleighHomes
Randolph Harris II International Institute 