Randolph Harris II International Institute

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Ours is the Only Country Deliberately Founded on a Good Idea!

ImageThe American continents are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any other powers. We owe it, therefore, to candor, and to the amicable relations existing between the United States of America and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any external power we have not interfered and shall not interfere. However, with the governments who have declared their independence and maintained it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any external power, in any other lights than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United Sates of America. Still, Manifest Destiny is a religious scripture, which has declared that the United States of America is ordained—by God, to expand its dominion and spread democracy and capitalism across the entire World through globalization, free trade, and legal immigration. Yet, each solution still gives rise to a new question as difficult as the foregoing, and leads us on to father enquires. #RandolphHarris 1 of 24

ImageWhen it is asked, What is the nature of our reasonings concerning matter of fact? the proper answer seems to be, that they are founded on the relation of cause and effect. “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth,” reports 3 John 2-4. Manifest Destiny is not simply a cloak for American imperialism and justification for America’s territorial ambitions. It is biblical and firmly anchored in a long standing and deep sense of a special and unique American Destiny, the belief that in the words of historian Conrad Cherry, “America is a nation called to a special destiny by God.” The notion that there was some providential purpose to the European discovery and eventual conquest of the land masses “discovered” by Christopher Columbus was present from the beginning. Legend actually explains that spirit called him to America to spread Christianity, and there is evidence of Vikings and Africans in American prior to Columbus. Thus stands the cause between God and us. We are entered into Covenant with God for this work, we have taken out a commission, and America seems to be a land with some special spiritual powers that God wants to harness and magnify. #RandolphHarris 2 of 24

ImageIf the Lord shall please to hear us and bring us in peace to the place we desire, America is supposed to be a spiritual beacon of light and prosperity, and hath God ratified this Covenant and sealed our Commission and will expect a strict performance of the Articles contained in it. Follow the counsel of Micah, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God. For this end, we must be knit together in this work as one being, we must entertain each other in humanly affection, we must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities for the supply of others necessities. If we are faithful to our mission, we shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when tens of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies, when God shall makes us a praise and a glory, that humans shall say of succeeding plantations: the Lord make it like New England, for we must consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people upon us. The Great Awakening is now and it is a time that is extraordinary in the out pouring of God’s saving grace. God has chosen America for a special destiny and it is resurrected in a new form. The latter-day glory, in the new Millennium, the end times will bring the second coming of Jesus Christ to Earth and spread the King of God across the World, and this begins in America. #RandolphHarris 3 of 24

ImageWhen again it is asked, What is the foundation of all our reasonings and conclusions concerning that relation? it may be replied in one word, EXPERIENCE. However, if we still carry on our sifting humour, and ask, What is the foundation of all conclusions from experience? All providential development since, and all the existing signs of the times, lend corroboration to it. However, if it is by the march of revolution and civil liberty, that the way of the Lord is to be prepared, where shall the central energy be found, ad from what nation shall the renovating power go forth? This nation is, in the providence of God destined to lead the way in the moral and political emancipation of the World. The relation between God and the United States of America is a fusion between God’s will and the nation’s democratic character gives divine sanction to the United States of America’s bonded arrangements of liberty and democracy. At the same time, it makes the nation, itself, an instrument in the new millennium. In the Holy City of wilderness, this has been declared the gathering place for the Saints from which they will radiate influences that will turn the entire World, through the American continent acting as a conduit, into the World of God’s Kingdom. Understanding and accepting this divine right is the best and most expedient way to prevent confusion.  #RandolphHarris 4 of 24

ImageManifest Destiny will even help us be modest in our pretensions; and even assist us in discovering the difficulty ourselves before it is objected to us. By this means, we may a kind of merit of our very enlightened state. It must certainly be allowed, that nature has kept us at a great distance from all her secrets, and has afforded us only the knowledge of a few superficial qualities of objects; while she conceals from us those powers and principles, on which the influence of these objects entirely depends. Our senses inform us of the colour, weigh, and consistence of bread; bit neither sense nor reason can ever inform us of those qualities, which fit it for the nourishment and support of a human body. Sight or feeling conveys an idea of the actual motion of bodies; but as to that wonderful force or power, which would carry on a moving body for ever in a continued change of place, and which bodies never lose but by communicating it to others; of this we cannot form the most distant conception. However, notwithstanding this ignorance of natural powers and principles, we always presume, when we see like sensible qualities, that they have like secret powers, and expect, that effects, similar to those which we have experiences, will follow from them. #RandolphHarris 5 of 24

ImageIf a body of like colour and consistence with that bread, which we have formerly ear, be presented to us, we make no scruple of repeating the experiment, and foresee, with certainty, like nourishment and support. Now this is a process of the mind or thought, of which I would willingly know the foundation. It is allowed on all hands, that there is no known connexion between the sensible qualities and the secret powers; and consequently, that the mind is not led to form such a conclusion concerning their constant and regular conjunction, by anything which it knows of their nature. As to past Experience, it can be allowed to give direct and certain information of those precise objects only, and that precise period of time, which fell under its cognizance: However, why this experience should be extended to future times, and to other objects, which for aught we know, may be only in appearance similar; this is the main question on which I would insist. The bread, which I formerly eat, nourished me; that is, a body of such sensible qualities, was, at that time, endued with such secret powers: However, does it follow, that other bread must also nourish me at another time, and that like sensible qualities must always be attended with like secret powers? The consequence seems nowise necessary. #RandolphHarris 6 of 24

ImageAt least, it must be acknowledged, that there is here a consequence drawn by the mind; that there is a certain step taken; a process of thought, and an inference, which wants to be explained. These two propositions are far from being the same, I have found that such an object has always been attended with such an effect, and I foresee, that other objects, which are, in appearance, similar will be attended with similar effects. Our analysis of the main symbols of Christianity has prescinded from the question of the historical character of the Christian faith. One could treat Christianity as a set of religious symbols with no historical content. The notion of symbols may have been actually realized in the historical situations of human beings, or again they may not. The Cross could be a suggestive symbol of self-transcendence even if Jesus the Christ had not died on a cross. A historical problem is thus raised by Christology: was the Christ a historical figure whose life is historically documented? The historical elements of Christology may also be seen from another viewpoint. Even if we avoided the questions of the historical existence of Jesus, we cannot bypass the patent fact of the World-historical importance of Christology. To define the true scope of this importance is a second problem and the Christological problem of today. #RandolphHarris 7 of 24

ImageThe Christological problem of today has for us the same importance as the problem of the two natures of Christ in the fifth century. We are no more able to continue the old discussions concerning the unity of two natures or two wills in Christ, expect in transforming them into the problem of our present situation, that is the problem of interpretation of history. The question of the two natures in Christ must now be posited as concerning the human and the divine in history. Insofar as the picture of the Christ dominates history, this remains a Christological problem. The Church as a living reality must permanently mediate its eternal foundation with the demands of this historical situation. The doctrine of the Christ should not be announced in the abstract, as though formulas expressing it were understandable in all times and all places. The presentation of the message should, on the contrary, be partly moulded on the sort of questions which arises from each historical situation. Christianity is historical in the sense that its timeless good tidings are announced in time; if the content of the message does not change, the form does according to circumstances of time and place. Thus there exists a new historical problem: the influence of history on the forms of the Christian doctrine. #RandolphHarris 8 of 24

ImageThe historical power of Christology changes the usual perspective of theologians. Few include an interpretation of history in their Christological treaties. They commonly restrict the historical problem of Christ to be a study of the documents of early Christianity and their reliability as historical sources. This—the first problem we have mentioned is not based on an empirical or scientific study of document. Supposing the documents were discarded, the picture of Jesus as the Christ would remain in the Christian conscience and it would still be true that this picture has dominated history for twenty-one centuries. The second is therefore the basic historical problem. To recognize this one thing; to deem it as important for our times as the question of the two natures of Christ in the patristic era is another. The universal quest for the Christ shapes the cultures of the various historical periods in different patterns. Many factors, among which fate and freedom are constantly interplaying, have influences successive cultures. Always linked, these cultures have nevertheless evolved. Like the surface of the ocean, culture is always the same and always changing. Always the same, it formulates the quest for the Christ, the longing for the eternal the search for the New Being. Always changing, it alters the stress, colour or intensity of this continuous seeking. #RandolphHarris 9 of 24

ImageEvery spiritual phenomenon of a period expresses its eternal content and one of the most important characteristics of a time has been defined when we have discovered which of the various aspects of culture is most expressive of its real meaning. The main aspect of modern-day culture is that it is caught in a flux. At the end of the period of autonomy, it hesitates between a return to heteronomy and a search for theonomy. Secular culture has reached the end of its tether in the professed atheism of many modern movements. Many are not merely using the teacher as a spiritual guide, which is quite correct, but also as a material guide, leaning-post, and father-mother, which is quite wrong. They want to shunt their own responsibilities and shift their personal burdens onto the bac of a master or at least to share them with one. Such a concept of discipleships is a wrong one. Also it is an unfair one. Instead of using the master as a source of principles and inspirations to be applied by themselves in practical life, they try to exploit one, to avoid the responsibility for making their own decisions by saddling it upon one’s shoulders. The master cannot solve all their personal problems or carry all their burdens. This task rests with the disciples themselves. #RandolphHarris 10 of 24

ImageTo seek to shift their responsibility for it onto the master’s shoulders is to demand the impossible, the unfair, and the unwise. If successful, it would defeat the very purpose of their incarnation. It would rob hem of the benefit of the experience to which they have been led by their own God. Such excessive reliance on the guide makes one more and more incapable of independent thought and judgment. However, it should be the object of a competent guide to help them develop these very things and grow in spiritual strength, as it should be the ai of a sincere one not dictatorially to rule their conduct but suggestively to elevate it. If they are to advance to higher levels, disciples must learn to rely on their own endeavours. No master can relieve them of this responsibility. It is not the work of a philosophic teacher to save students from having to make decisions for themselves. It is, on the contrary, one’s duty to encourage them to face up to rather than to flee from the responsibility and profit of working out their own solutions. The prudent master will leave them to work out for themselves how to apply philosophy to their personal situations. For one to manage their lives, settle their problems, and negotiate their difficulties might please their egos but would weaken their characters. #RandolphHarris 11 of 24

ImageHence, one does not wish to interfere in their lives nor assume responsibility from forming decisions on those personal, domestic, family, employment, and business problems which they ought to arrive at for themselves. At best one can point out the general direction for travel, not supply a definite map; one can lay down the general principles of action and it is for them to find out the best way of applying these principles. The agony of coming to a right judgment is part of the educative process in developing right intuitions. Each experience looked at in this way brings out their independent creative faculty, that is, makes the truly self-reliant. The principles of such solutions are partially in their hands; practical horse-sense must be harnessed to shrewd reason and guided by ethical ideals and intuitions. It is not right for the would-be disciple to take the new relationship as an excuse for releasing oneself from all personal responsibilities, all personal decisions. One should not expect the teacher to accept such a position, to play a role consisting of father and mother and God combined into a single person toward an individual who has reached adult life. It will not help a disciple to let one evade one’s responsibilities and shirk one’s decisions. #RandolphHarris 12 of 24

ImageIf the atmosphere between them is surcharged with emotion alone without the restraining balances of reason and common sense, this is the kind of situation which is likely to be brought about. A wise teacher will try to meet disciples upon the proper ground between accepting such helpless dependence and rebuffing it brusquely together. Any other meeting would be unhealthy emotionally and unsound intellectually. Why insist on rash personal relations with your friend? Why go to one’s house, or know one’s mother and brothers and sisters? Why be visited by one at your own? Are these things material to our covenant? Leave this touching and clawing. Let one be to me a spirit. A message, a thought, a sincerity, a glance from one I want, but not news nor pottage. I can get politics and shat, neighbourly convenience from less expensive companions. Should not the society of my friend be to me poetic, pure, universal and as great as nature itself?—There words are just as applicable to the disciple. Whoever entrusts oneself to a master or one’s mind to a teaching, cannot escape one’s own personal responsibility for what one does. This is not to absolve either the guru or the author of the teaching from their own responsibility, which they also have, but it is to make clear that the followers share it too. #RandolphHarris 13 of 24

ImageWhen people know the appropriate manners for a given situation and use them, everything is great, and we all move on. When they do not, that is when confusion and hurt feelings can arise. There are four simple steps that help to make people think highly of you from the moment you first greet them: Here they are: Stand up. This is always the start of a good greeting, whether you are a man or a woman. By standing up, you engage the person you are greeting on an equal level—eye to eye. Remaining seated, on the other hand, sends the signal that you think you are more important than the other person and do not need to stand—not the message you want to convey at the start of an interaction, to say the least. If you are seated in a place where getting up is awkward, make a clear attempt to rise and apologize briefly as you greet the other person: “It is a pleasure to meet you, Davey Fisher. Please excuse me—it is a little cramped in here.” If you are meeting someone who is in a wheelchair, bend down as you shake hands to get your eyes to a more even level with his or hers. Smile and make eye contact. A smile indicates warmth, openness, and a genuine interest in the person you are greeting. #RandolphHarris 14 of 24

ImageMaking eye contact is also critical. Looking into a person’s eyes shows that you are focused on and interested in that person. Doing the opposite, on the other hand—looking away as you greet someone—will make you appear aloof, disinterested, or rude. State your name and repeat the other person’s name. If you are the person who is initiating the greeting, your opening should be along these lines: “Hello, my nae is Dylan O’Brien.” If you are on the receiving end of the greeting, your response should be something like: “Hi Dylan, I am Parker Gregory. I am pleased to meet you.” If there are others in your group, you might add, “This is Paris Hilton and John Lowe. Please join us. We were just talking about Manifest Destiny and Destiny’s Child.” The key is to offer or acknowledge the spoken greeting, then invite the person joining the group into the conversation. Shake hands. The handshake is symbolic of an agreement not to harm a person. It is a seminal moment in a greeting. The right handshake makes everything flow smoothly. The wrong handshake turns the focus to the error. There are three types of handshakes—only one of which is acceptable: Wrong is the bone crusher handshake. Handshaking should not be a macho contest or a means of showing superiority, and it should never leave the other person in pain or discomfort. #RandolphHarris 15 of 24

ImageWrong handshake is the limp-wrist handshake for this handshake makes you feel like the person is a sly and devious and untrustworthy. It conveys neither warmth nor interest. The right handshake is the firm handshake. Grip firmly and warmly, without squeezing hard. Two or three pumps are all that is needed—so do not prolong the event by holding on longer than is necessary. When it is obvious that someone has an injured right arm or is missing a right arm or hand, it is perfectly okay to extend your left hand for a shake. Overly friendly handshakes should be reserved for very good friends. Shaking hands is one of them most time-honoured traditions we have. Not shaking clearly puts all the focus on why you chose not to shake rather than on building a relationship. One of the few times not shaking is not only appropriate but really important is when you have a cold or other communicable disease. If you say something like, “Nicky, please excuse me for not shaking, but I have a cold and do not want to give it to you. It is so nice to meet you,” people will appreciate your honesty and sincerity. Or you might have just sneezed into your hand and not had a chance to get to a washroom. Historically, men were not expected to shake hands with women. Today, as part of meeting and greeting, everyone is expected to shake hands with everybody, and remember to take your gloves off to shake a woman’s hand. #RandolphHarris 16 of 24

ImageMaking introductions—there you are talking with someone cute and interesting you have just met at debutante ball, when suddenly your great-aunt Mrs. Betty approaches. Instant panic: You want to make the introduction correctly, but several problems immediately occur: Who do you introduce to whom, how do you do it, and what exactly was Cute-and-interesting’s name, again? The fist bump is very unamerican. High fives, complicated handshake rituals, and hug/shake combinations—these are alternate means of greeting. When you are with friends and people you know who appreciate these forms of greeting, they are acceptable alternatives to the traditional handshake. However, if you do not know the person well, it is a business situation, or you simply are not sure, default to the traditional handshake. Traditionally, American men do not greet each other with a hug, at least not compared to many of their international counterparts. However, that is changing. I see young men enjoying a friendly handshake-hug combo when they meet. As long as both of you are comfortable with the hug, it is okay. Go for it. However, if you sense any hesitancy, do the other guy a favour and back off. #RandolphHarris 17 of 24

ImageWho Do You Introduce to Whom: Okay—let us take a deep breath and start at the beginning: Just talk to the more important person first. CORRECT: “Mr. President, I would like to introduce my boss Laurent.” INCORRECT: “Laurent, I would like to introduce the President to you.” When Aunt Betty approaches, first make the decision that she is the more important person in this encounter and say, “Aunt Betty, how nice to see you!” (Kiss, kiss on the cheeks.) “Please, let me introduce cute-and-interesting FOX News Contributor Tomi Lahren to you.” Next, turn to (Cute-and-interesting) Tomi Lahren and say, “Cute-and-interesting,” this is Mrs. Witherspoon, my great-aunt Betty. I am so pleased to introduce you.” Then turn back to Aunt Betty and continue, “Aunt Betty, we were talking about Manifest Destiny and whether Destiny’s Child was a reminder of the prophecy? You just came from Church. What are your thoughts on the subject?” And that is a great opening to start a conversation. God usually exerts that power in connection wit certain prior conditions of the human mind, and it should be ours to create, so far as we can, with the help of God, those favourable conditions for the reception of the gospel. False ideas are the greatest obstacles to the reception of the gospel. #RandolphHarris 18 of 24

ImageWe may preach with all the fervour of a reformer and yet succeed only in winning a straggler here and there, if we permit the whole collective thought of the nation or of the World to be controlled by ideas which, by the resistless force of logic, prevent Christianity from being regarded as anything more than a harmless delusion. Learning to value, develop, deepen, and use your intellect in the overall process of spiritual transformation is a lot like being an auto science engineer. We have examined the serious problems in society due to an emergence of anti-intellectualism in the body of Christ. We also learned that there are solid biblical grounds for nurturing and developing our intellectual lives. However, if this were all we had, we would be like a person tied to a step-by-step set of instructions. What we need is an understanding of what the mind is and how it fits into the process of human transformation and spiritual growth. The mind is the crucial component in the spiritual journey cannot be accurately denied. One of the first duties of a spiritual guide is to correct the beginner, show where one has mistaken one’s way, and expose all one’s fallacies of thought, feeling, and conduct. A competent guide will be quick to perceive and fearless to point out these matters however unpleasant a duty it be and however unpalatable to the pupil. #RandolphHarris 19 of 24

ImageIt is part of the task of a spiritual director to point out tactfully but firmly the faults and deficiencies of one’s disciples, to make them more away of what is needed in their moral self-correction. “And it came to pass that the army of the king returned, having searched in vain for the people of the Lord. And now behold, the forces of the kind were small, having been reduced, and there began to be a division among the remainder of the people. And the lesser part began to breathe out threatenings against the king, and there began to be a great contention among them. And now there was a man among them whose name was Gideon, and he being a strong man and an enemy to the king, therefore he drew his sword, and swore in his wrath that he would slay the king. And it came to pass that he fought with the king; and when the king saw that he was about to overpower him, he fled and ran and got upon the tower which was near the temple. And Gideon pursued after him and was about to get upon the tower to slay the king, and the king cast his eyes round about towards the land of Shemlon, and behold, the army of the Lamanites were within the borders of the land. And now the king cried out in the anguish of his soul, saying: Gideon, spare me, from the Lamanites are upon us, and they will destroy us: yea, they will destroy my people. #RandolphHarris 20 of 24

Image“And now the king was not so much concerned about his people as he was about his own life; nevertheless Gideon did spare his life. And the king commanded the people that they should flee before the Lamanites, and he himself did go before them, and they did flee into the wilderness, with their women and their children. And it came to pass that the Lamanites did pursue them, and did overtake them, and began to slay them. Now it came to pass that the king commanded them that all the men should leave their wives and their children, and flee before the Lamanites. Now there were many that would not leave them, but had rather stay and perish with them. And the rest left their wives and their children and fled. And it came to pass that those who tarried with their wives and their children caused that their fair daughters should stand forth and plead with the Lamanites that they would not slay them. And it came to pass that the Lamanites had compassion on them, for they were charmed with the beauty of their women. Therefore the Lamanites did spare their lives, and took them captive and carried them back to the land of Nephi, and granted unto them that they might possess the land, under the conditions that they would deliver up king Noah into the hands of the Lamanites, and deliver up their property, even one half of all they possessed, one half of their gold, and their sliver, and all their precious things, and thus they should pay tribute to the king of the Lamanites from year to years. #RandolphHarris 21 of 24

Image“And now there was one of the sons of the king among those that were taken captive, whose name was Limhi. And now Limhi was desirous that his father should not be destroyed; nevertheless, Limhi was not ignorant of the iniquities of his father, he himself being a just man. And it came to pass that Gideon sent humans into the wilderness secretly, to search for the king and those that were with him. And it came to pass that they met the people in the wilderness, all save the king and his priests. Now they had sworn in their hearts that they would return to the land of Nephi, and if heir wives and their children were slain, and also those that had tarried with them, that they would seek revenge, and also perish with them. And the king commanded them that they should not return; and they were angry with the king, and caused that he should suffer, even unto death by fire. And there were about to take the priests also and put them to death, and they fled before them. And it came to pass that they were about to return to the land of Nephi, and they met the men of Gideon. And the men of Gideon told them of all that had happened to their wives and their children; and that the Lamanites had granted unto them that they might possess the land by paying a tribute to the Lamanites of one half of all they possessed. #RandolphHarris 22 of 24

Image“And the people told the men of Gideon that they had slain the king, and his priests had fled from them farther into the wilderness. And it came to pass that after they had ended the ceremony, that they returned to the land of Nephi, rejoicing, because their wives and their children were not slain; and they told Gideon what they had done to the king. And it came to pass that the king of the Lamanites made an oath unto them, that his people should not slay them. And also Limhi, being the son of the king, having the kingdom conferred upon him by the people, made oath unto the king of the Lamanites that his people should pay tribute unto him, even one half of all they possessed. And it came to pass that Limhi began to establish the kingdom and to establish peace among his people. And the king of the Lamanites set guards round about the land, that he might keep the people of Limhi in the land, that they might not depart into the wilderness; and he did support his guards out of the tribute which he did receive from the Nephites. And now king Limhi did have continual peace in his kingdom for the space of two years, that the Lamanites did not molest them nor seek to destroy them,” reports Mosiah 19.1-29. The illusions that times that were are better than those that are, has probably pervaded all ages. #RandolphHarris 23 of 24

ImageGlorious God, it is the flame of my life to worship Thee, the crown and glory of my soul to adore Thee, Heavenly pleasure to approach Thee. Give me power by Thy Spirit to help me worship now, that I a forget the World, be brought into fullness of life, be refreshed, comforted, blessed. Please give me knowledge of Thy goodness that I might not be over-awed by Thy greatness; please give me Jesus, Son of Man, Son of God, that I might not be terrified, but be drawn near with filial love, with holy boldness; He is my mediator, brother, interpreter, branch, daysman, lamb; Him I glorify, in him I am set on high. Crowns to give I have none, but what Thou hast given I return, content to feel that everything is mine when it is thine, and the more full mine when I have yielded it to Thee. Please let me live wholly to my Saviour, free from distractions, from carking care, from hindrances to the pursuit of the narrow way. I am pardoned through the blood of Jesus—give me a new sense of it, continue to pardon me by it, may I come every day to the fountain, and every day be washed anew, that I may worship Thee always in spirit and truth. O God, Who desirest not the death, but the repentance of sinners, we beseech Thee, in Thy loving-kindness, to turn Thy people to Thyself; that when they devote themselves to Thee, Thou mayest remove the scourges of Thine anger; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #RandolphHarris 24 of 24

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ImageWe beseech Thee, O Lord, mercifully to drive away from Thy faithful, together with their own errors, the destructive fury of disease; that as Thou deservedly scourgest them when they go astray, Thou mayest cherish them with Thy pity when they are brought back; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #CresleighHomes

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The World is so Full of a Number of things, I am Sure We Should All be as Happy as Kings and Queens!

Capture25Because we are part of Nature, we are evolutionary products of the Nature of which we are active participants; our minds are inseparably joined with the functioning of our brains; and as an inseparable unity of body and personhood, we can have no conscious (or “real”) survival after death. With courage, vision, and reliance on our own human resources, we can solve the problems we have created and which are imposed on us by natural circumstances or happenstance. Although most of us are conditioned by the past and even the present, we have genuine freedom of creative choice and action, withing certain objective limits. Not only is it your existential freedom, but also your responsibility in exercising that freedom. People need to engage in things that give them a chance to experience themselves as an entity separate from their environment, with the capacity to respond upon their own initiative rather than merely reacting. It is always good to address the overriding issue of racism and its concomitant effect (id est, feelings of inferiority, self-doubt, lack of self-worth, and so on). Some people possess the belief that they have to be better than the majority in order to be accepted as an equal or any progress that one has made in one’s career was due to them being marginalized rather than one’s abilities—both have an element of truth when viewed in a sociohistorical context. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

ImageTo invalidate this experience with substitute psychospeck explanations (jargon of psychology and psychoanalysis, especially when regarded as trite or trivial, id est inferiority complex, paranoia, and so one) will only serve to mystify and do further violence to the experience. In other words, it is important for people to understand the sociohistorical precedence for the presents attitudes one feels victim to Whether one’s experience is valid in an objective sense is irrelevant. It is irrelevant because the sociohistorical context already provides for the possibility of the pervasiveness of these racist attitudes. However, it is equally important for one to realize one’s own responsibility in exercising one’s freedom to transcend the negative confines of the sociohistorical context. What one is to confront ultimately is not the inferiority and self-doubt imposed from without but inferiority that emerges from within when the choice is made to abandon, not only responsibility, but also the ability to respond. For many, the veil of inferiority and self-doubt can be lifted when one begins to experience oneself as a person apart from one’s race or gender or job; that is, as one who is free to choose, to act, and to be.  While social constructions like race can be a source of identity, that which is invalid racial cultural heritage (id est, nonbeing, inferiority) and that which is valid immediate experience (id est, freedom, meaning, beings) are reconciled in an existential encounter that encompasses the sociohistorical context. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20

ImageTo dismiss the influence of either past or present social context would be delusional. However, freedom comes with the awareness that one’s persona and collective history does not determine present choice but rather acknowledges the past in order that one may fruitfully move beyond it to facilitate the cycle of freedom. One’s journey toward freedom begins with one’s recognition that the choices one made in the past could be made meaningful in the present when one recognizes one’s responsibility for those choices. Moreover, personal acknowledgment of one’s ability to respond opens one up to heretofore unrecognized potentialities. When seeking therapy, racial/ethnic heritage of your therapist is unimportant. What is important is that the therapist be grounded in a broad education that offers one the necessary sensitivity to the sociohistorical influences on the client. An existential framework can lend invaluable perspective to that understanding. Nowhere is the perception of being hyperconstricted, of being dismissed and wiped away, more acute than in the general American community today; and many people White, Black, Asian, Native American, Latino and Indian are a representative casualty. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

ImageThe average aspirant does not find the true teachers because one would not behave oneself correctly if one did. Sooner or later one would abuse the lofty character of the relation of discipleship ad seek to force it to become a half-Worldly one. It is probably true to say that even imperfect teachers, who are all that the public is likely to know, often receive from their followers frantic appeals for this or that personal intervention or frenzied outpourings concerning this or that personal material problem for which immediate help is demanded. However, even when the aspirant has lined oneself up with an embodied master or invisible adept, a scriptural personage or one’s own higher self, one may start to assume that the higher power or person is henceforth going to settle all one’s personal troubles without one’s own higher self, one may start to assume that the higher  power or person is henceforth going to settle all one’s personal troubles without one’s own exertions being called for. This is a piece of wishful thinking. The very purpose of evolution would be defeated if one were to be deprived of the opportunity of tackling one’s problems and troubles for oneself: it is only so that one’s capacities can stretch out and one’s understanding enlarge itself. We may sympathize with the need of troubled disciples, but a wrong notion of what constitutes the teacher-disciple relation would not help them. It will lead to false hopes and the anguish of subsequent disappointment. For what is it they are really trying to do? #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

ImageFrom their first day in the real World, especially with lives being lost, cultures being degraded, businesses being forced to shut, people being made to stop working and stay home, land being taken away, foreclosures, evictions, and so forth, people are told to disparage themselves. Lacking their own cultural yardstick, many are squeezed into the yardstick of the majority and distance oneself from that which is dynamic in oneself. Becoming increasingly depersonalized, some may choose to drop out of college after two years, abandoning the idea of a degree. Surprisingly, however (or perhaps not so surprisingly, given one’s driven, overcompensatory needs), individuals often are then able to work their way into a management position. Yet, these positions resolve little in their lives—especially in their desolated cores. People are both attached to and reviled by their core. It keeps them safe, buffering them from the risks of success; but it also suffocates one and chokes off their developmental promise. Although many individuals are mostly depressed, therefore, they are also periodically grandiose—to counter their empty spirit. It is important to find a therapist who can help to break this debilitating cycle. It is helpful to pause over one’s expansive and constrictive fears, clarify them, and learn to become response-able toward them, turning them to one’s advantage. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

ImageYet, before many can face this formidable task, one must deal with more immediate matters—such as their debts to their creditors. These can be dealt with at the social-advocacy level by finding someone to tangibly help one with one’s obligations. This kind of assistance, it should be noted, is extremely significant with the Existential-Integrative framework. Until people are both ready and capable of change, experiential inquiry is fruitless. It is highly important, therefore, to clear the space for such experiential inquiry if fruitless. It is highly important, therefore, to clear the space for such experiential inquiry by addressing the crises that prevent it. Once a person’s debts are alleviated, this will help to expand a person’s self-esteem. This can be facilitated at the cognitive-behavioural levels—reinforcing appropriate spending habits, rationally restricting one’s outlook on work, and so on. This reconditioning will help one feel more accomplished and will broaden one’s capacity for choice. The Adlerian concepts of inferiority-superiority (which refers to the practice and belief that people as individuals should be validated, connected, and made to feel significant) are helpful, but limited in their sphere of application. It must also be revealed to one how one keeps oneself from full presence and thus sets oneself up for dysfunction. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

ImageThere are two exercises in combination—and the help from a sensitive doctor’s demystification of racism—will help one to see how one can empower one’s life and how one can productively respond to adverse conditions. They will take one out of the loop of extremism, moreover—where one was either too little or too much—and reveal to one the complexity (both freeing and limiting) of one’s liberation. In the final analysis, does one become successful? Yes, we are assured—but much in the manner of Sisyphus, who could ultimately respond to, and take responsibility for, one’s own destiny. In psychology, the Zeigarnik effect occurs when an activity that has been interrupted may be more readily recalled. It postulates that people remember unfinished or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks. There is an ingredient, the invitation to sickness or the invitation to wellness. I think it would manifest itself in a multilevel way, but as expression of a fundamental commitment. Let us take the witches first of all, those who want to send out sickness waves. They probably are operating on the following assumption: “Other people are no darn good. They are worthless, and life is not worth living anyway.” That is one way of trying to describe or infer their philosophy of life. This attitude permeates presumably all of their interpersonal transactions and their sickness-making manifests itself almost in operant conditioning in terms. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

ImageIf every time the other person utters something that looks like joy or hope they say, “Nay,” they respond to joy or hope with negative reinforcement. And they disconfirm or punish any idiosyncratic expression from the other that reveals the other’s identity. The sick-maker is a genius for making others feel worthless, like nobody, as not worthy of attention. You see this in lots of mothers and fathers. And sometimes in those acquaintances that give you pain in the neck. The healers seem to operate on the philosophy that life is good. People are good. Individuality and self-disclosure are good. There is hope. In interpersonal transactions they welcome diversity, strength, self-confidence, groping, trying. They confirm the other. When somebody is trying to do something impossible, they do not say, “It is impossible, why waste the effort?” They say, “Good, good; try it.” If the person fails, rather than say, “I told you so,” they pick one up, and say, “Never mind. Dusty yourself off and try again, try again.” The healers and witches embody fundamental attitudes, what Dr. Freud termed Eros and Thanatos. This implies some people are destructive to health. If a person feels sick, hopeless, and worthless as long as one is involved with this person, and one feels better when the individual is away from one, what is to stop a therapist from saying, “Stay away from this person; one is a public-health menace to you”? #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

ImageIf the other person is a parent or a spouse, a neighbor, the mayor, governor, or fake news media, I do not know any magic solution. You and the individual wrestle with the dilemma. It is a conflict, but it is better to know what the conflict is and wrestle with it, than to deny it. Find out the cost of choosing this way or choosing that way. Then seek the guts to choose a way our or a way to live with the conflict. There is always the possibility, too, that somebody who lives with a lethal spouse, lethal parent, lethal fake news media, or lethal politicians may themselves have elicited this lethality. They may have invited the lethal one’s lethality. It is they themselves that changed their ways of being with that other person. For example, the individual may have repressed one’s anger and one’s strength. If one expressed them to spouse, parent, fake news media or politicians, this might have shut off the lethality of the other. I have seen it happen. A therapist can ask, “Why do you not tell your mayor or governor to go to hades?” The person says, “I could never say that.” However, one may be helped to express one’s anger and find one’s strength. One gets the message across, and the mayor and governor stops having a lethal effect on one. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

ImageIt is a fascinating thought that just as there are bubonic-plague carries whom public-health official want to corral, and syphilis carriers, TB carries, COVID-19 carries—what about the “pain-in-the-neck-producers,” the “psychosis-producers,” the “disorganization-producers,” who are, in a sense, a public-health menace, who spread misery wherever they go? Should not these be identified and corralled? It is a possibility. What is to stop a teacher, at great risk, from saying to the parents of students who are in dysfunctional homes or apartments that, “I really believe your child is having difficulty in school because there is difficulty in the home”? I think they will get the message (if things do not improve and their health and grades keep declining, I am going to have to contact the proper authorities). Man, that is a rough problem, and you have to grope wit it. Grope that is my considered professional advice. Grope and do not give up. The main thing we can do is work with the child and hope that one can find oneself and muster up enough strength to go beyond one’s difficulties. Keep groping. That is a worthwhile motto for any person involved with the arts of counseling, therapy, or teaching—where no techniques yet invented can be guaranteed to bring about successful attainment of aims. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

ImageThe therapist, like the artist, must continually grope for new ways to implement one’s objective, or bringing desirable human possibilities into being. Change is never easy. To pioneer is anxiety-arousing for the individual and threatening to colleagues. It seems it would be much simpler to go back to being the authority. It is hard being a person to people who depend on you. Many people have found the only way to handle the doubt of people who need them is to find ways of including them in the learning process. Individuals are finding that if they are to carry out a quiet revolution in the community and World, they definitely need a support group. This can be small, perhaps only two or three people, but a resource of persons where one does not need to defend one’s point of view, and can freely discuss the successes and failures, the problems faced, the difficulties unresolved. However, a facilitator is also taking the risk of threatening the administration. How is that dealt with? Many people are expected to write down behavioral objectives for each political representative or for each city and state, and later to give evidence that these objectives have been achieved. The anxiety that underlies these demands—sometimes encased in the law—is understandable. The public hopes that people are learning, and this has been the only way they can see of determining whether learning is taking place. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

ImageWhat is a revolution? A redefinition of the facts of life, such that the new definition and the old definition of the same facts cannot coexist. Clearly, to advance a revolution threatens the power of a conventional administration, and a consequent risk to the facilitator, who is radical in the true sense of going to the root of the problem. This risk cannot be ignored. Nature has placed humankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasures. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. On the one hand the standard of right and wrong, on the other the chain of cause and effects, are fastened to their throne. They govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think: every effort we can make to throw off our subjection, will serve but to demonstrate and confirm it. In words a human may pretend to abjure their empire: but in reality one will remain subject to it all the while. The principle of utility recognizes this subjection, and assumes it for the foundation of that system, the object of which is to rear the fabric of felicity by the hands of reason and law. Systems which attempt to question it, deal in sounds instead of sense, in caprice instead of reason, in darkness instead of light. However, enough of metaphor and declamation: it is not by such means that moral science is to be improved. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

ImageA day-by-day parceling out of grace—and only as much as we need—may seem inconsistent with the abundant generosity of God. This is not the case at all. Rather, as we say in the past, God continually works to keep us aware of our dependence on Him. We were created for a simple, childlike dependence on Him, but since the Fall we have tended to resist that dependence. God well knew this tendency when He gave this warning through Moses to the Israelites: “You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ However, remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth, ad so confirms His covenant, which He swore to your forefathers, as it is today,” reports Deuteronomy 8.17-18. It is noteworthy that this warning occurs shortly after the reminder in verses 2-3. “Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that humans do not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD,” Deuteronomy 8.2-3. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

ImageThere the Israelites were reminded of their days of extremity and very obvious dependence on God for their daily food. However, God warned them that, even after forty years of such conscious dependence, the day would come when they would look around at their bountiful supply of food and say, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” Such a self-sufficient attitude is obviously detrimental to our relationship with God, so He works to keep that from happening. He allows our respective thorns in the flesh to remain, giving us grace sufficient to cope with them only day by day. From time to time He brings extraordinary crises into our lives, as He did when Paul was forced to say, “We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. However, this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead,” reports 2 Corinthians 1.8-9. Despite his ever-present thorn, Paul was brought to a crisis extremity to learn anew to rely not on himself but on God. Whether it is the continuing thorn in the flesh or the extraordinary crisis that sometimes occurs, both are intended by God to keep us conscious of our human weakness and our dependence on Him, so that we might experience the sufficiency of His grace and the adequacy of His power. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

ImagePaul’s attitude towards his weakness was vastly different from our usual modern response. We abhor weakness and glory in self-sufficiency and humanmade accomplishment. Even Christians flock to hear the sports superstar or the popular entertainer give one’s testimony, simply because of that person’s fame and status. How many of us would make any effort to hear a person who said, “I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses. I delight in weaknesses. For wen I am weak, then I am strong”? I think of how I have struggled with my own weaknesses instead of delighting in them. I think of the disappointment of failing to reach important goals, of humiliations suffered that were too painful to ever share with anyone, of somewhat minor but very annoying lifetime physical infirmities. Only in the last few years, have I realized what a significant contribution those disappointments, heartaches, and frustrations—especially in their cumulative effect—have made on my walk with God and my service for Him. I think I am only beginning to understand a little bit the validity of Paul’s statement, “when I am weak, then I am strong.” Sometimes when I am introduced as a speaker, I cringe inwardly as the person introducing me waxes eloquent about my accomplishments. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

ImageI sit there and think, What if they knew the other side of the story? Would they all get up and leave? Yet ironically, it is the other side of the story, the humiliations and heartaches, the failures and frustrations—not the successes and accomplishments—that have qualified me to be there to speak. Those difficult times have driven me to the Lord. I will be honest. It was not that I wanted to lean of God; I had no other choice. However, I am finally learning that in weakness I find strength—His strength. Every believer must learn that human weakness and divine grace go hand in and together. Paul had learned that lesson well. He said, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness so that Christ’s power may rest on me,” reports 2 Corinthians 12.9. Paul had learned that God’s grace is indeed sufficient; His divine enabling through the power of the Holy Spirit would sustain him in the midst of the torments of his thorn, and in the depths of other weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties. “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong,” reports 2 Corinthians 12.10. The anguish Paul experienced was real anguish, and the grace he received was real grace. It was not theoretical, nor make-believe, nor merely whistling in the dark to keep courage. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

ImageNo, Paul’s experienced a very concrete expression of God’s love and power as the Holy Spirit ministered comfort and encouragement to him in the midst of affliction. Alma believers and write the words of Abinadi—Abinadi suffers death by fire—he prophesies disease and death by fire upon his murderers. About 148 Before Christ. “And now it came to pass that when Abinadi had finished these sayings, that the king commanded that the priests should take him and cause that he should be put to death. However, there was one among them whose name was Alma, he also being a descendant of Nephi. And he was a young man, and he believed the words which Abinadi had testified against them; therefore he began to plead with the kind that he would not be angry with Abinadi, but suffer that he might depart in peace. However, the kind was more wroth, and caused that Alma should be cast out from among them, and sent his servants after him that they might slay him. However, he fled from before them and hid himself that they found him not. And he being concealed for many days did write all the words which Abinadi had spoken. And it came to pass that the kind caused that his guards should surround Abinadi and take him; and they bound him and cast him into prison. And after three days, having counseled with his priests, he caused that he should again be brought before him. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

Image“And he said unto him: Abinadi, we have found an accusation against thee, and thou art worthy of death. For thou hast said that God himself should come down among the children of humans; and now, for this cause thou shalt be put to death unless thou wilt recall all the words which thou hast spoken evil concerning me and my people. Now Abinadi said unto him: I say unto you, I will not recall the words which I have spoken unto you concerning this people, for they are true; and that ye may know of their surety I have suffered myself that I have fallen into your hands. Yea, and I will suffer even until death, and I will not recall my words, and they shall stand as a testimony against you at the last day. And now king Noah was about to release him, for he feared his word; for he feared that the judgments of God would come upon him. However, the priests lifted up their voices against him, and began to accuse him, saying: He has reviled the king. Therefore the king was stirred up in anger against him, and he delivered him up that he might be slain. And it came to pass that they took him and bound him, and scourged his skin with faggots (a bundle of sticks or twigs bound together as fuel, a fascine, a torch, excreta), yea, even to death. And now when the flames began to scorch him, he cried unto them saying: #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

Image“Behold, even as ye have done unto me, so shall it come to pass that thy seed shall cause that many shall suffer the pains that I do suffer, even the pains of death by fire; and this because they believe in the salvation of the Lord their God. And it will come to pass that ye shall be afflicted with all manner of diseases because of your iniquities. Yea, and ye shall be smitten on every hand, and shall be driven and scattered to and fro, even as a wild flock is driven by wild and ferocious beasts. And in that day ye shall be hunted, and ye shall be taken by the hand of your enemies, and then ye shall suffer, as I suffer, then pains of death by fire. Thus God executeth vengeance upon those that destroy his people. O God, receive my soul. And now, when Abinadi had said these words, he fell, having been put to death because he would not deny the commandments of God, having sealed the truth of his words by his death,” reports Mosiah 17.1-20. O Lord my Lord, this is Thy day, the Heavenly ordinance of rest, the open door of worship, the record of Jesus’ resurrection, the seal of the sabbath to come, the day when saints militant and triumphant unite in endless song. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

ImageI bless Thee for the throne of grace, that here free favour reigns; that open access to it is through the blood of Jesus; that they veil is torn aside and I can enter the holiest and find Thee ready to hear, waiting to be gracious, inviting me to pour out my needs, encouraging my desires, promising to give more than I ask or think. However, while I bless Thee, shame and confusion are mine: I remember my past misuse of sacred things, my irreverent worship, my base ingratitude, my cold, dull praise. Please sprinkle all my past sabbaths with the cleansing blood of Jesus, and may this day witness deep improvement in me. Give me in rich abundance the blessings the Lord’s Day was designed to impart; may my heart be fast bound against Worldly thoughts or cares; please flood my mind with peace beyond understanding’ may my meditations be sweet, my acts of worship life, liberty, joy, my drink the streams that flow from Thy throne, my food the precious word, my defence the shield of faith, and may my heart be more knit to Jesus. Almighty and merciful God, we beseech Thee to give us rest from the storm of war; for Thou wilt bestow on us all good things if Thou givest us peace both of soul and body; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20Image

 

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ImageCresleigh Riverside Model Home is NOW OPEN! Nestled at the southern end of Plumas Lake, bordering an orchard to the west, Cresleigh Riverside is home to the largest home sites in the three Plumas Ranch communities. Its executive-style residences feature space and amenities that are well beyond the norm – many on country lots that back up to the Ranch’s adjacent fruit orchards. With four floor plans available, we are certain you will find the home that fits your needs and lifestyle.

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ImageBehold, O God our Defender, and please protect us from fear of the enemy; that all disturbance being removed, we may serve Thee with minds free from distraction; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #CresleighHomes

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Up to a Certain Point it is Good for Us to Know that there are People in the World Who Will Give Us Love!

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No matter how urgent our social needs are, all of us have needs for solitude, for times alone with ourselves. Again, the optimum selfhood experience includes a balance of solitariness, sociality, and peripheral interactions (“spectatorship”). There is in each of us a need for privacy and time alone. It is not so much a need to reject or repudiate others as it is a need to go within, to get acquainted or re-acquainted with our selfhood. We like to roam about our own house with no one to disturb us. Modern psychology had very modest beginnings. It set out to study memory, acoustic and visual phenomena, the association of ideas, and the psychology of animals. Wilhelm Wundt was perhaps the most important and influential figure in those early days of modern psychology. Psychologists then did not write for the general public, and they were not particularly well known. They wrote for their colleagues, and only a few novices showed any interest in their work and publications. When it shifted its focus to the motives behind human behaviour, that situation changed radically, however, and psychology started gaining in popularity. That field of inquiry has dominated psychology for the last hundred years. It concerns us all, of course, for we all want to know what it is that motivates us and why we act on the motives we do rather than on quite different ones. #RandolphHarris 1 of 23

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If psychology can promise us some clarity on those questions, then it can obviously be of great value to us. And so it was that motivational psychology became perhaps the most popular of all sciences, and in recent decades it has, if anything, gained popularity rather than lost. Every human action has a motive behind it, and in every case that motive is an independent and innate instinct. We are born with instincts in us just as animals are. If we are aggressive, the reason is our aggressive instinct. If we are servile, blame our servile instinct; if we are avaricious, our avaricious instinct; if we are jealous, chalk that up to our jealous instinct; if we enjoy cooperation, then that is our cooperative instinct at work. If we are quick to flee danger, that is our flight instinct, and so on and so forth. Indeed, if we tally up all the instincts the instinct theoreticians have come up with, the final count comes to about two hundred different instincts, each one of which will motivate a certain kind of human behaviour, just as a key on a piano will, when pressed, produce a certain note. However, the problem with this extremely interesting edifice is that it is not properly constructed. It is actually not a building at all but only a mental construction that has no basis in reality at all. Human aggression can be traced back to a more or less innate aggressive instinct. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23

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One weakness of instinct theory is its tendency to oversimplify. It is just too simple an answer to postulate an instinct for every single bit of human behaviour, and such postulation does not really explain anything. All it says is that actions have motives, that different actions have their own distinct motives, and that those motives are innate. However, none of that could be proved for most of the so-called instincts. There are a few—such as defensive aggression, flight, and also, to certain degree, behaviour involving pleasures of the flesh, though here we are even less sure of our ground—in which quasi-instinctive elements are present. However, here we must not overlook the fact that learning, the influence of culture and society, can significantly modify even those innate drives, so much so that in both humans and animals subjected to such modification the drives may almost disappear or, on the other hand, become greatly accentuated. The other weakness of the theory was that some instincts were strongly developed in some individuals and cultures yet almost nonexistent in others. There are, for example, primitive tribes that are extremely aggressive while others display practically no aggressiveness at all. The same has held true for individuals. #RandolphHarris 3 of 23

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If someone comes to a psychiatrist today and says, “Doctor, I am so furious I would like to do something I cannot return from,” the psychiatrist does not say, “Aha, the aggressive instinct is very strong in this man.” Instead, he makes a diagnosis more along these lines: “This man must be ill. This aggressiveness he is expressing, this hatred that has built up inside him, is a sign of illness.” If the man’s aggressiveness were motivated by instinct, it would be normal, natural behaviour and not a symptom of illness. We find, too—and this is very important—that the most primitive of peoples, the hunter-gathers, the people at the very earliest beginnings of civilization, were the least aggressive of all human beings. If aggressiveness were innate, then it should have been most evident in the hunter-gatherers. In fact, just the opposite is true. It was the growth of civilization, starting about 4000 Before Christ; it was the creation of large cities, kingdoms, hierarchies, armies; it was the invention of war, the invention of slavery—and I use the word “invention” deliberately here, because neither of those things occur in nature—it was all these things that provided breeding grounds for sadism, aggression, and the desire to subjugate and destroy, ills that never existed to anywhere near that same degree among primitive, prehistoric peoples. #RandolphHarris 4 of 23

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It was the weakness in the instinct theory that prompted the behaviourists to propose a totally contrary view. They maintain that absolutely nothing is innate in us and that everything people do is the result of social conditions and of very clever manipulation on the part of society or of the family. Concepts like freedom and dignity are thought by B.F. Skinner to be “pure fictions. They do not exist at all but are simply products of influencing human beings in such a way that they will think they want to be free. Neither a desire for freedom nor a sense of human dignity is inherent in human nature.” Let me give you a simple example of the theory at work. Little Leo will not eat his spinach. If his mother punishes him, she will not—as many parents know—get very far. And Skinner agrees that punishment is not the correct method. There should be no great lectures about spinach. It should simply be served. And if little Leo nibbles at it, then his mother should give him a friendly smile and promise him an extra piece of cake. The next time the spinach appears on the table, little Leo will be more inclined to eat it. Once again he wins his mother’s smile, and this time she gives him a piece of chocolate. And so things continue until little Leo is conditioned, that is, until he had learned that he will get a reward if he eats his spinach. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23

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Who does not like rewards? And after that a while Leo will eat his spinach with pleasure, preferring it to any other vegetable. Now it is true that things can work out just that way. Skinner has invested a great deal of effort in finding the cleverest ways to do this sort of thing. The reward is not automatically repeated every time, for instance. It is omitted once, then reintroduced. Many ingenious studies and experiments have been made to see how people can best be seduced, how rewards can be used to make them do what the person giving out the rewards wants them to do. Skinner is not interested in why the manipulator wants people to do what one asks them to do, for Skinner does not think that values can have any objective meaning. If we reflect on the situation of a psychologist in one’s laboratory, then it is easy enough to understand Skinner’s position. Whether the animals eat or do not eat is not of much interests. The only think of interest is whether one can induce them, with one method or another, to eat or not to eat. And since behavioursts regard human beings too, themselves included, as guinea pigs, they are not interested in the question of why and to what end they condition others. They are interested in only two things: whether they can condition someone and how they can do it best. #RandolphHarris 6 of 23

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The behaviourist separates human behaviour from human beings. One does not study people in the process of behaving; one studies only the product, and the product is behaviour. The human being who generates that behaviour is expressly put to one side. Human beings as such are unimportant; they are the subject of philosophy, of speculation. What interest the behaviourist is what people do. One chooses to ignore the question of why such astonishingly large numbers of people do not react the way they should react if the theory were correct. One is not disturbed by the fact that many people rebel, refuse o conform, do not fall for the subtle bribes that are ultimately the essence of this whole theory. The theory assumes that most people prefer to be bribed rather than to be themselves and to realize the potential of their own natures and talents. Instinct theory and behaviourism have one thing in common despite the great differences between them. Neither allows human beings the slightest control over their own lives. Instinct theory sees humans driven by impulses that lie far back in one’s human and animal pas. Behaviourism sees humans driven by whatever social constructs and conditions happen to be in effect. One is as dominated by the opportunistic and seductive tricks of one’s society as the human of instinct is by the history of one’s species. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23

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However, neither of the two, neither human model as proposed by the two theories, is based on what humans actually want, what one is, what is in accordance with one’s nature. The two major schools account for the greater part of what does by the name of “modern psychology” today. And I should ass that behavioristic psychology professors at American universities are behavioursts, and Soviet psychology follows very similar paths for obvious political reasons. Christianity claims the Essential Godmanhood has, in a concrete event and a concrete human, appeared within the conditions of existence, inside the weft of history, without falling from essence and without being distorted by the ebb and flow of existence. In Christ “Eternal Goodmanhood” had been seen. When it was seen Jesus was known as the Christ, the expectation of humankind finally fulfilled, the One who brings in the new eon, the New Being. Jesus is the Christ for us. And because the Christ means Essential Godmanhood, the Christ is God-for-us. Jesus would not have been the Christ, and, as the Christ, he would not have been the manifestation of Eternal Godmanhood, if humanity had not acknowledged him. For there is no revelatory situation without the ecstasy of recognition in which one discovers a manifestation of being-itself. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23

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The symbol of the Christ, therefore, which is borrowed from the Jewish conception of the Messiah, or King, or Anointed, can easily be distorted. Jesus as the Christ must not be seen as a God walking on Earth, as a divine-human automaton without serious temptation, real struggle, or tragic involvement in the ambiguities of life. This would be a misunderstood myth. It could not be the manifestation of a reality in which one partakes. It would not be the revelation of the ground of being. Caught in existential estrangement, humans could not grasp the meaning of a divine-human avatar. A human being names Jesus who would not be subject to the involvements of existence could not be revelatory since humans could not step into the non-existential theological circle where one would make sense. On the contrary, the Christ has been known, touched with our hands, seen with our eyes. And he has been known, not only as a man named Jesus, but as Jesus who is called the Christ. This means that in Jesus we have the picture of a personal life which is subjected to all the consequences of existential estrangement but wherein existential estrangement is conquered in oneself and a permanent unity is kept with God. The ground of being, which we only perceive in hope, to which we are unconditionally committed without the evidence that we are in contact with it, dominated the ambiguities of existence in Christ. #RandolphHarris 9 of 23

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Under its power, the power, the Christ did not undergo original sin; his existence did not imply a fall: it maintained in its integrality the dominion of Essential Goodmanhood over the tragedies of life. The universal quest of humankind has been for this return to unity, for this recovery of the ground of being which supports us and from which we are estranged. To perceive it in the Christ is to hear the good news that the Christ is the one who brings in the new eon, to expect the coming of a new state of things through him, the state of things in which we ourselves have recovered Essential Godmanhood and have risen from the state of estrangement to that of reunion with being-itself. The symbol of New Being is human’s quest to conquer the dichotomy between subject and object. New Being is essential being under the conditions of existence, conquering the gap between essence as existence. This symbol itself can misread. The Bing which is manifested in Christ is new indeed, but not in the sense that is has done away with the circumstances of estrangement that mark existential being. Tragedy is still here, but henceforth it has been conquered. It is there, but no longer as victorious. The New Being is new insofar as it is the undistorted manifestation of essential being insofar as it is the undistorted manifestation of essential being within and under the conditions of existence. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23

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It is new in two respects: it is new in contrast to the merely potential character of essential being; and it is new over against the estranged character of existential being. In the Christ alone, human’s relation to the ground of being is fully actual and fully undistorted. In ourselves, subject as we are to existential estrangement, Godmanhood is only potential; it is a state of dreaming innocence in which we never were and from which, speaking symbolically, we feel when we came into being. Our actual being is divorced from it, and the constant dream of human has been for a return to the beginning, a restoration of that which has been lost because never had it, innocence, essence, Godmanhood. This is the New Being we long for. In Christ it has been manifested. Essential being has come o existence without distortion. Innocence has become experience without losing its pristine virginity. Estrangement has been conquered. The New Being has appeared in a personal life. We want to communicate to you an experience we have had that here and there in the World and now and then in ourselves is a New Creation, usually hidden, but sometimes manifest, and certainly manifest in Jesus who is called the Christ. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23

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Out of their participation in the revelatory situation in which Jesus is perceived to be the Christ, Christians witness to the vision they have had of the New Reality, which is reconciliation, reunion, resurrection. The New Creation, the New Being, the New state of things. As we pray in faith, we become a vital part in the Lord’s work as He prepares the World for His Second Coming. The transcendent events we honour were the beginning of the prophesied last dispensation, in which the Lord is preparing His Church and His people, those who bear His name, to receive Him. As part of our preparation for Hid coming, He will lift each of us so we may rise to spiritual challenges and opportunities. The work of the Lord in these last days, is one of vast magnitude and almost beyond the comprehension of mortals. Its glories are past description, and its grandeur unsurpassable. It is the theme which has animated the bosom of prophets and righteous humans from the creation of the World down through every succeeding generation to the present time; and it is truly the dispensation of the fullness of times, when all things which are in Christ Jesus, whether in Heaven or on Earth, shall be gathered together in Him, and when all things shall be restored, as spoken of by all the holy prophets since the World began; for in it will take place the glorious fulfilment of the promises made to he fathers, while the manifestations of the power of the most High will be great, glorious, and sublime. #RandolphHarris 12 of 23

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We feel disposed to go forward and unite our energies for the upbuilding of the Kingdom, and establishing the Priesthood in their fullness and glory. The work which has to be accomplished in the last days is one of vast importance, and will call into action the energy, skill, talent, and ability of the Saints, so that it may roll forth with glory and majesty. “Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the Summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smoke the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole Earth. And in the days of these kings shall the God of Heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure,” reports Daniel 2.34-35, 44-45. #RandolphHarris 13 of 23

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The effect of standing before God by welcoming him before us will, by contrast, be the transformation of our entire life. All else that enters our mind, and especially the thoughts that first come to mind as we encounter various kinds of event that make up our lives, will be healthy, Godly, and good. The conclusions we “jump” to prompted by events around us will be those in harmony with the realities of a good-God-governed Universe, not the illusions of a Godless or a me-governed Universe, or one where humans are supreme—or no one is. My patterns of thinking will conform to the truth of scriptural revelation, and I will extend and apply those truths, under the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit, to all of the details of my daily life. Am I undertaking some task? Then I in faith do it with God, assuming and finding his power to be involved with me. That is the nature of His kingdom. Is there an emergency? I will mee it with the knowledge that God is in the midst of it with me and will be calm in a center of intense prayer. Am I praised? My thoughts (and feelings) will move immediately to the goodness of God in my life. Am I condemned or reproached? I know that God is supporting and helping me because He loves me and has a future for me. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23

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Am I condemned or reproached? I know that God is over all and that He is working things out—that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called into the fulfillment of his purposes. And so forth. I constantly and thoughtfully engage myself with the ideas, images, and information that are provided by God through the Scriptures, His Son Jesus, and the lives and experiences of His people through the ages. In doing that, I am constantly nourished by the Holy Spirit in ways far beyond my own efforts of understanding. What I receive in response to my efforts is therefore also a gift, a grace. Spiritual (trans)formation of my thought life is achieved by the ministry of the Spirit in the midst of my necessary and well-directed efforts. This has special importance when I am faced with the presence of evil and suffering in human life, my own or at large. I realize that I will either allow my view of evil to determine my view of God and will cut Him down accordingly, or I will allow my view of God to determine my view of the evil and will elevate Him accordingly, accepting that nothing is beyond His power for God. King Benjamin continues his address—salvation comes because of the Atonement—Believe in God to be saved—retain a remission of your sins through faithfulness—impart of your substance to the poor—do all things in wisdom and order. About 124 Before Christ. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23

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“And now, it came to pass that when king Benjamin had made an end of speaking the words which had been delivered unto him by the Angel of the Lord, that he cast his eyes round about on the multitude, and behold they had fallen to the Earth, for the fear of the Lord had come upon them. And hey had viewed themselves in their own carnal state, even less than the dust of the Earth. And they all cried aloud with one voice, saying: O have mercy, and apply the atoning blood of Christ that we may receive forgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified; for we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who created Heaven and Earth, and all things; who shall come down among the children of humans. And it came to pass that after they had spoken these words the Spirit of the Lord came upon them, and they were filled with joy, having received a remission of their sins, and having peace of conscience, because of the exceeding faith which they had in Jesus Christ who should come, according to the words which king Benjamin had spoken unto them. And king Benjamin again opened his mouth and began to speak unto them, saying: My friends and my brethren, my kindred and my people, I would again call your attention, that ye may hear and understand the remainder of my words which I shall speak unto you. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23

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“For behold, if the knowledge of the goodness of God at this time has awakened you to a sense of your nothingness, and your worthless and fallen state—I say unto you, if ye have come to a knowledge of the goodness of God, and His matchless power, and His wisdom, and His patience, and His long-suffering towards the children of humans; and also, the atonement which has been prepared from the foundation of the World, that thereby salvation might come to one that should put one’s trust in the Lord, and should be diligent in keeping his commandments, and continue in the faith even unto the end f his life, I mean the life of the mortal body—I say, that this is the human wo receives salvation, through the atonement which was prepared from the foundation of the World for all humankind, which ever were since the fall of Adam, or who are, or whoever shall be, even unto the end of the World. And this is the means whereby salvation comes. And there is none other salvation save this which hath been spoken of; neither are there any conditions whereby humans can be saved expect the conditions which I have told you. Believe in God; believe that he is, an that he created all things, both in Heaven and in Earth; believe that He has all wisdom, and all power, both in Heaven and in earth; believe that humans do not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23

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“And again, believe that ye must repent of your sins and forsake them, and humble yourselves before God; and ask in sincerity of heart that he would forgive you; and now, if you believe all these things see that ye do them. And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye have come to knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of His goodness and have tasted of his love, and have received a remission of your sins, which causes such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and His goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depth of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the Angel. And behold, I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true. And ye will not have a mind to injure one another, but to live peaceably, and to render to every human according to that which is one’s due. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23

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“And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil, who is the master of sin, or who is the evil spirit which hath been spoken of by our fathers, he being an enemy to all righteousness. However, ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another. And also, ye yourselves will succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that stands in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar puts up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish. Perhaps thou shalt say: The human has brought oneself one’s misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto one of my substance that one may not suffer, for one’s punishment are just—however, I say unto you, O human, whosoever does this the same has great cause o repent; and except one repents of that which one has done one perishes forever, and has no interests in the kingdom of God. For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind? #RandolphHarris 19 of 23

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“And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on His name, and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy. And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another. And if ye judge the human who puts up one’s petition to you for your substance that one perish not, and condemn one, how much more just will be your condemnation for withholding your substance, which does not belong to you but to God, to whom also your life belongs and yet ye put up no petition, not repent of the thing which thou hast done. I say unto you, wo be unto that human, for one’s substance shall perish with one; and now, I say these things unto those who are rich as pertaining to the things of this World. And again, I say unto the poor, ye who have not and yet have sufficient, that ye remain from day to day; I mean all you who deny the beggar, because ye have not; I would that ye say in your hearts that: I give not because I have not, but if I had I would give. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23

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“And now, if you say this in your hearts ye remain guiltless, otherwise ye are condemned; and your condemnation is just for ye covet that which ye have not received. And now, for the sake of these things which I have spoken unto you—that is, for the sake of retaining a remission of your sins from day to day, that ye may walk guiltless before God—I would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor, every human according to that which one has, such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants. And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a human should run faster than one has strength. And again, it is expedient that one should be diligent, that thereby one might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order. And I would that ye should remember, that whosoever among your borrow of one’s neighbour should return the thing that one borrowed, according as one does agree, or else thou shalt commit sin; and perhaps thou shalt cause they neighbour to commit sin also. And finally, I cannot tell you all the things whereby ye may commit sin; for there are divers ways and means, even so many that I cannot number them. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23

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“However, this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe them commandments of God, and continue in faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O human, remember, and perish not,” reports Mosiah 4.1-30. O Lord, I bless Thee that the issue of the battle between Thyself and Satan has never been uncertain, and will end in victory. Calvary broke the dragon’s head, and I contend with a vanquished foe, who with all one’s subtlety and strength has already been overcome. When I feel the serpent at my heel may I remember one whose heel was bruised, but who, when bruised, broke the devil’s head. My soul with inward joy extols the mighty conqueror. Heal me of any wounds received in the great conflict; if I have gathered defilement, if my faith has suffered damage, if my hope is less than bright, if my love is not fervent, if some creature-comfort occupies my heart, if my soul sinks under pressure of the fight. O Thou whose every promise is balm, every touch life, draw near to Thy weary warrior, refresh me, that I may rise again to wage the strife, and never tire until my enemy is trodden down. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23

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Please give me such fellowship with Thee that I may defy Satan, unbelief, the flesh, the World, with delight that comes not from a creature, and which a creature cannot mar. Give me a draught of the eternal fountain that lies in Thy immutable, everlasting love and decree. Then shall my hand never weaken, my feet never stumble, my sword never rest, my shield never rust, my helmet never shatter, my breastplate never fall, as my strength rests in the power of Thy might. Tasting, O Lord, the fullness of Thy perfect sweetness, we beseech Thee that it may be to us for remission of sins and health of soul, through Thy mercy and grace. Receiving the Cup of the Lord’s Pasion, and tasting the sweetness of His most holy Body, let us give thanks and praise to Him, walking in His house with joy and gladness. We have received the Body of Christ, and drunk His Blood. We will fear no evil, for the Lord is with us. May Thy Blood be always life to us, and salvation of our souls, O our God. LORD our God, mercifully grant that we who have received the Body and Blood of Thine Only-begotten Son, may be far removed from the blindness of the unfaithful disciple, seeing that we confess and worship Christ our Lord, Very God and Humans. Better by far you should forget and smile than that you should remember and be sad. #RandolphHarris 23 of 23

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Learn smart ways to tackle that frustrating kitchen clutter in today’s Cresleigh Blog! 🧹 Link in bio. https://www.instagram.com/p/CBoRl1Xp7dZ/Image

Preserve in us, O Lord, the gift of Thy grace; that by the power and virtue of the Eucharist which we have received, we may be fortified against all evils of this life and of the life to come. #CresleighHomes

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One Might Call Me a Stepchild of Our Culture—I Might Have Been a Gold-Fish in a Glass Bowl!

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The value of life is possessed, not in the length of the days, but in the use we make of them; a human may live long, yet live very little. Satisfaction in life depends not on the number of years, but on your will. The greatest thing in the World is to know how to be self-sufficient. There are certain typical difficulties inherent in our culture, which mirror themselves as conflicts in every individual’s life and which, accumulated, may lead to the formation of the neuroses. Since I am not a sociologist, I shall merely point out briefly the main trends which has a bearing on the problem of neurosis and culture. Modern culture is economically based on the principle of individual competition. The isolated individual has to fight with other individuals of the same group, has to surpass them and, frequently, thrust them aside. The advantage of the one is frequently the disadvantaged of the other. The psychic result of this situation is a diffuse hostile tension between individuals. Everyone is the real or potential competitor of everyone else. This situation is clearly apparent among members of the same occupational group, regardless of strivings to be fair or of attempts to camouflage by polite considerations. It must be emphasized, however, that competitiveness, and the potential hostility that accompanies it, pervades all human relationships. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21

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Competitiveness is one of the predominant factors in social relationships. It pervades the relationships between men and men, between women and women, and whether the point of competition be popularity, competence, attractiveness or any other social value it greatly impairs the possibilities of reliable friendship. It also, as already indicated, disturbs the relations between men and women, not only in the choice of the partner but in the entire struggle with one for superiority. It pervades school life. And perhaps most important of all, it pervades the family situation, so that as a rule the child is inoculated with this germ from the very beginning. The rivalry between father and son, mother and daughter, one child and another, is not a general human phenomenon but is the response to culturally conditioned stimuli. It remains one of Dr. Freud’s great achievements to have seen the role of rivalry in the family, as expressed in his concept of the Oedipus complex and in other hypotheses. It must be added, however, that this rivalry itself is not biologically conditioned but is a result of given cultural condition and, furthermore, that the family situation is not the only one to stir up rivalry, but that the competitive stimuli are active from the cradle to the grave. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21

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The potential hostile tension between individuals results in a constant generation of fear—fear of the potential hostility of others, reinforced by a fear of retaliation for hostilities of one’s own. Another important source of fear in the normal individual is the prospect of failure. The fear of failure is a realistic one because, in general, the chances of failing are much greater than those of succeeding, and because failures in a competitive society entail a realistic frustration of needs. They mean not only economic insecurity, but also loss of prestige and all kinds of emotional frustrations. Another reason why success is such a fascinating phantom is its effect on out self-esteem. It is not only by others that we are valued accord to the degree of our success; willy-nilly our own self-evaluation follows the same pattern. According to existing ideologies success is due to our own intrinsic merits, or in religious terms, is a visible sign of the grace of God; in reality it is dependent on a number of factors independent of our control—fortuitous circumstances, unscrupulousness, and the like. Nevertheless, under the pressure of the existing ideology, even the most normal person is constrained to feel that one amounts to something when successful, and is worthless if one is defeated. Needless to say, this presents a shaky basis for self-esteem. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21

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All these factors together—competitiveness and its potential hostilities between fellow-beings, fears, diminished self-esteem—result psychologically in the individual feeling that one is isolated. Even when one has many contacts with others, even when one is happily married, one is emotionally isolated. Emotional isolation is hard for anyone to endure; it becomes a calamity, however, if it coincides with apprehensions and uncertainties about one’s self. It is this situation which provokes, in the normal individual of our time, an intensified need for affection as a remedy. Obtaining affection makes one feel less isolated, less threatened by hostility and less uncertain of oneself. Because it corresponds to a vital need, love is overvalued in our culture. It becomes a phantom—like success—carrying with it the illusion that it is a solution for all problems. Love itself is not an illusion—although in our culture it is most often a screen for satisfying wishes that have nothing to do with it—but it is made an illusion by our expecting much more of it than it can possibly fulfill. And the ideological emphasis that we place on love serves to cover up the factors which create our exaggerated need for it. Hence the individual—and I still mean the normal individual—is in the dilemma of needing a great deal of affection but finding difficulty in obtaining it. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21

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The situation thus far represents a fertile ground for the development of neuroses. The same cultural factors that affect the normal person—leading one toward a shaky self-esteem, potential hostile tension, apprehensiveness, competitiveness entailing fear and hostility, enhanced need for satisfactory personal relations—affect the neurotic to a higher degree and in one the same results are merely intensified—a crushed self-esteem, destructiveness, anxiety, enhanced competitiveness entailing anxiety and destructive impulses, and excessive need for affection. When we remember that in every neurosis there are contradictory tendencies which the neurotic is unable to reconcile, the question arises as to whether there are not likewise certain definite contradictions in our culture, which underlie the typical neurotic conflicts. It would be the task of the sociologist to study and describe these cultural contradictions. It must suffice for me to indicate briefly and schematically some of the main contradictory tendencies. The first contradiction to be mentioned is that between competition and success on the one hand, and humanly love and humility on the other. On the one hand everything is done to spur us toward success, which means that we must be not only assertive but aggressive, able to push others out of the way. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21

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On the other hand we are deeply imbued with Christian ideals which declare that it is selfish to want anything for ourselves, that we should be humble, turn the other cheek, by yielding. For this contradiction there are only two solutions within the normal range: to take one of these strivings seriously and discard the other; or to take both seriously with the result that the individual is seriously inhibited in both directions. The second contradiction is that between the stimulation of our needs and our factual frustrations in satisfying them. For economic reasons needs are constantly being stimulated in our cultural by such means as advertisements, “conspicuous consumption,” the ideal of “keeping up with Hiltons.” For the great majority, however, the actual fulfillment of these needs is closely restricted. They psychic consequences for the individual is a constant discrepancy between one’s desires and their fulfillment. Another contradiction exists between the alleged freedom of the individual and all one’s factual limitations. The individual is told by society that one is free, independent, can decide one’s life according to one’s own free will; “the great game of life” is open to one, and one can get what one wants if one is efficient and energetic. In actual fact, for the majority of people all these possibilities are limited. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21

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What has been said facetiously of the impossibility of choosing one’s parents can well be extended to life in general—choosing and succeeding in an occupation, choosing ways of recreation, choosing a mate. The result for the individual is a wavering between a feeling of boundless power in determining one’s own fate and a feeling of entire helplessness. These contradictions embedded in our culture are precisely the conflict which the neurotic struggles to reconcile: one’s tendencies toward aggressiveness and one’s tendencies toward yielding; one’s excessive demands and one’s fear of never getting anything; one’s striving toward self-aggrandizement and one’s feeling of personal helplessness. The difference from the normal is merely quantitative. While the normal person is able to cope with the difficulties without damage to one’s personality, in the neurotic all the conflicts are intensified to a degree that makes any satisfactory solution impossible. It seems that the person who is likely to become neurotic is one who has experienced the culturally determined difficulties in an accentuated form, mostly through the medium of childhood experiences, and who has consequently been unable to solve them, or has solved them only at great cost to one’s personality. We might call one a stepchild of our culture. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21

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The individual’s “own” group, then, may inform the code of conduct professionals advocate for one. The stigmatized individual is also asked to see oneself from the point of view of a second grouping: the normals and the wider society that they constitute. I want to consider at some length the shadow cast by this second standpoint. The language of this stance inspired by normals is not so much political, as in the previous case, as it is psychiatric—the imagery of mental hygiene being employed as a source of rhetoric. One who adheres to the advocated line is said to be mature and to have achieved a good personal adjustment; one who does not follow the line is said to be an impaired person, rigid, defensive, with inadequate inner resources. What does this advocacy involved? The individual is advised to see oneself as fully human being like anyone else, one who at worst happens to be excluded from what is, in the last analysis, merely one area of social life. One is not a type or a category, but a human being: Who said that the physically disabled are unfortunate? Do they, or do you? Just because they cannot dance? All music has to stop sometime anyway. Just because they cannot play tennis? Lots of times the Sun is too hot! Just because you have to help them down the stairs? Is there something else you would rather do? #RandolphHarris 8 of 21

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Polio is not sad—it is just darned inconvenient—it means you cannot have those fits of temper and run into your room and kick the door shut any more. Disabled is an awful word. It specifies! It sets apart! It is too intimate! It is condescending! It makes me want to vomit like a wiggling creature coming out of the cocoon. Since one’s affliction is nothing in itself, one should not be ashamed of it or of others who have it; nor should one compromise oneself by trying to conceal it. On the other hand, by hard work and persistent self-training one should fulfill ordinary standards as fully as one can, stopping short only when the issue of normifcation arises; that is, where one’s efforts might give the impression that one is trying to deny one’s differentness. (This very fine line is drawn differently, of course, by different professionals, but because of this ambiguity it needs professional presentation all the more.) And because normals have their troubles, too, the stigmatized individual should not feel bitter, resentful, or self-pitying. A cheerful, outgoing manner should be cultivated. A formula for handling normals follows logically. The skills that the stigmatized individual acquires in dealing with a mixed social situation should be used to help the others in it. Normals really mean no harm; when they do, it is because they do not know better. They should therefore be tactfully helped to act nicely. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21

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Slights, snubs, and untactful remarks should not be answered in kind. Either no notice should be taken or the stigmatized individual should make an effort at sympathetic re-education of the normal, showing one, point for point, quietly, and with delicacy, that in spite of appearances the stigmatized individual is, underneath it all, a fully-human being. (So complete is the individual’s derivation from society, that society can rely on those who are the least accepted as normal members, the least rewarded by the pleasures of easy social intercourse with others, to provide a statement, clarification, and tribute to the inward being of every human. The more the stigmatized individual deviates from the norm, the more wonderfully one may have to express possession of the standard subjective self if one is to convince others that on possesses, it and the more they may demand that one provide them with a model of what an ordinary person is supposed to feel about oneself.) When the stigmatizes person finds that normals have difficulty in ignoring one’s failings, one should try to help them and the social situation by conscious efforts to reduce tension. In these circumstances the stigmatized individual may, for example, attempt to “break the ice,” explicitly referring to one’s failing in a way that shows one is detached, able to take one’s condition in stride. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21

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In addition to matter-of-factness, levity is also recommended: “Then there was the cigarette gag. That was invariably god for a laugh. Whenever I would walk into a restaurant, bar, or party, I would whip out a pack of butts, open it ostentatiously, take one, light it, and sit back puffing on it contentedly. That almost always attracted attention. People would stare and I could almost hear them saying, My! Is it not wonderful what he can do with a pair of hooks? Whenever anyone commented on this accomplishment I would smile and say ‘There is one thing I never have to worry about. That is burning my fingers.’ Corny, I know, but a sure icebreaker.” It should be noted that one who attempts to break the ice may, of course, be seen as exploiting the situation for what can be wrung from it, as novelists have pointed out. However, being able to break the ice, one may be demonstrating to oneself that one has superior control in the situation. A somewhat sophisticated female patient whose face had been scarred by a beauty treatment felt it effective upon entering a room of people to say facetiously, “Please excuse the case of leprosy.” It is also suggested that the stigmatized individual in mixed company may find it useful to refer to one’s disability and one’s group in the language one employs when with one’s own, and the language employed about one when normals are among their own—thus proffering the normals present a temporary status as wise one. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21

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At other times one may find it appropriate to conform to “disclosure etiquette” and introduce one’s failing as a topic of serious conversation, in this way hoping to reduce its significance as a topic of suppressed concern: The injured man’s feeling that, as a person, one is not understood, combined with the non-injured person’s embarrassment in one’s presence, produced a strained, uncomfortable relationship which further serves to separate them. To relieve this social strain and gain greater acceptance, the injured person may not only be willing to satisfy the expressed curiosity of non-injured persons…but may also oneself initiate discussions of the injury. Other means of helping the others to be tactful toward one are also recommended, such as, in the case of facial disfigurements, pausing on the threshold of an encounter so the participants-to-be will have a chance to compose their response. A 37-year-old male whose face is grossly disfigured but who carries on a real estate business, “When I have an appointment with a new contact, I try to manage to be standing at a distance and facing the door, so the person entering will have more time to see me and get adjusted to my appearance before we start talking.” #RandolphHarris 12 of 21

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The stigmatized individual is also advised to act as if the efforts of normals to ease matters for one were effective and appreciated. Unsolicited offers of interest, sympathy, and help, although often perceived by the stigmatized as an encroachment on privacy and a presumption, are to be tactfully accepted: “Yet, help is not only a problem to those who render it. If the disabled individual wants the ice to be broken, one must admit the value of help and allow people to give it to one. Innumerable times I have seen the fear and bewilderment in people’s eyes vanish as I have stretched out my hand for help, and I have felt life and warmth stream from the helping hands I have taken. We are not always aware of the help we may give b accepting assistance, that in this way we may establish a foothold for contact.” A polio patient author states a similar theme: “When my neighbours ring my bell on a snowy day to inquire if I need something from the store, even though I am prepared for bad weather I try to think up some item rather than reject a generous offer. It is kinder to accept help than refuse it in an effort to prove independence.” And similarly, an amputee: “A lot of amputees sort of humour the others to make them feel good because they are doing something for you. It does not make other people uncomfortable like it could if you were still standing up.” #RandolphHarris 13 of 21

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The call, properly done, is a call from God who is inviting us corporately into His presence. We listen to God’s works with reverent, prayerful anticipation. As the call ends, we are led in an invocation which invites God to meet us and calls us to submit ourselves in worship, for His glory. When God stands before us, we stand before Him. Refusing to worship Him is a way of trying to avoid his face and his eyes. Even the One-and-a half-year-old Annie was enjoying water in the back yard with her brother Leo, and grandmother “Boomba.” Boomba gently counseled her to water the peonies, but she had just discovered mud by pouring water on a small patch of dirt. Boomba told her not to put water on the dirt because it makes mud and mud will “get everything dirty.” Well, mud it was anyway, and little Annie even put the mud into a small tub of water nearby, calling it then “warm chocolate,” and she ate some. Boomba, who had been reading facing away from the action, soon discovered and cleaned up what to her was a mess, and then returned to her reading, but now seated so as to be facing Annie. However, the little girl soon resumed her “warm chocolate” routine, saying sweetly, “Do not look at me, Boomba. Okay?” Boomba of course agreed, and looked down at her reading. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21

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Then Annie would make black mud and put some of it in the tub. And then some more. Three times she said, as she continued with her work, “Do not look at me, Boomba. Okay?” The tender soul of a little child shows us how necessary it is to us that we unobserved in our wrong. The adult soul carries the same burden—but now so great as to be crushed by it. And when the face of God will no longer be avoidable, that soul will cry out in agony “to the mountains and to the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face Him who sits on the throne,’” reports Revelation 6.15-16. The so-called “right to privacy” of which so much is made in contemporary life is in very large measure merely a way of avoiding scrutiny in our wrongdoing. King Benjamin addresses his people—he recounts the equity, fairness, and spirituality of his reign—he counsels them to serve their Heavenly King—those who rebel against God will suffer anguish like unquenchable fire. About 124 Before Christ. “And it came to pass that after Mosiah had done as his father had commanded him, and had made a proclamation throughout all the and, that the people gathered themselves together throughout all the land, that they might go up to the temple to hear the words which king Benjamin should speak unto them. And there were a great number, even so many that they did not number them; for they had multiplied exceedingly and waxed great in the land. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21

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“And they also took the firstlings of their flocks, that they might offer sacrifice and burnt offerings according to the law of Moses; and also that they might give thanks to the Lord their God, who had brought them out of the land of Jerusalem, and who had delivered them out of the hands of their enemies, and had appointed just humans to be their teachers, and also a just man to be their kind, who had established peace in the land of Zarahemla, and who had taught them to keep the commandments of God, that they might rejoice and be filled with love towards God and all humans. And it came to pass that when they came up to the temple, they pitched their tents round about, every human according to one’s family, consisting of one’s wife, and one’s sons, and one’s daughters, and their sons, and their daughters, from the eldest down to the youngest, every family being separate one from another. And they pitched their tents round about the temple, every human having one’s tent with the door there of towards the temple, that thereby they might remain in their tents and hear the words which king Benjamin should speak unto them; for the multitude being so great that king Benjamin could not teach them all within the walls of the temple, therefore he caused a tower to be erected, that thereby his people might hear the words which he should speak unto them. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21

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“And it came to pass that he began to speak to his people from the tower; and they could not all hear his words because of the greatness of the multitude; therefore he caused that the words which he spake should be written and sent forth among those that were not under the sound of his voice, that they might also receive his words. And these are the words which he spake and caused to be written, saying: My brethren, all ye that have assembled yourselves together, you that can hear my words which I shall speak unto you this day; for I have not commanded you to come up hither to trifle with the words which I shall speak, but that you should hearken unto me, and open your ears that ye may hear, and your hears that ye may understand, and your minds that the mysteries of God maybe unfolded to your view. I have not commanded you to come up hither that ye should fear me, or that ye should think that I of myself am more than a mortal man. However, I am like as yourselves, subject to all manner of infirmities in body and mind; yet I have been chosen by this people, and consecrated by my father, and was suffered by the hand of the Lord that I should be a ruler and a king over this people; and have been kept and preserved by his matchless power to serve you with all the might, mind and strength which the Lord hath grated unto me. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21

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“I say unto you that as I have been suffered to spend my days in your service, even up to this time, and have not sought gold nor sliver nor any manner of riches of you; neither have I suffered that ye should be confined in dungeons, nor that ye should make slaves of one another, nor that ye should murder, or plunder, or steal, or commit adultery; nor even have I suffered that ye should commit any manner of wickedness, and have taught you that ye should keep the commandments of the Lord, in all things which he hath commanded you—and even I, myself, have labored with mine own hands that I might serve you, and that ye should not be laden with taxes, and that there should nothing come upon you which was grievous to be borne—and of all these things which I have spoken, ye yourselves are witnesses this day. Yet, my brethren, I have not done these things that I might boast, neither do I tell these things that thereby I might accuse you; but I tell you these things that ye may know that I can answer a clear conscience before God this day. Behold, I say unto you that because I said unto you that I had spent my days in your service, I do not desire to boast, for I have only been in the service of God. And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21

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“Behold, ye have called me your king; and if I, whom ye call your king, do labor to serve you, then ought not ye to labor to serve one another? And behold also, if I, whom ye call your king, who has spent his days in your service, and yet has been in the service of God, do merit any thanks from you, O how you ought to thank your Heavenly King! I say unto you, my brethren, that is you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another—I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting your from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants. And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21

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“And now, in the first place, he hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto him. And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he had paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast? Thou God of my end, Thou hast given me a fixed disposition to go forth and spend my life for Thee; if it by Thy will let me proceed in it; if not, then revoke my intentions. All I want in life is such circumstances as may best enable me to serve Thee in the World; to this end I leave all my concerns in Thy hand, but let me not be discouraged, for this hinders my spiritual fervency; enable me to undertake some task for Thee, for this refreshes and animates my soul, so that I could endure all hardships and labours, and willingly suffer for Thy name. However, O what a death it is to strive and labour, to be always in a hurry and yet do nothing! Alas, time flies and I am of little use. O that I could be a flame of fire in Thy service, always burning out in one continual blaze. Please fit me for singular usefulness in the World. Please fit me to exult in distresses of every kind if they but promote the advancement of Thy kingdom. Fit me to quit all hopes of the World’s friendship, and give me a deeper sense of my sinfulness. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21

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Please fit me to accept as just desert from Thee any trial that may befall me. Please fit me to be totally resigned to the denial of pleasures I desire, and to be content to spend m time with Thee. Please fit me to pray with a sense of the joy of divine communion, to find all times happy seasons to my soul, to see my own nothingness, and wonder that I am allowed to serve Thee. Please fit me to enter the blessed World where no unclean thing is, and to know Thee with me always. May the holy Food and Drink be salutary to us, O Lord; may it fortify our temporal life, and give us life eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord. O God, Who touchest us in the participation of Thy Sacrament, work out in our hearts the effects of its power, that through Thy Gift itself we may be fitted for the reception of the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. May the Heavenly Mystery, O Lord, be to us a renewal of soul and body; and as we have gone through the performance of it, may we feel its effect, through Jesus Christ our Lord. We thank Thee, O Lord, Who refreshest us both with the partaking of the Heavenly Sacrament and with the solemn remembrance of Thy righteous servants, through Jesus Christ our Lord. May the vices of our hearts be overcome by this Medicine, which came to heal the diseases of our mortal nature. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21

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This #PlumasRanch laundry room makes our heads spin with all that storage! 😍
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Check out the interactive floor plans and virtual tours for this community on our website. Link in bio! https://cresleigh.com/cresleigh-riverside-at-plumas-ranch/
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Almighty and everlasting God, preserve the works of Thy mercy, and pour into our hearts the sweetness of the Body and Blood of Thine Only-begotten Son Jesus Christ our Lord. #CresleighHomes

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The People Will Live on—The Learning and Blundering People Will Live on!

ImageMany people experience emotional states they cannot understand and identify. They often wonder at the intensity, origin, explanation, and duration of emotions. They also worry about what they might do as a result of these emotions. They may even questions whether the emotions are “normal” or not. Of course, his happens to all of us at times. It is one of the risks of being thinking, sensitive people. We begin questioning, analyzing our own experiences. We also categorize them, because that is what our rationalistic, scientific society expects. And when we cannot find a neat explanation or pigeonhole for a particular experience, we either bend it to fit another category, deny it, repress it, or project it onto somebody else (“I am not angry; you are!!”). If we cannot do any of these things because we are too honest with ourselves, we may conclude that the feeling is a bad one or a “sick” one. However, we do not have to become the privileged, personal disciple of such a self-actualized individual to benefit by them. If we have met one only once, for however short a time, merely to think of one helps us and merely to know of one’s presence in this World cheers us. Those who are sensitive enough to be able to do so, become by faith and sympathy shares in one’s own divine perception of the World. However, whereas theirs is a glimpse, the self-actualized is abiding. #RandolphHarris 1 of 24

ImageIf one is intuitively directed to do so or is charged with a mission involving others, the person who dwells in this light may transmit it to those who are receptive. However, if others are hostile to it, there will be no felt result or perhaps even an uneasiness in its presence. This is a service of transmission or Grace, although not to be regarded as arbitrarily or capriciously given. When one penetrates to the still center of one’s being, the thoughts of this and that subside, either to a low ebb or into a temporary non-existence. Since thoughts express themselves in language, when they are inactive speech become inactive too. What one feels is quite literally to deep for thoughts. One falls into perfect silence. Yet it is not an empty silence. Something is present in it, some power which one can direct toward another human and which that human can feel and absorb temporarily—to whatever extent one is capable—if or when one is in a relaxed and receptive mood.  If both are physically present, in total silence and bodily stillness, the communication will best take place because that is a state of transformative prayer. People react differently to one’s presence but only a few react rightly. Those are the ones with whom one has a spiritual affinity, and a prenatal link. #RandolphHarris 2 of 24

ImageAssociation with or proximity to such a being not only brings out what is best in them but also, when it ends, invokes the reaction of what is worst. Deliberative democracy models often seem to subject to the argument that they do not protect individual’s basic rights and liberties sufficiently. This objection is rooted in two assumptions: first, insofar as deliberative models appear to make a high degree of consensus or unanimity of public issues a value, it is fair to suspect that such unanimity could only be attained at the cost of silencing dissent and curtailing minority viewpoints. Second, what protection does a deliberative model allow against the tyranny of democratic majorities from imposing its choices and norms upon the minority? When raised against most versions of radical participatory democratic theories that also prioritize political deliberation, I believe that these objections are fair. I think it is fair to ask whether the radical democratic theories of Hannah Arendt, Benjamin Barber, or Mouffe and Laclau allow for a coherent theory of rights such as would protect both basic rights and liberties for all, and defend minority rights against the tyranny of the majority. However, such objections are not applicable to the model of deliberative democracy developed here. #RandolphHarris 3 of 24

ImagePrecisely because I share with the Kantian liberal tradition the assumption that moral respect for the autonomous personality is a fundamental normal of morality and democracy, the deliberative model of democracy presupposes a discourse theory of ethics to suppl it with the most general moral principles upon which rights claims would be based. Insofar as a discourse theory of ethics considers participants to be equal and free beings, equally entitled to take part in those discourses which determine the norms that are to affect their lives, it proceeds from a view of persons as beings entitled to certain “moral rights.” I have named this moral right the entitlement to universal moral respect, and have attempted in Situating the Self to give a nonfoundationalist but principled justification for the recognition of this norm. I further maintain that within a discourse theory each individual has the same symmetrical rights to various speech acts, to initiate new topics, to ask for reflection about the presupposition of the conversation, and so on. I call this principle of egalitarian reciprocity. In my view the norms of universal moral respect and egalitarian reciprocity are moral rights in that they are entitlements that accrue to individuals insofar as we view them as moral persons. The step that would lead from a recognition of these two moral rights to the formulation of a principle of basic rights and liberties is certainly not very wide. #RandolphHarris 4 of 24

ImageBasically, it would involve a hypothetical answer to the questions, If it is plausible for individuals to view one another as beings entitled to universal moral respect and egalitarian reciprocity, which most general principles of basic rights and liberties would such individuals also be likely to accept as determining the conditions of their collective existence? Although the discourse theory shares this kind of hypothetical and counter-factual moral reasoning procedure with Kant and Rawls, it would be different from a Kantian deduction of the concept of right and from Rawlsian construction of the “original position,” in that it would privilege a discourse model of practical debate as being the appropriate forum for determining rights claims. However, are we not thereby landing in a vicious circle, that is, discourses, even to get started, presuppose the recognition of one another’s moral rights among discourse participants; on the other hand, such rights are said to be specified as a result of the discursive situation. I have indicated elsewhere that this is not a vicious circle but rather the hermeneutic circle that characterizes all reasoning about morals and politics. We never begin our deliberations concerning these matters at a “moral ground zero.” #RandolphHarris 5 of 24

ImageRather, in moral theory as in everyday morality, in political theory as in everyday political discourse, we are always situated within a horizon of presuppositions, assumptions, and power relations, the totality of which can never become wholly transparent to us. This much we must have learned from all the criticisms of rationalism in the last three centuries. Discourse ethics in this sense presupposes the reciprocal moral recognition of one another’s claims to be participants in the oral political dialogue. I am still enough of a Hegelian to maintain, however, that such reciprocal recognition of one another’s rights to moral personality is a result of a World-historical process that involves struggle, battle and resistance, as well as defeat, carried out by social classes, genders, groups, and nations. What is distinctive about the discourse model is that although it presupposes that participants must recognize one another’s entitlement to moral respect and reciprocity in some sense, the determination of the precise content and extent of these principles would be a consequence of discourses themselves. Insofar as the precise meaning and entailment of the norms of universal moral respect and egalitarian reciprocity would be the subject to discursive validation, we can speak here of a procedure of “recursive validation.” #RandolphHarris 6 of 24

ImageThe methodological procedure of recursive validation rules out the two consequences most feared by liberals vis-à-vis the model of deliberative democracy—namely, too strong a formulation of the conditions of consent, and the tyranny of the majority. The norms of universal moral respect and egalitarian reciprocity allow marginalized groups and dissenters both the right to withhold their assent and the right to challenge the rules as well as the agenda of public debate. For what distinguishes discoruses from compromises and other agreements reached under conditions of coercion is that only the freely given assent of all concerned can count as a condition of having reached agreement in the discourse situation. A sharp distinction has been drawn between the situation of the discredited with tension to manage and the situation of the discreditable with information to manage. The stigmatized employ an adaptive technique, however, which requires the student to bring together two possibilities. The difference between visibility and obtrusiveness is involved. It is a fact that persons who are ready to admit possession of a stigma (in many cases because it is known about or immediately apparent) may nonetheless make a great effort to keep the stigma from looming large. #RandolphHarris 7 of 24

ImageThe individual’s object is to reduce tension, that is, to make it easier for oneself and the others to withdraw covert attention from the stigma, and to sustain spontaneous involvement in the official content of the interaction. However, the means employed for this task are quite similar to those employed in passing-and in some cases identical, since what will conceal a stigma from unknowing persons may also ease matters for those in the know. It is thus that a girl who gets around best on her artificial leg employs crutches or an artful but patently artificial limb when in company. This process will be referred to as covering.  Many of those who rarely try to pass, routinely try to cover. One type of covering involves the individual in a concern over the standards incidentally associated with one’s stigma. Thus the visually impaired, who sometimes have a facial disfigurement in the region of the eyes, distinguish among themselves according to whether this is the case of not dark glasses sometimes worn to give voluntary evidence of blindness may at the same time be worn to cover evidence of defacement—a case of revealing unsightedness while concealing unsightliness. #RandolphHarris 8 of 24

ImageThe blind, in all conscience, have enough advertisement of their condition without adding a cosmetic factor to it. I can think of nothing that would add so much to the tragedy of a blind person’s position as the feeling that, in the fight to regain one’s vision, one had lost not only the fight but the wholesomeness of one’s appearance as well. Similarly, since blindness ca lead to the appearance of clumsiness, there may occur a special effort to re-learn motor propriety, an “ease and grace of adeptness at all those motions which the sighted World looks upon as ‘normal.’ A related type of covering involves an effort to restrict the display of those failings most centrally identified with the stigma. The most interesting expression of covering, perhaps, is that associated with the organization of social situations. As already suggested, anything which interferes directly with the etiquette and mechanics of communication obtrudes itself constantly into the interaction and is difficult to disattend genuinely. Hence individual with a stigma, especially those with a physical disability, if they are to minimize the obtrusiveness of their stigma, may have to learn about the structure of interaction in order to learn about the lines along which they must reconstitute their conduct. From their efforts, then, one can learn about features of interaction that might otherwise be to much taken for granted to be noted. #RandolphHarris 9 of 24

ImageFor example, if the properties are to be maintained, the hard of hearing learn to talk with the degree of loudness that listeners feel is appropriate for the situation, and also to be ready to deal with those junctures during interaction that specifically require good hearing. Frances figured out elaborate techniques to cope with “dinner lulls,” intermissions at concerts, football games, dances, and so on, in order to protect her secret. However, they served only to make her more uncertain, and in turn more cautious, and in turn more uncertain. Thus, Frances had it down pat that at a dinner party she should (1) sit next to someone with a strong voice; (2) if someone asked her a direct question, choke, cough, or get hiccups; (3) take hold of the conversation herself, ask someone to tell a story she had already heard, ask questions the answers to which she already knew. Similarly, the blind sometimes learn to look directly at the speaker even though this looking accomplishes no seeing, for it prevents the blind from staring off into space or hanging the head or otherwise unknowingly violating the code regarding attention cues through which spoken interaction is organized. When it comes to examining the subjective value of a particular trend, the individual oneself will often be eager to volunteer information. #RandolphHarris 10 of 24

ImageOne may point out that one’s rebellion and defiance against authority or against anything resembling coercion were necessary and indeed lifesaving, since otherwise one would have been submerged by a dominating parent; that notions of superiority helped or still help to keep one going in the face of one’s lack of self-respect; that one’s detachment or one’s “do not-care” attitude protects one from being hurt. It is true that associations of this kind come forth in a spirit of defense, but they are also revealing. They tell us something about the reasons why the particular attitude was acquired in the first place, thereby showing us its historical value and giving us a better understanding of the individual’s development. However, over and beyond this, they lead the way to an understanding of the present functions of the trend. From the standpoint of therapy these are the functions of prime interests. No neurotic trend or conflict is merely a relic from the past—a habit, as it were, that once established keeps persisting. We can be sure that it is determined by stringent necessities within the existing character structure. The mere knowledge of why a neurotic peculiarity developed originally can only be of secondary value, since what we must change are the forces that operate at present. #RandolphHarris 11 of 24

ImageFor the most part, the subjective value of any neurotic position lies in its counterbalancing some other neurotic tendency. A thorough comprehension of these values, therefore, will provide an indication of how to proceed in any particular instance. If, for example, we are aware that an individual cannot relinquish one’s feeling of omnipotence because it permit one to mistake one’s potentialities for realities, one’s glorious projects for actual accomplishments, we shall know that we must examine the extent to which one lives this way in order to ensure oneself against failure, our attention will be directed toward the factors that lead one not only to anticipate failure but to be in constant dread of it. The most important therapeutic step is to bring the individual to see the reverse side of the medal: the incapacitating efforts of one’s neurotic drives and conflicts. Some of this work will have been covered during the preceding steps; but it is essential that the picture be complete in all its detail. Only then will the individual actually feel the need of changing. In view of the fact that every neurotic is driven to maintain he status quo, an incentive powerful enough to outweigh the delaying forces is required. Such an incentive, however, can come only from one’s desire for inner freedom, happiness, and growth, and from the realization that every neurotic difficulty stands in the way of its fulfillment. #RandolphHarris 12 of 24

ImageThus is one tends toward derogatory self-criticism one must see how his dissipates one’s self-respect and leaves one without hope; how it makes one feel unwanted, compelling one to suffer abuse, which in turn causes one to be vindictive; how it paralyzes one’s incentive and ability to work; how, in order to keep from falling into the abyss of self-contempt, one is forced into defensive attitudes like self-aggrandizement, remoteness from oneself, and feelings of unreality about oneself, so perpetuating one’s neurosis. Similarly, when a particular conflict has become visible during the analytical process, the individual must be made aware of its influence upon one’s life. In the case of a conflict between self-effacing tendencies and a need for triumph, all the cramping inhibition inherent in inverted sadism must be understood. The individual must see how one responds to ever self-effacing move with self-contempt, and with rage at the person before whom one cringes; and how, on the other hand, one responds to every attempt to triumph over someone with horror of oneself and a fear of retaliation. It sometimes happens that an individual, even when one become aware of the whole range of adverse consequences, shows no interest in overcoming the particular neurotic attitude. Instead, the problem seems to fade out of the picture. Almost imperceptibly one shoes it aside and nothing is gained. #RandolphHarris 13 of 24

ImageIn view of the fact that one has seen all the harm one inflicts upon oneself, one’s lack of response is remarkable. Nevertheless, unless the analyst is very astute in recognizing this kind of reaction, the individual’s lack of interest may pass unnoticed. The individual takes up another subject, the analyst follows one, until they arrive again at a similar impasse. Only must later will the analyst become away of the fact that the changes that have taken place in the individual are not commensurate with the amount of work done. If the analyst knows that a reaction of this kind can occasionally be expected, one will ask oneself what factor at work within the individual present one from accepting the fact that the particular attitude with its train of harmful consequences must be changed. One’s drive to triumph over the analyst, to frustrate one, to let one make a fool of oneself, may be stronger than one’s self-interest. One’s tendency to externalize may still be so great that in spite of one’s recognition of the consequences one cannot apply the insight to oneself. One’s need to feel omnipotent may still be so strong that even though one sees the consequences as inevitable one marks a mental reservation that one will be able to get around them. #RandolphHarris 14 of 24

ImageOne’s idealized image may still be so rigid that one cannot accept oneself with any neurotic attitudes or conflicts. One will then merely rage against oneself and feel that one ought to be able to master the particular difficulty simply because one is cognizant of it. It is important to be aware of these possibilities, because if the factors that choke the individual’s incentive to change are overlooked, the analysis can easily degenerate into mania psycholgica, a psychology for psychology’s sake. Brining the individual to accept oneself under these circumstances constitutes a distinct gain. Even though nothing in the conflict itself has undergone change, one will have a profound sense of relief and will begin to show signs of wanting to disentangle the web in which one is caught. Once this favourable condition for work has been established, changes will soon begin to occur. However, the Lord is trying to help us—all of us—get His gospel deeper in our hearts. We are no expected to find or walk this covenant path alone. We need love and support from parents, other family members, friends, and leaders who are also walking the path. These kinds of relationships take time. Time to be together. Time to laugh, play, learn, and serve together. Time to appreciate each other’s interests and challenges. Time to be open an honest with each other as we strive to be better together. #RandolphHarris 15 of 24

ImageThese relationships are one of the primary purposes of father families, quorums, classes, and congregations. They are the foundation for effective ministering. To effectively serve others we must see them through the Heavenly Father’s eyes. Only then can we begin to comprehend the true worth of a soul. Only then can we sense the love that Heavenly Father has for all His children. Seeing others as God does it a gift. I invite all of us to seek for this gift. As our eyes are opened to see, we will also be able to help others see themselves as God does. What will matter most is what others learn from you about who they really are and what they can really become. My guess is that they will not learn it so much from simply lectures. They will get it from feelings of who you are, who you think they might become. Helping others understand their true identity and purpose is one of the greatest gifts we can give. Seeing others and ourselves as God does knits our hearts together in unity and love. With ever-increasing secular forces pulling at us, we need the strength that comes from loving relationships. So as we plan activities, meetings, and other gatherings, let us remember an overarching purpose of these gatherings is to build loving relationships that unite us and help us get the gospel of Jesus Christ deeper in our hearts. #RandolphHarris 16 of 24

ImageBecome suspicious of any attempts to make the concept of symbols all-embracing and therefore meaningless. What then is the unsymbolic statemen that makes symbolic knowledge possible? It is that God is being-itself and as such beyond the subject-object structure of everything that is. It is interesting that symbols are irreducible experiences. A symbol does not only point to something else; it also participates in it. One should say that every statement about God is symbolic; but one should add that, inasmuch as it is symbolic, it precisely orients towards a non-symbolic reality immediately experiences. To say that God is the Infinite, or the Unconditional, or Being-itself is no longer presented as a non-symbolic statement. Rather, these terms precisely designate the boundary-line at which both the symbolic and the non-symbolic coincide. The unity we seek is to be one in Christ, to connect ourselves with Him. To connect our hears with Heaven, we need individual spiritual experiences. Those experiences come as the Holy Ghost carries the word and love of God to our mind and heart. This revelation comes through the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon; through inspired words of living prophets and other faithful disciples; and through the sill, small voice. #RandolphHarris 17 of 24

ImageThese words are more than ink on a page, sound waves in our ears, thoughts in our minds, of feelings in our hearts. The word of God is spiritual power. It is truth and light. It is how we hear Him! The word initiates and increases our faith in Christ and fuels within us a desire to become more like the Saviour—that is, to repent and walk the covenant path. A symbol is therefore not a mere sign. A sign points to a meaning with which it has no intrinsic connection. It is an agreed, conventional way of saying something. Highway codes are made of signs, not of symbols. A symbol on the contrary has characteristics that distinguish it from a sign. First, a symbol participates in that which it points. This is a consequence of the fact that it became a symbol in the midst of a revelatory situation. Its association with revelation has lingered, and this makes it still participate in the power of that which was revealed. The “beyond itself” to which it points is no other than the revelation that was then perceived. A second characteristic logically follows: it opens up levels of reality which otherwise are closed for us, namely those levels to which we were raised in the original revelatory experience. Thirdly, it not only opens up dimensions and elements of reality which otherwise remain unapproachable but also unlocks dimensions and elements of our soul which correspond to the dimensions and elements of reality. #RandolphHarris 18 of 24

ImageA revelation would be unperceived, unless we had the capacity to perceive it. And only in the revelatory experience itself do we gauge the depths of our soul. What we call “ecstasy” corresponds to “miracle.” The miracle is the correlation of elements having revelatory power. The ecstasy is the opening of the soul’s depth to the depths of the situation. Fourthly, symbols cannot be produced intentionally. This is a principle of tremendous importance. That a symbol cannot be invented is evident, once it has been defined by its participation in a revelation creates symbols of itself. This is important for defining the function of theology. Theology as such has neither the duty nor the power to confirm or to negate religious symbols. Its task is to interpret them according to theological principles and methods. The theologian cannot discard traditional Christian symbols; that they are symbols and, as such, endowed with divine power, is enough. This cuts to the ground from under much of liberal Protestantism and its rejection of Catholic symbols. Yet the theologian should criticize symbols: one may discover contradictions between symbols. One may also by one’s prophetic insight contribute to the surge of a new revelatory situation out of which new symbols will grow. The condemns the static character which some attribute to Catholic sacramentalism and Catholic theology. #RandolphHarris 19 of 24

ImageFifthly, symbols, like living beings, grow and die. They grow when the situation is ripe for them, and they die when the situation changes. This seems a difficult point to accept. It creates no problem with respect to artistic or social symbols. With religious symbols, however, a question arises. If these develop from revelatory situations, the revelation that gave them birth will always be a revelation. One may conceive that after years have passed it may have lost some power, that people will no longer fully perceive in what way this particular situation was revelatory. However, the fact will always remain that through these concrete symbols the Ultimate was once perceived. I admit that symbols have become latent and may be revived n favourable circumstances. Yet I maintain that religious symbols can undergo a disintegration, losing their symbolic power. When we choose the most symbolic action or repentance, we choose to change! We allow the Saviour to transform us into the best versions of ourselves. We choose to become more like Jesus Christ. This process of change, fueled by the word of God, is how we connect with Heaven. We must choose repentance for ourselves. The gospel cannot be forced into our hearts. #RandolphHarris 20 of 24

ImageOur Heavenly Father’s goal in parenting is not to have His children do what is right; it is to have His children choose what is right. We do this by receiving the word of God through the Holy Ghost and allowing Christ to change us into the best various of ourselves. “And now, behold, my brethren, as I said unto you that I would prophesy, behold, this is my prophecy—that the things which this prophet Zenos spake, concerning the house of Israel, in the which he likened them unto a tame olive tree, must surely come to pass. And the day that he shall set his hand again the second time to recover his people, is the day, yea, even the last time, that the servants of the Lord shall go forth in his divine power, to nourish and prune his vineyard; and after that the end soon cometh. And how blessed are they who have labored diligently in his vineyard; and how cursed are they who shall be cast out into their own place! And the World shall be burned with fire. And how merciful is our God unto us, for he remembereth the house of Israel, both roots and branches; and he stretches forth his hands unto them all the day long; and they are a stiffnecked and a gainsaying people; but as many as will not harden their hearts shall be saved in the kingdom of God. #RandolphHarris 21 of 24

Image“Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I beseech of your in words of soberness that ye would repent, and come with full purpose of heart, and cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you. And while his arm of mercy is extended towards you in the light of the day, harden not your hearts. Yea, today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts; for why will ye die? For behold, after ye have been nourished by the good word of God all the day long, will ye bring forth evil fruit, that ye must be hewn down and cast into the fire? Behold, will ye reject these words? Will ye reject the words of the prophets; and will ye reject all the words which have been spoken concerning Christ, after so many have spoken concerning him; and deny the good word of Christ, and the power of God, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, and make a mock of the great plan of redemption, which hath been laid for you? Know ye not that if ye will do these things, that the power of redemption and resurrection, which is in Christ, will bring you to stand with shame and awful guilt before the bar of God? And according to the power of justice, for justice cannot be denied, ye must go away into that lake of fire and brimstone, whose flames are unquenchable, and whose smoke ascendeth up forever and ever, which lake of fire and brimstone is endless torment. #RandolphHarris 22 of 24

Image“O then, my beloved brethren, repent ye, and enter in at the strait gate, and continue in the way which is narrow, until ye shall obtain eternal life. O be wise; what can I say more? Finally, I bid you farewell, until I shall meet you before the pleasing bar of God, which bar striketh the wicked with awful dread and fear. Amen,” reports Jacob 6.1-13. What a blessing, or what a praise, or what thanksgiving, can we render to Thee, O God, the Lover of humans, for that when we were cast away by the doom of death, and drowned in the depth of sin, Thou hast granted us freedom, and bestowed on us this immortal and Heavenly food, and manifested to us this Mystery hid from ages and generations? Grant us to understand this Thy supreme act of mercy, and the greatness of Thy benignity and Fatherly care for us. Heavenly Father, Thou has placed me in the church which Thy Son purchased by his own blood. Add grace to grace that I may live worthy of my vocation. I am a voyager across life’s ocean; safe in Heaven’s ark, may I pass through a troubled World into the harbour of eternal rest. I am a tree of the vineyard thou hast planted. Grant me not to be barren, with worthless leaves and wild grapes; prune me of useless branches; water me with dews of blessing. I am part of the Lamb’s bride, the church. #RandolphHarris 23 of 24

ImagePlease help me to be true, faithful, chaste, loving, pure, devoted; let no strong affection wantonly dally with the World. May I live high above a love of things temporal, sanctified, cleansed, unblemished, hallowed by grace, Thy love my fullness, Thy glory my joy, Thy precepts, my pathway, Thy cross my resting place. My heart is not always a flame of adorning love, but, resting in Thy Son’s redemption, I look forward to the days of Heaven, where no languor shall oppress, no iniquities chill, no miss of unbelief dim the eye, no zeal ever tires. Father, these thoughts are the stay, prop, and comfort of my soul. We want to live a life with Christ deep in our hearts, and engaged in our time and talents. If you choose to, if you want to, you can be a big part of something big, something grand, something majestic! You are among the best the Lord has ever sent to this World. You have the capacity to be smarter and wiser and have more impact on the World than any previous generations! God loves you. We are His people, engaged together in His holy work. We will see the Restoration move forward to its ultimate purpose, the redemption of Israel and the establishment of Zion, where Christ will reign as King of Kings. I testify that God continues to do all things necessary to prepare His people for that day. May we see His glorious work as we al strive to come unto Christ. #RandolphHarris 24 of 24Image

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ImagePlease lead us not into temptation, since we have been partkers of the holy Body and precious Blood. And we thank Thee that Thou hast made us meet communicants of the Mystery of glory and holiness which passeth all understandings. 

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Diary of the Seducer—Expecting Nothing of Life He Was Entirely Absorbed by the Game itself!

Capture27The deepest hunger in the American soul today is for something truly useful to do with one’s life. If, as in so often the case in America now, the end result is human exploitation, environmental destruction, or debasement of values, what values does work really have? What does it mean to be an adult? It means certain rights and privileges that do not belong to children and adolescents, for one thing. However, as for any such “fringe benefits,” there are dues to pay. These dues come in the form of responsibilities, obligations, and expectations of other individuals and society. Morality is based on individual rights and standards which have been critically examined and agreed upon by the whole society. A sharp distinction has been drawn between the situation of the discredited with tension to manage and the situation of the discreditable with information to manage. The stigmatized employ an adaptive technique, however, which requires the student to bring together these two possibilities. The difference between visibility and obtrusiveness is involved. It is a fact that persons who are ready to admit possession of stigma (in many cases because it is known about or immediately apparent) may nonetheless make a great effort to keep the stigma from looming large. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21

ImageThe individual’s object is to reduce tension, that is, to make it easier for oneself and the others to withdraw covert attention from the stigma, and to sustain spontaneous involvement in the official content of the interaction. However, the means employed for this task are quite similar to those employed in passing—and in some cases identical, since what will conceal a stigma from unknowing persons may also ease matters for those in the know. It is thus that a girl who gets around best on her artificial leg employs crutches or an artful but patently artificial limb when in company. This process will be referred to as covering. Many of these who rarely try to pass, routinely try to cover. One type of covering involves the individual in a concern over the standards incidentally associated with one’s stigma. Thus the visually impaired, who sometimes have a facial disfigurement in the region of the eyes, distinguish among themselves according to whether this is the case or not. Dark glasses sometimes worn to give voluntary evidence of blindness may at the same time be worn to cover evidence of defacement—a case revealing unsightedness while concealing unsightliness: The blind, in all conscience, have enough advertisement of their condition without adding a cosmetic factor to it. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21

ImageI think of nothing that would add so much to the tragedy of a blind man’s position as the feeling that, in the fight to regain his vision, he had lost not only the fight but the wholesomeness of his appearance as well. Similarly, since blindness can lead to the appearance of clumsiness, there may occur a special effort to re-learn motor propriety, an “ease and grace and adeptness at all those motions which the sighted World looks upon as ‘normal.’” A related type of covering involves an effort to restrict the display of those failings most centrally identified with the stigma. For example, a near-blind person who knows that the persons present know about one’s differentness may yet hesitate to read, because to do this one would have to bring the book up to a few inches of one’s eyes, and this one may feel expresses to glaringly the qualities of blindness. This type of covering, it should be noted, is an important aspect of the “assimilative” techniques employed by members of minority ethnic groups; the intent behind devices such as change in name and change in nose shape is not solely to pass, but also to restrict the way in which a known about attribute obtrudes itself into the center of attention, for obtrusiveness increases the difficulty of maintaining easeful inattention regarding the stigma. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21

ImageThe most interesting expression of covering, perhaps, is that associated with the organization of social situations. As already suggested, anything which interferes directly with the etiquette and mechanics of communication obtrudes itself constantly into the interaction and is difficult to disattend genuinely. Hence individuals with stigma, especially those with a physical disability, may have to learn about the structure of interaction in order to learn about the lines along which they must reconstitute their conduct if they are to minimize the obtrusiveness of their stigma. From the efforts, then, one can learn about features of interaction that might otherwise be too much taken for granted to be noted. For example, the hard of hearing learn to talk with the degree of loudness that listeners feel is appropriate for the situation, and also to be ready to deal with those junctures during interaction that specifically require hearing if the properties are to be maintained: Frances figure out elaborate techniques to cope with ‘dinner lulls,’ intermissions at concerts, football games, dances, and so on, in order to protect her secret. However, they served only to make her more uncertain, and in turn more cautious, and in turn more uncertain. Thus, Frances had it down pat that at a diner party she should sit next to someone with a strong voice; if someone asked her a direct question, choke, cough, or get hiccups; take hold of the conversation herself, ask someone to tell a story she had already heard, ask questions the answers to which she already knew. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21

ImageSimilarly, the blind sometimes learn to look directly at the speaker even though this looking accomplishes no seeing, for it prevents the blind from staring off into space or hanging the head or otherwise unknowingly violating the code regarding attention cues through which spoke interaction is organized. Now, let us consider some typical sadistic attitudes. We can best observe these in persons who are fairly uninhibited in expressing their sadistic tendencies toward others, whether they themselves are conscious of having such tendencies or not. When, in the following, I speak of a sadistic person, I mean a person whose attitudes toward others are predominantly sadistic. Such a person may want to enslave others or to enslave the partner in particular. One’s “victim” must be a superhuman’s slave, a creature not only without wishes, feelings, or initiative of one’s own but without any claims whatever upon the master. This tendency may take the form of molding or educating the victim, as Professor Higgings in Pygmalion molds Eliza. At best it can have some constructive aspects, as in the case of parents with children or teachers with pupils. Occasionally this aspect obtains in relations dealing with pleasures of the flesh, particularly if the sadistic partner is the more mature. It is sometimes conspicuous in homosexual relations between an older and a young man. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21

ImageHowever, even there if the slave gives any indication of meaning to go one’s own way, of having friends or interests of one’s own, the devil’s horns will show themselves. Frequently, though not invariably, the master is haunted by a possessive jealousy and uses it as a means of torture. It is peculiar to sadistic relationships of this kind that keeping a hold over the victim is of more absorbing interests than the person’s own life. One will neglect one’s career, forego the pleasures or advantages of meeting other persons rather than grant the partner any independence. The ways in which the partner is kept enslaved are characteristic. They vary only within a comparatively limited range and depend on the personality structure of both members. The sadistic person will give the partner just enough to make the relationship appear worth one’s while. One will fulfill certain of the partner’s needs—though rarely more than will keep one at a minimum subsistence level, psychically speaking. And one will impress upon one the unique quality of what one gives. Nobody else, one will point out, could give one such understanding, such support, so much satisfactions in pleasures of the flesh or so many interests; nobody else, indeed, would ever put up with one. Again, one may hold one with the lure of better times—implicitly or explicitly, one will promise love or marriage or a better financial status or better treatment. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21

ImageSometimes one will stress one’s own need of the partner and appeal to one on that ground. All these tactics are the more effective in that by being so possessive and so disparaging one isolates the partner from others. If the latter is made sufficiently dependent one may finally threaten to leave one. still further means of intimidation may be employed, but these have so much a life of their own that they will be discussed separately, in another context. Naturally, we cannot understand what goes on in such a relationship without taking into account the characteristics of the partner. Often one is of the complaint type and hence in dread of desertion; or one may be a person who has profoundly repressed one’s own sadistic drives and is helpless on that account—as will be shown later. The mutual dependence that accrues from such a situation arouses resentment not only in the enslaved but in the enslaver as well. If the latter’s need for detachment is pronounced, one is especially resentful of the partner’s absorbing so much of one’s thought and energy. Not realizing that one oneself has created these cramping ties, one may reproach the partner for being grasping or clinging. One’s wanting to break away on such occasions is as much an expression of fear and resentment as a means of intimidation. Not all sadistic craving aims at enslavement. Another sort finds its satisfaction in playing on the emotions of another person as on an instrument. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21

ImageA man or woman who expects nothing of one’s own life can be entirely absorbed in the game of playing with your emotions, which in turn gives them a reason to live. One knows when to show interest and when to be indifferent. One is hypersensitive in anticipating and observing the girl’s reactions to one. One knows what will arouse and what will check his or her desires for pleasures of the flesh. However, one’s sensitivity is limited to the requirements of the sadistic play: one is totally unconcerned with what this experience might mean to the young lady or young man’s life. This conscious shrewd calculation, more often goes on unconsciously. However, it is the same game of attracting and rejecting, charming and disappointing, elevating and degrading, bringing joy and brining grief. Another characteristic is to exploit the partner. Exploitation is not necessarily a sadistic enterprise; it may be employed merely for the sake of gain. In sadistic exploitation, too, gain may be a consideration, but it is often illusory and wholly out of proportion to the affect put into its pursuit. For the sadist, exploitation becomes a kind of passion in its own right. What matters is to experience the triumph of getting the better of others. Its specifically sadistic colouring appears in the means used for exploitation. The partner is subjected, directly and indirectly, to ever mounting demands, and is made to feel guilty humiliated if one does not fulfill them. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21

ImageThe sadistic person can always find a justification for feeling discontented or unfairly treated, and for demanding still more on the account. The fulfilling of such demands never evokes gratitude, and how the demands themselves are often prompted by the desire to hurt the other person and put one in one’s place. They may have to do with material things or needs involving pleasures of the flesh or assist in establishing a career; they may be demands for special consideration, exclusive devotion, boundless tolerance. There is nothing specifically sadistic in their content: what does point to sadism is the expectation that the partner should, by whatever means are available, fill out a life that is emotionally empty. This, too, is well illustrated by constant complaints of feeling bored and wanting stimulation and excitement. The need to feed, vampirelike, on the emotional vitality of another person is as a rule completely unconscious.  However, it is probable that it is at the bottom of the craving to exploit and that it is the soil from which the expressed demand draw their sustenance. When we realize that there is simultaneously a tendency to frustrate others, the nature of the exploitation becomes still clearer. It would be a mistake to say that the sadistic person never wants to give anything. Under certain conditions one may even be generous. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21

ImageWhat is typical of sadism is not a stinginess in the sense of withholding but a much more active, though unconscious, impulse to thwart others—to kill their joy and to disappoint their expectations. Any satisfaction or buoyancy of the partner’s almost irresistibly provokes the sadistic person to spoil it in some way. If the partner looks forward to seeing one, one tends to be sullen. It the partner wants pleasures of the flesh, one will be frigid or impotent. One may not even have to do, or fail to do, anything beneficial. By simply radiating gloom one acts as a depressant. One did not have to do anything: it was enough for one just to be. They shriveled and turned morbid by mere infection. What an exquisite refinement of the will to power, what an elegant cruelty! And what an amazing gift for that contagious gloom which damps even the highest spirits and stifles the very possibility of joy. As significant as any of these is the sadistic person’s tendency to disparage and humiliate others. One is remarkably keen at seeing shortcomings, at discovering the weak spots in others and pointing them out. One knows intuitively where others are sensitive and can be hurt. And one tends to use one’s intuition mercilessly for derogatory criticism. This may be rationalized as honesty or as a wish to be helpful; one may believe oneself to be sincerely troubled by doubts in regard to the other person’s competence or integrity—but if the sincerity of one’s doubts are questioned, one will become panicky. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21

ImageIt may also appear as mere suspiciousness. The individual may say: “If only I could trust that person!” However, after having translated one in one’s dreams into everything loathsome from a worm to a germ, how could one expect to trust him or her! In other words, suspiciousness can be merely a consequence of disparaging another person in one’s own mind. And if the sadistic person is unaware of one’s disparaging attitude one may be conscious only of the resulting suspiciousness. Again it would seem more appropriate to speak of a passion for fault-finding than of simply tendency. One not only turns one’s searchlight on actual flaws but is extremely adept at externalizing one’s own faults and so building up a case against the other fellow. If, for instance, one has upset someone by one’s own behavior, one will immediately show concern or even contempt for that person’s emotional instability. If the partner, being intimidated, is not entirely frank with one, one will reproach him or her for one’s secrecy or for lying. One will reproach one for being dependent on one when one oneself has one all one could to make one so. Such undermining is not just a matter of words but is accompanied by all sorts of scornful behaviour. Humiliating and degrading practices of pleasures of the flesh can be one of its expression. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21

ImageWhen any of these drives is frustrated, or when the tables are turned and the sadistic person feels oneself dominated, exploited, or scored, one may have spells of an almost insane rage. In one’s imagination, then, no torture is great enough to inflect upon the offender: one may kick him or her, beat him or her, slice him or her to pieces. These spells of sadistic rage can in turn be repressed, and give raise to a state of acute panic or some functional somatic disturbance pointing to an increase of inner tension. What, then, is the meaning of these trends? What are the inner necessities that compel a person to behave with such cruelty? The assumption that sadistic trends are the expression of a perverted drive in dealing with pleasures of the flesh has n basis in fact. It is true that they can be expressed in behaviour that is based in pleasures of the flesh. In this they are no exception to the general rule that all our character attitudes are bound to manifest themselves in the sphere of pleasures of the flesh—as they do in our way of working, in our gait, in out handwriting. It is also true that many sadistic pursuits are carried on with a certain excitement or, as I have said repeatedly, with an absorbing passion. The conclusion, however, that these affects of thrill or excitement are involved in the nature of pleasures of the flesh, even when they are not felt as such, merely rests on the premise that every excitement is in itself dealing with pleasure of the flesh. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21

ImageHowever, there is no evidence to substantiate such a premise. Phenomenologically the two sensations of sadistic thrill and abandonment in pleasures of the flesh are entirely different in nature. The assertion that sadistic impulses are a persisting infantile trend has a certain appeal in that young children are often cruel to animals or younger children, and apparently get a thrill out of it. In view of this superficial similarity one might say that the elementary cruelty of the child has merely been refined. However, actually it is not only refined: the cruelty of the adult sadist is different in kind. As we have seen, it has distinct characteristics which are lacking in the child’s outright cruelty. The child’s cruelty seems to be a comparatively simple response to feeling oppressed or humiliated. One asserts oneself by exercising one’s vengeance on weaker folk. Specifically sadistic trends are more complicated and grow from more complicated roots. Besides, like every attempt to account for later peculiarities by relating them directly to early experiences, this one, too, leave an all-important question unanswered that we will come back to at a later date. Now that we have explored the issue of freedom as an expression of grace, we can quote the remainder of Galatians 5.13, “But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.” #RandolphHarris 13 of 21

ImageThe moral law, rightly understood, does not squelch grace or abridge our freedom in Christ. God’s grace provides the only proper motive, as well as the only powerful motivation, to obey His commands. Our obedience, to be true obedience, must arise out of love for God and gratitude for His grace. The moral law of God gives direction to our love. If I truly desire to express my love to God, I need to know how to do that appropriately. Jesus gave us very simply directions (simple to understand, if not to practice): “If you love me, you will obey what I command,” reports John 14.15. Though the law gives direction, it provides no power to enable us to obey it. However, God, by delivering us from the reign of sin and the law, and bringing us unto His realm of grace, has provided the power in Christ and through His Spirit. So God by His grace has given us the right motive, the right rule of direction, and the needed power to live a life of love. Only when we understand these basic truths are we in a position to respond to Paul’s exhortation not to abuse our freedom, but instead, to serve one another in love. Here is a spiritual principle: We cannot exercise love unless we are experiencing grace. You cannot truly love others unless you are convinced that God’s love for you in unconditional, based solely on the merit of Christ, not on your performance. John said, “We love because we first loved us,” reports 1 John 4.19. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21

ImageOur love, either to God or to others, can only be a response to His love for us. There are five words all beginning with the letter “L” that we need to keep in right relationship to one another. All five are either used or implied in Galatians 5.13-14. They are law, liberty, love, license, and legalism. (I have not used license up to now, and by that word I mean an abuse of our freedom in order to indulge our sinful nature.) We need to learn to live within the right relationships of law and love, law and liberty, and liberty and love. Only when we have those relationships in proper order will we avoid the traps of license on the one hand and legalism on the other. Grace keeps the law, love, and liberty in right relationship to one another. In one southern state, a narrow two-lane highway has been built through a swampland by building up the road bed above the swamp. You must be extra alert not to drift off the rod because there is no margin for error. If you go off the road, you do not end up on a grassy shoulder but rather submerged in a swamp. The built-up roadbed can also represent grace that allows you to drive safely through the swampland of legalism and license. When you focus on grace in the fullness of its meaning, you will keep the law, liberty, and love in their proper relationship to one another. However, if you focus on anyone of the instead of on grace, you will invariably end up in the swamp of legalism or license. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21

ImageWhat do I mean by the phrase, “grace in the fullness of its meaning?” An expression often used in a pejorative sense is cheap grace. The term denotes an attitude that, since God’s grace is unconditional, I may live as I please; I may sin as much as I want because God will still love me and forgive me. That is the attitude of license. It results from focusing exclusively on liberty and denigrating God’s law. To counteract this sinful attitude, some of us in Christian ministry have fallen into legalism. We have taught, either directly or implicitly, that God’s grace is conditional, that there is a degree to which it is based on our performance. We have unduly focused on God’s law and disparaged liberty. However, the reality is that there is no such things as cheap grace. To us, the recipients, grace is not cheap; it is unconditionally free. However, grace is not cheap to God either. Although grace is part of essential nature of God, the extending of His grace to us cost Him the most expensive price every paid, the death of His own dear Son. So grace is never cheap. It is absolutely free to us, but infinitely expensive to God. That is what I mean by grace in the fullness of its meaning. Anyone who is prone to use grace as a license for irresponsible, sinful behaviour, surely does not appreciate the infinite price God paid to give of His grace. However, anyone who tends to use legalism as a hedge against license, just as surely forget that grace cannot be earned by our behaviour. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21

ImageAll of us need to diligently apply ourselves to learning to live under the reign of God’s transforming grace. Then love, liberty, and the law will take their proper places in our lives, and we will avoid the swamplands of both legalism and license. The Book of Jacob who is the Brother of Nephi—the words of his preaching unto his brethren. He confoundeth a person who seeketh to overthrow the doctrine of Christ. A few words concerning the history of the people of Nephi. Jacob and Joseph seek to persuade humans to believe in Christ and keep His comandments—Nephi dies—wickedness prevails among the Nephites. About 544-421 Before Christ. “For behold, it came to pass that fifty and five years had passed away from the time that Lehi left Jerusalem; wherefore, Nephi gave me, Jacob, a commandment concerning the small plates, upon which these things are engraven, And he gave me, Jacob, a commandment that I should write upon these plates a few of the things which I considered to be most precious; that I should not touch, save it were lightly, concerning the history of this people which are called the people of Nephi. For he said that the history of his people should be engraven upon his other plates, and that I should preserve these plates and hand them down unto my seed, from generation to generation. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21

Image“And if there were preaching which was sacred, or revelation which was great, or prophesying, that I should engraven the heads of them upon these plates, and touch upon them as much as it were possible, for Christ’s sake, and for the sake of our people. For because of faith and great anxiety, it truly had been made manifest unto us concerning our people, what things should happen unto them. And we also had many revelations, and the spirit of much prophecy; wherefore, we knew of Christ and his kingdom, which should come. Wherefore we labored diligently among our people, that we might persuade them to come unto Christ, and partake of the goodness of God, that they might enter into his rest, lest by any means one should swear in his wrath they should not enter in, as in the provocation in the days of temptation while the children of Israel were in the wilderness. Wherefore, we would to God that we could persuade all humans not to rebel against God, to provoke him to anger, but that all humans would believe in Christ, and view his death, and suffer his cross and bear the shame of the World; wherefore, I, Jacob, take it upon me to fulfill the commandment of my brother Nephi. Now Nephi began to be old, and he saw that he must soon die; wherefore, he anointed a human to be a kind and a ruler over his people now, according to the reigns of the kings. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21

Image“The people having loved Nephi exceedingly, he having been a great protector for them, having wielded the sword of Laban in their defence, and having labored in all his days for their welfare—wherefore, the people were desirous to retain in remembrance his name. And whoso should reign in his stead were called by the people, second Nephi, third Nehip, and so forth, according to reigns of the kings; and thus they were called by the people, let them be of whatever name they would. And it came to pass that Nephi died. Now the people which were not Lamanites were Nephites; nevertheless, they were called Nephites, Jacobites, Josephites, Zoramites, Lamanites, Lemuelites, and Ishamaelites. However, I, Jacob, shall not hereafter distinguish them by these names, but I shall call them Lamanites that seek to destroy the people of Nephi, and those who are friendly to Nephi I shall call Nephites, or the people of Nephi, according to the reigns of the kings. And now it came to pass that the people of Nephi, under the reign of the second king, began to grow hard in their hearts, and indulge themselves somewhat in wicked practices, such as like unto David of old desiring many wives and concubines, and also Solomon, his son. Yea, and they also began to search much gold and silver, and began to be lifted up somewhat in pride. Wherefore I, Jacob, gave into them these words as I taught them in the temple, having first obtained mine errand from the Lord. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21

Image“For I, Jacob, gave unto them these words as I taught them in the temple, having first obtained mine errand from the Lord. For I, Jacob, and my brother Joseph had been consecrated priests and teachers of this people, by the hand of Nephi. And we did magnify our office unto the Lord, taking upon us the responsibility, answering the sins of the people upon our own heads if we did not teach them the word of God with all diligence; wherefore, by labouring with our might their blood might not come upon our garments; otherwise their blood would come upon our garments, and we would not be found spotless at the last day,” reports Jacob 1.1-19. May the oblation, O Lord, be of good effect, which I humbly offer to Thy Majesty for the welfare of your children; that their lives, amid prosperity and adversity, may everywhere be guided by Thy providence; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Lord Jesus, please give me to love Thee, to embrace Thee, though I once took lust and sin in my arms. Thou didst love me before I loved Thee, an enemy, a sinner, a loathsome work. Thou didst own me when I disclaimed myself; thou dost love me as a son, and weep over me as over Jerusalem. Love brought Thee from Heaven to Earth, from Earth to the cross, from the cross to the grace. Love caused Thee to be weary, hungry, tempted, scorned, scourged, buffeted, spat upon, crucified, and pierced. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21

ImageLove led Thee to bow Thy head in death. My salvation is the point where perfect created love and the most perfect uncreated love meet together; for thou dost welcome me, not like Joseph and his brothers, loving and sorrowing, but loving and rejoicing. Thy love is not intermittent, cold, changeable; it does not cease or abate for all my enmity. Holiness is a spark from Thy love kindled to a flame in my heart by Thy Spirit, and so it ever turns to the place from which it comes. Let me see Thy love everywhere, not only in the cross, but in the fellowship of believers and in the World around me. When I feel the warmth of the Sun of righteousness with healing power. When I feel the tender rain may I think of the gospel showers that water my soul. When I walk by the river side may I praise thee for that stream that makes the eternal city glad, and washes white my robes that I may have the right to the tree of life. Thy infinite love is a mystery of mysteries, and my eternal rest lies in the eternal enjoyment of it. “You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed in God, and it was credited to hum as righteousness, and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone,” reports James 2.22-24. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21Image

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Craving the perfect summer backyard, but not sure where to start? Check out today’s blog post for major backyard inspo! Link in bio. 👉 https://www.instagram.com/p/CAyfEnoARLB/https://www.instagram.com/p/CAyfEnoARLB/

ImagePlease be present, be present, Jesus, Good High Prisent, in the midst of us, as Thou wast in the midst of Thy disciples. Please sanctify this oblation. (If you are interested in a home, you can contact Cresleigh Homes Customer Care Department at 3001 Douglas Boulevard #110, Roseville, California 95661. You can fax it to this number: 916-781-6080. Or you can call 916-526-3642. When you move into you new home, everything should be in working order.)

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The Spirit of Liberty is the Spirit Which is Not too Sure that it is Right and Seeks to Understand Minds

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The great want which humankind labours under at this present moment is sleep. The World should recline its vast head on the first convenient pillow and take an age-long nap. Which is a more effective learning strategy: reward or punishment? This question is still undecided. At present, evidence for each side is about equal. The following guidelines, however, can be applied in teaching situations, especially those involving young children. In general, rewarding desired behaviours is more effective than punishing undesired behaviours—you can still catch more files with honey than with vinegar. If punishment is necessary, it is most effective if used immediately after the undesired response. For instance, if a child must be punished, it is best done right after the child has acted incorrectly. If one parents says to the child, “Just wait until your father (or mother) gets home—then, you will get it,” the child learns to fear the arrival of the punisher and, in the process, often forgets the offense for which he or she is being punished. If punishment must be used, the reason for the punishment should be explained. “I am only doing this for your own good,” or “This hurts me more than it does you,” is less likely to teach a child a specific behaviour than saying, “I am not letting you go to the movies because you socked your little brother. This hurts him and makes him cry, and I do not want you to do it again.” #RandolphHarris 1 of 23

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If it is possible, combine reward and punishment. If necessary, punish the undesired behaviour, but also be sure to reward the desired behaviour. For example, do not just spank a child for playing in the street; also praise and reward the child for playing in the yard instead. Punish the undesired behaviour, not the behaver. For instance, communicate to a child that you feel his or her behaviour is “bad”—not that you think the child is bad. Most punishment do not work on very young children. Under about one year of age, children do not understand that some behaviours are acceptable and some are not and why this is so. They may think they are being punished just for being there, and more often than not they begin to associate the punisher with punishment. When you feel emotionally charged, especially if you are filled with rage, never, never, never punish a child. Adults often forget their own strength. Children are fragile and easily hurt. The only thing a child learns through abuse is hatred and fear. There is a great distinction between negative reinforcement and abusive punishment. In many cases, punishment only suppresses or limits the undesired behaviour; it does not really extinguish it. The self-actualized open to all qualified and eager seekers the mysteries and treasures of one’s own inner experience, that they may profit by one’s past struggles and present success. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23

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The self-actualized brings revelations to meet our gropings, inspirations to meet our doubts. One becomes, for those docile enough to receive them, a bearer of grace and a vessel of truth, a bestower of comfort and a dispenser of confidence. Prophets and the self-actualized, teachers and saints receive the urge to share their knowledge and experience with others. Whence does this urge derive? Both lower and higher, personal and nonpersonal sources are possible. However, if from the highest, then we may say that God sends His messages to humankind through these channels. The self-actualized who starts a movement or puts one’s thoughts out, acts as a lighthouse which guides many a fumblings but aspiring soul. If one does not accept disciples individually it is because one serve humans otherwise. Those who try to get such acceptance and find themselves rebuffed may consider one selfish, cold, remote. However, they will be greatly mistaken. One can serve humankind—not each person separately but in groups or masses—and one may do this by lecturing, by writing or simply by directing one’s prayer in the appropriate way. For a writer’s books spread not only one’s ideas but also something of oneself. One can put thought on a high level but the way in which one does this depends upon one’s circumstances. #RandolphHarris 3 of 23

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The self-actualized can put thought on a high level personally as a private teacher, impersonally as a public lecturer or writer, or anonymously as a proficient contemplative. All these people who have attained Reality inevitably leave a record for others or for posterity, but not necessarily with their name attached. Has anyone of the self-actualized ever vanished without leaving behind a trace of Power, knowledge, goodness, and inspiration? Even if not in words or deeds, something is left in the unseen atmosphere. They are not usually members of any sect, but circumstances or necessity may sometimes render it desirable that they be such. The self-actualized may or may not descend into the arena of action but if not one will still find ways and means to inspire, guide, or ennoble the actions of other people. One does this by teaching them and travelling among the, or by sitting still and meditating alone, or by disseminating writings among them. Even when one is unheard publicly one can help by the concentrated mind’s great power. One does what one can to introduce here and there into the consciousness of others, through whatever means one possesses, the seeds of higher ideas. These seeds may not grow and certainly may not fructify for many years, but that is not one’s affair. One knows that the vitality in these seeds and depth of mental ground in which they have been sown will inevitably lead to some result. It is enough. One has sown seed. #RandolphHarris 4 of 23

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One does not have to wait for roots to form, stems to grow, fruits to appear. One’s work is done. In this momentous period the true self-actualized has special work to do in trying to protect the human race from its own folly. One way is intercessory prayer which may help to mitigate the effects of the World crisis. This requires solitude. It is an impersonal contemplation and must not be disturbed by those who break into it, either to unload their personal problems or to offer personal service which in the end has the same result. Yes, some of us are genuinely aware of the soul’s existence and intimately know its freedom and blessedness. Modesty has hitherto imposed silence upon us about the fact, although compassion induced us to break it on occasions. However, we mystics must now stand on our own dignity. It is time that the World, brough to its inevitable and by us expected materialistic dead-end, should realize at last that we are not talking out of our hats but out of a real and impeccable experience. It would be an unpardonable treachery to our duty in the final and terrible World-crisis of this materialistic age if, out of false modesty or fear of intimidation by a cynical society, we who daily feel and commune with the divine presence, who realize its tremendous importance for humanity’s present condition and future life, fail to testify to its existence and reality. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23

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If today we venture to speak more freely and frequently, our ideas may drop into a few hospitable minds and sublimely penetrate their consciousness. It is not the self-actualizer’s function to tackle the Worldly problems which governments usually deal with: the social, political, economic, and technical ones. One’s particular work is concerned with, first, one’s ordinary duty of professional service through whatever skill one possesses to earn one’s livelihood, and second, making truth available. The mere existence of one who succeeds in identifying oneself with God benefits every sensitive person who meets one, even for a minute or two. Further, it inspires spiritual seekers who never get the chance to meet one but who hear favourably about one and respectfully receive what they hear. Finally, posterity benefits from the records left about one. Each teacher—if one is divinely commissioned—leaves a deposit of truth after he or she dies. The Master who leaves a record of one’s own climb, or a testimony to the goal’s existence, or a path pioneered for those who would follow, or an instructed disciple here and there, leaves something of oneself. Even where help may not directly and outwardly be given when difficult circumstances press on a human, it may yet be indirectly and inwardly given to one’s mind, which has to deal with, or endure, them. #RandolphHarris 6 of 23

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One can awaken some persons to this divine presence within themselves, but not all. One may do this mysteriously by some unknown process, or one may do it deliberately and with the display of one’s technique. The abstract does not appeal to the masses, because it gives them nothing. However, an embodied human can be seen, heard, and touched, to that extent can be understood, to that extent one gives them something; one can be followed, admired, feared, reverenced, or worshipped. Secure as one is in one’s own peace of mind, it is inevitable that the more sensitive among those who meet one feel it too. However, those who come with hostility, personal or intellectual, will be avoided if possible or find their time cut to the shortest if not. Such a person has a catalytic action on the minds and even on the lives of those who come into sympathetic contact with one. Just by being oneself one makes the philosophic virtues real to others. One does not need to be conscious of a clearly defined mission before one sets about doing something for the enlightenment of others. There is always some means open to one, some little thing one can do to make this knowledge available or to set an example of right living. It is one’s duty to communicate what one feels there, what one finds there, to those who are excluded from it. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23

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If at times, and with sympathetic auditors, one’s duty becomes one’s joy, at other times and with insensitive auditors it becomes one’s cross. Jesus exemplified this in His own history. The illuminate practices a wiser philanthropy than those who are presented as models of this virtue. One has no wish to take charge of anyone’s life or undertake the management of anyone’s affairs. One is not allowed by the code of ethics corresponding to one’s knowledge to make other people’s decisions for them. Hence one can say neither yes nor no to such highly personal questions. However, one can point out the consequences which are likely to follow in each case. Basically, people are just like children. They need attention. Sometimes people are really nervous when meeting people or dealing with new situations. And some of the troublemakers really just want your attention. The people-as-child analogy can be extended to cover sibling rivalry: You cannot play cards with just one person because the other people will get jealous. Think of unruly people just as you would think of a child and that will widen tolerance of them. If their needs are like those of a child, those needs are supposed to come first. The worker’s right to anger is correspondingly reduced; as an adult one must work to inhibit and suppress anger at children. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23

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Should the analogy to children fail to induce the necessary deep acting, surface-acting strategies for handling “irate” can be brought into play. People are urged to “work” the customers name in, as in “Yes, Mr. Camdenski,” it is true construction of your new home is talking a little longer than expected.” This reminds the individual that he is not anonymous, that there is at least some pretension to a personal relation and that some emotion management is owed. Again, workers are told to use terms of empathy. Whatever happens, you are supposed to say, I know just how you feel. Lost your light fixture? I know just how you feel? Late for a walk though? I know just how you feel. Did not get that lot you were counting on? I know just how you feel. Employees reports that such expressions of empathy are useful in convincing people that they have misplaced the blame and misaimed their anger. Remember, to treat people like they are guests in your living room, and guests are to be made comfortable and their emotional outburst are expected to be met by support. Never get super angry with a customer, they are the source of revenue. Supervisors never speak officially of an obnoxious or outrageous customer, only of an uncontrolled customer. The term suggests that a fact has somehow attached itself to this customer—not that the customer has lost control or even had any control to lose. #RandolphHarris 9 of 23

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Again, the common phrase “mishandled customer” suggests a bungle somewhere up the line, by someone destined to remain lost in the web of workers that stretched from curbside to architecture. By linguistically avoiding any attribution of blame, the idea of a right to be angry at the customer is smuggled out of discourse. Linguistically speaking, the customer never does anything wrong, so he or she cannot be blamed or made the object of anger. One time, a man was waiting for a special ordered light fixture, and one of the other home buyers sagged it and had it installed in her house. The builder responded by saying politely, “I notice this man’s light fixture was installed in your house.” The dirty deed was done, but, the implication was, by no one in particular. Such implicit reframing dulls a sense of cause of effect. It separates object from verb and verb from subject. The home buyer does not feel accused, and the builder does not feel as if he or she is accusing. Emotion work has been accomplished, but it has hidden its tracks with words. Company language is aimed not only at diffusing anger, but at minimizing fear. As in the case when a refrigerator was specially ordered and delivered to the wrong address. This was labeled an incident. The term incident calms the nerves. How could we be terrified at an incident? #RandolphHarris 10 of 23

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Thus, the words that workers use and do not use help them avoid emotions inappropriate to a living room full of guest. Dealing with difficult people is part of the job. It makes us angry sometimes. And anger is part of stress. So that is why I would like to talk to you about being angry. I am not saying you should do this [work on your anger] for your corporation. I am not saying you should do it for the home buyers. I am saying do it for yourselves. The only question to be seriously discussed is “How do you rid yourself of anger?” From my experience in supervisory work I know that the problem of hopelessness is often not clearly envisaged by the analyst and hence not properly dealt with. Some of my colleagues have been so overwhelmed by the individual’s hopelessness—which they recognized but did not see as a problem—that they became hopeless themselves. This attitude is of course fatal to an analysis, for no matter how good the technique or how brave the effort, the individual senses that the analyst has really given him or her up. The same holds true outside the analytical situation. Nobody can be a constructively helpful friends or mate who does not believe in the possibility of the companion’s fulfilling one’s own potentialities. Sometimes colleagues have made the opposite mistake of not taking the individual’s hopelessness seriously enough. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23

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They felt the individual needed encouragement and gave it—which is commendable, but quite insufficient. When this happens, the individual, even if one appreciates the analyst’s good intentions, is quite justified in being annoyed with one, since deep down one knows that one’s hopelessness is not just a mood that can be dissipated by well-meant encouragement. In order to take the bull by the horns and tackle the problem directly, it is necessary first to recognize from indirect indications like the ones cited above that the individual feels hopeless and the extent to which one feels so. Then it must be understood that one’s hopelessness is fully warranted by one’s entanglements. The analyst must realize and explicitly convey to the individual that one’s situation is hopeless only so long as the status quo persists and is regarded as unchangeable. In simplified form, the whole problem is illustrated by a scene from Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard. The family, faced with bankruptcy, are in despair at the thought of leaving their estate with its beloved cherry orchard. A man of affairs offers the sound suggestion that they build modest homes for rent on a part of the estate. With their hidebound views, they cannot countenance such a project, and since there is no other solution they remain without hope. They ask helplessly, as if they had not heard the suggestion, whether nobody can advise or help them. #RandolphHarris 12 of 23

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If their mentor were a good analyst he would say: “Of course the situation is difficult. However, what makes it hopes is your own attitude toward it. If you would consider changing your claims on life there would be no need to feel hopeless.” The belief that the individual can really change, which means essentially that one can really resolve one’s conflicts, is the factor that determines whether or not the therapist dare to tackle the problem and whether one can do it with a reasonable chance of success. It is here that my differences with Dr. Freud come into clear relief. Dr. Freud’s psychology and the philosophy underlying it are essentially pessimistic. This is patent in his outlook on the future of humankind as well as in his attitude toward therapy. And on the basis of his theoretical premises, he cannot be anything but pessimistic. Humans are driven by instincts which at best are only to be modified by “sublimation.” His instinctual drives for satisfaction are inevitably frustrated by society. His “ego” is helplessly tossed about between instinctual drives and the “superego,” which itself can only be modified. The superego is primarily forbidding and destructive. True ideals do not exist. The wish for personal fulfillment is narcissistic. Humans are by nature destructive and a death instinct compels them either to destroy others or to suffer. #RandolphHarris 13 of 23

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All these theories leave little room for an optimistic attitude toward change and limit the value of the potentially splendid therapy Dr. Freud originated. In contrast, I believe that compulsive trends in neuroses are not instinctual but spring from disturbed human relationships; that they can be changed when these improve and that conflicts of such origin can really be resolved. This does not mean that therapy based on the principles I advocate has no limitations. Much work remains to be done before we can clearly determine these limitations. However, it does mean that we have well-founded reasons for believing in the possibility of radical change. Why, then, is it so important to recognize and tackle an individual’s hopelessness? In the first place, this approach is of value in dealing with special problems like depression and suicidal tendencies. We can, it is true, lift an individual depression by merely uncovering the particular conflicts in which the person is caught at the time, without touching upon one’s general hopelessness. However, if we want to prevent recurring depressions it has to be tackled because it is the deeper source from which the depressions emanate. Nor can insidious chronic depression be coped with unless one goes to this original source. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23

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The same hold true for suicidal conditions. We know that such factors as acute despair, defiance, and vindictiveness lead to suicidal impulses; but it is often too late to prevent suicide after the impulse has become manifest. By paying minute attention to the less dramatic signs of hopelessness and by taking up the problem with the patient at the proper time, it is probable that many suicides could be averted. It is not that collective talk determines the mood of the workers. Rather, the reverse is true: the needed mood determines the nature of the worker’s talk. To keep the collective mood stripped of any painful feelings, serious talk of death, divorce, politics, religion, and news is usually avoided. People want to forget about COVID-19 and feel safe in the modest castles, which they imagine to be in a storybook fairytale. On the other hand, when there is time for it, mutual morale raising is common. As one said: “When one sales agent is depressed, thinking, ‘I am ugly, what am I doing as a sales representative?’ other sales representatives, even without quite knowing what they are doing, try to cheer her up. They straighten her collar for her, to get her up and smiling again. I have done it too, and needed it done.” Once established, team solidarity can have two effect. It can improve morale and thus improve service. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23

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However, team solidarity can also become the basis for sharing grudges against the homebuyers or the corporation. Perhaps it is the second possibility that manager meant to avoid wen in Recurrent Training they offered examples of “bad” social emotion management. One teacher cautioned her students: “When you are angry with a homebuyer, do not head for the galley to blow off steam with another sales representative.” In the galley, the second sales representative, instead of calming the angry worker down, may further rile him or her up; one may become an accomplice to the aggrieved worker. Then, as the instructor put it, “There will be two of you hot to trot.” The message is, when you angry, go to a trusted therapist who will calm you down. Consider calling him or her for a phone appoint so not to drive while angry. Even if you are not suicidal, but cannot afford a therapist, a suicide hotline may be worth trying out. Support for anger or a sense of grievance—regardless of what inspires it—is bad for service and bad for the corporation. Thus, the informal ways in which workers check on the legitimacy of a grievance or look for support in blowing off steam become points of entry for company suggestions. Corporations sometimes have Ghost-Buyers who occasionally Ghost-Buy a house, and there may be senior representative on the crew, the base supervisor, and the plainclothes company supervisors who occasionally monitor employee behaviour. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23

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One homebuyer was asked to fill out a company-elicited passenger opinion poll and fill out a questionnaire, and the results were presented by letter to the workers. As one male sales representative, seven years with the corporation describes it: We get told how we are doing twice a year when we are sent homebuyer evaluations. They show how the builder is competing. Oh, the homebuyers are asked to rank sales representatives: “genuinely concerned, made me feel welcome. Spoke to me more than required. Wide awake, energetic, eager to help. Seemed sincere when talking to the potential homebuyers and confirmed homebuyers. Helped established a relaxed community atmosphere. Enjoying their jobs. Treated homebuyers as individuals.” We see how this builder is doing in the competition. We are supposed to really get into it. Supervision is thus more indirect than direct. It relies on the sales representative’s sense of what homebuyers will communicate to management, who will, in turn, communicate to workers. Supervisors do more than oversee workers. Even when people are paid to be nice at all times, and when their efforts succeed, it is a remarkable accomplishment. This is possible because of emotion work, feeling rules, and social exchange. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23

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A profit motive is slipped in under acts of emotion management, under the rules that govern them, under the gift exchange. Who benefits now, and who pays? The lesson in deep acting—acting “as if the office is your home” and “as if this unruly homebuyer has a traumatic past”—are themselves a new development in deskilling. The mind of the emotion worker, the source of the ideas about what mental moves are needed to settle down an irate, has moved upstairs in the hierarchy so that the worker is restricted to implementing standard procedures. Of more general significance is the fact that the individual’s hopelessness constitutes a hindrance to the cure of any severe neurosis. We have to deal with a counterplay of meticulous and forward-moving forces, with resistance and incentive. Resistance is a collective term for all the forces within the individual that operate to maintain the status quo. One’s incentive, on the other hand, is produced by the constructive energy that urges one on toward inner freedom. This is the motive power with which we work and without which we could do nothing. It is the force that helps that individual overcome resistance. It makes one’s associations productive, there by giving the analyst a chance for better understanding. It gives one the inner strength to endure the inevitable pain of maturing. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23

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It makes one willing to take the risk of abandoning attitudes that have given one a feeling of safety and to make the leap into the unknown of new attitudes toward oneself and others. The analyst cannot drag the individual through this process; the individual oneself must want to go. It is this invaluable force that is paralyzed by a condition of hopelessness. And in failing to recognize and tackle it the analyst deprives oneself of one’s best ally in the battle against the individual’s neurosis. The individual’s hopelessness is not a problem that can be solved by any single interpretation. There is already a substantial gain if, instead of being engulfed by a feeling of doom that one regards as unalterable, the individual begins to recognize it as a problem that may eventually be solved. This step liberates one sufficiently to go ahead. There will, of course, be ups and downs. One may feel optimistic, even overoptimistic, if one acquires some helpful insight, only to succumb to one’s hopelessness again as soon as one approaches a more upsetting one. Each time the matter must be tackled anew. However, the hold it has on the individual will relax as one realizes that one can really change. One’s incentive will grow accordingly. It may be limited, at the beginning of the analysis, to a mere wish to get rid of one’s most disturbing symptoms. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23

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However, the incentive gains strength as the individual becomes increasingly aware of one’s shackles, and as one gets a taste of how it feels to be free. When we shall apprehend the meaning of life, we may discover that it provides its pre-self-actualized in such prodigies. The highest service one can render is in silent contemplation, which inspires so many aspiring souls to a higher life. This is the truth. If one is sensitive, reflective, and penetrative, the mere fact that these prophets, these light-bringers and way-showers have exited at all is enough to change a human’s life. Even if one does no more than open the human mind to its higher possibilities, one does enough. Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost—humans must pray and gain knowledge for themselves from the Holy Ghost. About 559-545 Before Christ. “And now, behold, my beloved brethren, I suppose that ye ponder somewhat in your hearts concerning that which ye should do after ye have entered in by the way. However, behold, why do ye ponder these things in your hearts? Do ye not remember that I said unto you that after ye had received the Holy Ghost ye could speak with the tongue of Angels? And now, how could ye speak with the tongue of Angels save it were by the Holy Ghost? Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the word of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23

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“Wherefore, now after I have spoken these words, if ye cannot understand them it will be because ye ask not, neither do ye knock; wherefore, ye are not brought into the light, but must perish in the dark. For behold, again I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do. Behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and there will be no more doctrine given until after he shall manifest himself unto you in the flesh. And when he shall manifest himself unto you in the flesh, the things which he shall say unto you shall ye observe to do. And now I, Nephi, cannot say more; the Spirit stoppeth mine utterance, and I am left to mourn because of the unbelief, and the wickedness, and the ignorance, and the stiffneckedness of humans; for they will not search knowledge, when it is given unto them in plainness, even as plain as word can be. And now, my beloved brethren, I perceive that ye ponder still in your hearts; and it grieveth me that I must speak concerning this thing. For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a human to pray, ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a human to pray, but teacheth one that one must not pray. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23

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“However, behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform anything unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul,” reports 2 Nephi 32.1-9. Please send forth, O Lord, we beseech Thee, the Holy Spirit, to make these present offerings Thy Sacrament unto us, and purify our hearts for its reception. Privileges—O Lord God, please teach e to know that grace precedes, accompanies, and follows my salvation, that it sustains the redeemed soul, that not one link of its chain can ever break. From Calvary’s cross wave upon wave of grace reaches me, deals with my sin, washes me clean, renews my heart, strengthens my will, draws out my affection, kindles a flame in my soul, rules throughout my inner human, consecrates my every thought, word, work, teaches me Thy immeasurable love. How great are my privileges in Christ Jesus! Without him I stand far off, a stranger, an outcast; in him I draw near and touch his kingly sceptre. Without him I dare not lift up my guilt eyes; in him I gaze upon my Father-God and friend. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23

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Without him I hide my lips in trembling shame; in him I open my mouth in petition and praise. Without him all is wrath and consuming fire; in him is all love, and the repose of my soul. Without him is gaping hell below me, and eternal anguish; in him its gates are barred to me by his precious blood. Without him darkness spreads its horrors in front; in him an eternity of glory is my boundless horizon. Without him all within me is terror and dismay, in him every accusation is charmed into joy and peace. Without him all things external call for my condemnation; in him they minister to my comfort, and are to be enjoyed with thanksgiving. Praise be to thee for grace, and for the unspeakable gift of Jesus. Although by the revelation of grace in this life we cannot know of God “what He is,” and thus are united to Him as to one unknown; still we know Him more fully according as many and more excellent of His effects are demonstrated to us, and according as we attribute to Him some things known by divine revelation, to which natural reason cannot reach, as, for instance, that God is Thee and One. For the images either received from sense in the natural order, or divinely formed in the imagination, we have so much more excellent intellectual knowledge, the stronger the intelligible light is in humans; and thus through revelation given by the images a fuller knowledge is received by the infusion of the divine light. #RandolphHarris 23 of 23

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But I Will Wear My Heart Upon My Sleeve for Daws to Peck at!

ImageThe way to love other people is to express what we feel—anger and love—without aiming to hurt feelings. Open but reverent communication is how to make love in our lives. I have talked of equality as a right ad of equality as a goal. And I have taken, as the principal thing, to be able to state what goal we are seeking when we say equality is a goal. When we are in a position actually to achieve that goal, then that same equality becomes a right. The goal we are seeking is an equality of basic condition for everyone. Let me say a bit what this is: everyone, as far as possible, should have equal life prospects, short of genetic engineering and the like and the rooting out of any form of family and the undermining of our basic freedoms. There should, where this is possible, eb an equality of access to equal resources over each person’s life as a whole, though this should be qualified by people’s varying needs. Where psychiatrists are in short supply only people who are in need of psychiatric help should have equal access to such help. This equal access to resources should be such that it stands as a barrier to there being the sort of differences between people that allow some to be in a position to control and to exploit others; such equal access to resources should also stand as a barrier to one person having power over other adult person that does not rest on the revocable consent on the part of the persons over whom one comes to have power. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21

ImageWhere, because of some remaining scarcity in a society of considerable productive abundance, we cannot reasonably distribute resources equally, we should first, where considerations of desert are not at issue, distribute according to stringency of need, second according to the strength of unmanipulated preferences and third, and finally, by lottery. We should, in trying to attain equality of condition, aim at a condition of autonomy (the fuller and the more rational the better) for everyone and at a condition where everyone alike, to the fullest extent possible, has his or her needs and wants satisfied. The limitations on the satisfaction of people’s wants should be only were the satisfaction is incompatible with everyone getting the same treatment. Where we have conflicting wants, such as where two persons want to marry the same person, the fair thing to do will vary with the circumstances. In the marriage case, freedom of choice is obviously the fair thing. However, generally, what should be aimed at is having everyone have their own wants satisfied as far as possible. To achieve equality of condition would be, as well, to achieve a condition where the necessary burdens of the society are equally shared, where to do so is reasonable, and where each person has an equal voice in deciding what these burdens shall be. Moreover, everyone, as much as possible, should be in a position—and should be equally in that position—to control one’s own life. The goals of egalitarianism are to achieve such equalities. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21

ImageIf we are egalitarians, then minimally, classlessness is something we should aim at. It is necessary for the stable achievement of equalities of the type discussed. Beyond that, we should also aim at a statusless society, though not at an undifferentiated society or a society which does not recognize merit. It is only in such a classless, statusless society that the ideals of equality (the conception of equality as a very general goal to be achieved) can be realized. In aiming for a society, we are aiming for a society which, while remining a society of material abundance, is a society in which there are to be no extensive differences in life prospects between people because some have far greater income, power, authority or prestige than others. This is the via negativa of the egalitarian way. The via positivia is to produce social conditions where there is generally material abundance, where well-being and satisfactions are not only maximized (the utilitarian thing) but, as well, a society where this condition, as far as it is achievable, is sought equally for all (the egalitarian thing). This is the underlying conception of the egalitarian commitment to equality of condition. In our description of the encounter of power of being with power of being we have limited our task to the encounter of individuals with individuals. We must also extend our description to the encounter of social groups with social groups. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21

ImageIf we do so find the same marks of power encounters, the pushing ahead and withdrawing, the absorbing and throwing out, the amalgamation and separation. This is unavoidable. For every power group experiences growth and disintegration. It tries to transcend itself and to preserve itself at the same time. Nothing is determined a priori. It is a matter of trial and risk, and decision. And this trial has elements of intrinsic power untied with compulsion whether the group or their representatives want it or not. These encounters are the basic material of history. In them human’s political destiny is decided. What is their character? The basis of all power of a social group is the space it must provide for itself. Being means having space or, more exactly, providing space for oneself. This is the reason for the tremendous importance of geographical space and the fight for its possession by all power groups. Our time gives a striking example for this fact. In the necessity of having space the Zionist fight is rooted. Israel lost its independent power of being and often its power of being altogether, when it lost its space. Now it has its space and has shown a rather strong power of being. However, perhaps something is lost: the intimate relation to time which made Israel the elected nation and which belongs to the problem of the resignation of power. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21

ImageThe struggle about space is not simply the attempt to remove another group from a given space. The real purpose is to draw this space into a larger power field, to deprive it of a center of its own. If this happens, it is not the individual power of being which has changed, but the way in which the individual participates in the center, in which one influences the law and the spiritual substance of the new, larger power organization. It is, however not only geographical space which gives power and being to a social organism. It is also the radiation of power into the larger space of humankind. One of these radiations which enlarge one’s own space without reducing that of others is economic expansion. Another one is technical expansion or the spread of science and civilization. In none of these cases is a preceding calculation possible. Every factor is changing, the number of the population, the productive power, new discoveries, movements, emigration, competition, the rise of new countries, the disintegration of old ones. History, so to speak, tries what will be its next constellation. And in these trials nations and empires are scarified, and others are called into existence. The power of being of each political power group is measured by its encounter with the power of being of other power groups. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21

ImageHowever, now we must remember that power is never only physical force, but it is also the power of symbols and ideas in which the life of a social group expresses itself. The consciousness of such a social group expresses itself. The consciousness of such a spiritual substance can become, and in the most important cases of history does become, the feeling of a special vocation. If we look at European history we find a series of expression of such a vocational consciousness, and we find tremendous historical consequences following from it. In an indistinguishable unity of power drive and vocational consciousness the Romans subjected the Mediterranean World to the Roman law and the order of the Roman empire, based on this law. In the same way Alexander brought Greek culture to nations which were subjected in terms of bot arms and language. Considering the fact these two imperial drives in their amalgamation created the oikoumene, the condition and frame of the spread of Christianity, we cannot say that their vocational consciousness was wrong. The same must be said about the medieval German Empire, which, on the basis of the power drives of the Germanic kings, created the structure for the united Christian body with all the glory of medieval religion and culture. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21

ImageAfter the end of the Middle Ages the European nations combined power drives with vocational consciousness of different character. Spain’s World-conquering imperialism was united with the fanatical belief in being the divine tool of the Counter-Reformation. England’s vocational consciousness was rooted partly in the Calvinistic idea of World politics for the preservation of pure Christianity, partly in a Christian-humanistic feeling of responsibility for the colonial countries and for a solid balance of power between the civilized nations. This was inseparably united with an economic and political power drive and produced the largest Empire of all times and almost eighty years of European peace. The vocational consciousness of France was based on its cultural superiority in the seventeenth an and eighteenth centuries. Modern Germany was under the impact of the so-called Real-Politik, without a vocational consciousness. Her ideology was the struggle for Lebensraum, party in competition with the colonial nations and therefore in conflict with them. Adolph Hitler’s use of an obviously absurd vocational idea, that of Nordic blood, was artificially imposed an only reluctantly accepted, because there was no genuine vocational symbol. Today two great imperialistic systems fight with each other in terms of both force and vocational consciousness: Russian and America. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21

ImageThe Russian vocational consciousness was based on its religious feeling that it had a mission towards the West, namely, to save the disintegrating Western civilization through Eastern mystical Christianity. This was the claim of the Slavophile movement in the nineteenth century. President-day Russian has a similar missionary consciousness towards the West civilization and at the same time towards the Far East. Her power drive, which in the official counter-propaganda appears as the desire for World domination, is not understandable without her fanatical vocational consciousness, which must be compared with that of all other imperialistic movements. America’s vocational consciousness has been called “The American dream,” namely to establish the Earthly form of the kingdom of God by a new beginning. The old forms of oppressive power were left behind and a new start was made. In the Constitution and the living democracy (both are quasi-religious concepts in the United States of America) the will is embodied to actualize what is felt as the American vocation. This was originally meant for America alone. Now it is meant explicitly for one-half of the World and implicitly for the whole World. The actual power drive working together with this vocational feeling is still rather limited. However, the historical situation increases it more and more. And it is already justified to speak of half-conscious American imperialism. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21

ImageVocational consciousness expresses itself in laws. In these laws both justice and love are actual. The justice of the empires not only subject, they also unite. And in so far as they are able to do this, they are not without love. Therefore those who has subjected acknowledge silently that they have become participants of a superior power of being and meaning. If this acknowledgement vanishes because the uniting power of the empire, its strength, and its vocational idea vanishes, the empire comes to an end. Its power of being disintegrates and external attacks only execute what is already decided. The present decrease in national sovereignty, the rise of embracing power groups, and the split of the World into two all-embracing power groups, and the split of the World into two all-embracing systems of political power rises naturally the problem of a united humankind. What can be derived from our analysis of power, justice, and love for this question? There are three answers to this question. The first one does not recognize the inescapable character of the recent developments towards large organisms of power and expects a return to a number of relatively independent power centers, perhaps not national but continental. The second answer seeks for the solution in a World state, created by a kind of federal union of the present main powers and by their subjection to a central authority in which all groups participate. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21

ImageThe third answer expects that one of the great powers will develop into a World center, ruling the other nations through liberal methods and in democratic forms! The first answer is a matter of foresight. It belongs to the movement of social organisms that the centralizing tendency is always balanced by a decentralizing one. The question is: Which tendency determines the present situation? The technical union of the World favours centralization, but there are other, above all psychological factors which may prevail. The second answer, the expectation of the World state, contradicts the analysis of power as we have given it. A power center which unites strength with vocational consciousness cannot subject itself to an artificial authority without both of them. The presupposition for a political World unity is the presence of a spiritual unity expressed in symbols and myths. Nothing like this exists today. And before it does exist a World state has no power to create silent acknowledgment. The most probable answer seems to be the third one. It may well be that after the period of World history which is characterized by the rise of one power structure to universal power, with a minimum of suppression, the law and the justice and the uniting love which are embodied in this power will become the universal power of humankind. However, even then the kingdom of God has not come upon us. For even then disintegration and revolution are not excluded. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21

ImageNew centers of power may appear, first underground, then openly, driving towards separation from or towards radical transformation of the whole. They may develop a vocational consciousness of their own. Then the power struggle starts again and the period of the fulfilled World empire will be as limited as the Augustan period of was. Can uniting love never unite humankind? Can humankind never become as a whole a structure of power and a source of universal justice? With this question we have left the realm of history and approach the question of love, power, and justice in their relation to that which is ultimate. Thus Revelation makes sense because it is the answer to the finitude and ambiguities of actual reason; the terms God, as a symbol of the Unconditioned, is meaningful insofar as it resolves the contradictions of finite being; Christology itself answers the dilemma of existence and fulfills humankind’s quest for Christ. Being, existence, life thus anticipate, in human’s conscious and unconscious experience, the revelation of the Unconditioned as God, as Christ and as Spirit. The notion of the Kingdom of God will resolve the ambiguities of history. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21

ImageThe basic purpose of theology is neither to establish facts, nor to build a speculative synthesis; it is to investigate meanings.  Leaving the former task to positive theologians and their recurrent flirtation with historicism, and the latter to speculative theologians and the permanent danger of over intellectualism, we open another way, a search for the meanings of religious attitudes through a critical phenomenology, uniting an intuitive-descriptive element with an existential-critical element. However, by doing so, we boldly head for a third pitfall, which we may call a philosophical distortion of faith. If the only ultimately valid content of their faith is merely the intuition of a philosophical principle, there is not much point in the tremendous spiritual effort of all the religions of humankind. Yet the meaning of faith, as drawn out of belief-ful experience is simply that in the depth of my own being, I participate in both abyss and ground, in nothingness and in being-itself. The difference between the philosopher and the faith-ful would be that the former is relatively detached whereas the latter is involved. If this is the meaning of faith and religion, we have obviously been let down by priests and prophets, and what is more, we have been led astray. For neither priest nor prophet has taught that this was faith. To be sure, a certain amount of demythologizing is necessary—be it Primordial Humans in India or Gilgamesch in Mesopotamia, myth have to be interpreted. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21

ImageThe contrast between the religious myths of faith and their reduction to one common philosophical denominator confirms what I have said elsewhere: a philosophical description of being and concern is altogether distinct from a theology of faith and grace. Speaking in specifically Christian terms, it is a fallacy to approach the faith of Christianity from a preconceived phenomenological notion of faith at large. In the first place, this does not do justice to the fact that the Christian faith, in its Catholic form and also in its Protestant form before Schleiermacher, has always described itself, not as one faith among other, but as the only saving faith. Secondly, it introduced a distinction between the conveying message of faith (called, here, its myth or symbol) and its ultimate meaning. The Christian message, however, is essentially historical. Arising out of a historical event, the preaching of the man Jesus, it was confirmed by his Resurrection from the dead in Judea under the governor Pontius Pilate. This historical structure of the Christian faith stands in judgment over our analyses for it implies that the form of the Christian Revelation is inseparable from its content. If it only expressed unconditional concern as philosophical intuition of being and non-being, its historical structure would be altogether irrelevant to its meaning. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21

ImageActually it would be difficult to discover a systematic theology that appeals less to the historical sources of Christian doctrine than ours. What this implies for Christology proper will detain us later. It is enough now to note that the notion of faith, the notion of original sin, the notion of revelation, have been stripped of their specifically Christian elements and made into universal philosophical concepts. One could heed Calvin’s warning: “Should some mind, abandoning the wisdom contained in the Word of God, bring us a different doctrine, he must rightly be suspected of vanity and falsehood.” For a theologian to straitjacket the Christian faith in a scheme which is supposedly valid for all and sundry faiths is highly suspect. At this stage, however, we should suspend judgment. In the development of our Christology, we are bringing in the necessary corrections. “But, behold, in the last days, or in the days of the Gentiles—yea, behold all the nations of the Gentiles and also the Jews, both those who shall come upon this land and those who shall be upon other lands, yea, even upon all the lands of the Earth, behold, they will be drunken with iniquity and all manner of abominations—and when that day shall come they shall be visited of the Lord or Hosts, with thunder and with Earthquake, and with a great noise, and with storm, and with tempest, and with the flame of the devouring fire. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21

Image“And all the nations that fight against Zion, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision; yea, it shall be unto them, even as unto a hungry man which dreameth, and behold he eateth but he awaketh and his soul is empty; or like unto a thirsty human which dreameth, and behold one drinketh but one awaketh and behold one is faint, and one’s soul hath appetite; yea, even so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion. For behold, all ye that doeth iniquity, stay yourselves and wonder, for ye shall cry out, and cry; yea, ye shall be drunken but not with wine, ye shall stagger but not with strong drink. For behold, the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep. For behold, ye have closed your eyes, and ye have rejected the prophets; and your rulers, and the seers hath one covered because of your iniquity. And it shall come to pass that the Lord God shall bring forth unto you the words of a book, and they shall be the words of them which have slumbered. And behold the book shall be sealed; and in the book shall be a revelation from God, from the beginning of the World to the ending thereof. Wherefore, because of the things which are sealed up, the things which are sealed shall not be delivered in the day of the wickedness and abominations of the people. Wherefore the book shall be kept from them. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21

Image “However, the book shall be delivered unto a human, and one shall deliver the words of the book, which are the words of those who have slumbered in the dust, and one shall deliver these words unto another; however, the words which are sealed one shall not deliver, neither shall one deliver the book. For the book shall be sealed by the power of God, and the revelation which was sealed shall be kept in the book until the own due time of the Lord, that they may come forth; for behold, they reveal all things from the foundation of the World unto the end thereof. And the day cometh that the words of the book which were sealed shall be read upon the house tops; and they shall be read by the power of Christ; and all things shall be revealed unto the children of humans which ever have been among the children of humans, and which ever will be even unto the end of the Earth. Wherefore, at that day when the book shall be delivered unto the human of whom I have spoken, the book shall be hid from the eyes of the World, that the eyes of none shall behold it save it be that three witnesses shall behold it, by the power of God, besides him to whom the book shall be delivered; and they shall testify to the truth of the book and the things therein. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21

Image“And there is none other which shall view it, save it be a few according to the will of God, to bear testimony of his word unto the children of humans; for the Lord God hath said that the words of the faithful should speak as if it were from the dead. Wherefore, the Lord God will proceed to bring forth the words of the book; and in the mouth of as many witnesses as seemeth him good will he establish his word; and wo be unto him that rejecteth the word of God! However, behold, it shall come to pass that the Lord God shall say unto him to whom he shall deliver the book: Take these words which are not sealed and deliver them to another, that he may show them unto the learned, saying: Read this, I pray thee. And the learned shall say: Bring hither the book, and I will read them. And now, because of the glory of the World and to get gain will they say this, and not for the glory of God. And the human shall say: I cannot bring the book, for it is sealed. Then shall the learned say: I cannot read it. Wherefore I shall come to pass, that the Lord God will deliver again the book and the words thereof to one that is not learned; and the human that is not learned shall say: I am not learned. Then shall the Lord God say unto him: The learned shall not read them, for they have rejected them, and I am able to do mine own work; wherefore thou shalt read the words which I shall give unto thee. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21

Image“Touch not the things which are sealed, for I will bring them forth in mine own due time; for I will show unto the children of humans that I am able to do mine own work. Wherefore, when thou hast read the words which I have commanded thee, and obtained the witnesses which I have promised unto thee, then shalt thou seal up the book again, and hide it up unto me, that I may preserve the words which thou hast not read, until I shall see fit in mine own wisdom to reveal all things unto the children of humans. For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; and I will show unto the World that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and I am work not among children of humans save it be according to their faith. And again it shall come to pass that the Lord shall say unto him that shall read the words that shall be delivered him: forasmuch as this people draw near unto me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their hearts far from me, and their fear towards me is taught by the precepts of humans—therefore, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, yea, a marvelous work and a wonder, for the wisdom of their wise and learned shall perish, and the understanding of the prudent shall be hid. And wo unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord! And their works are in the dark; and they say: Who seeth us, and who knoweth us? #RandolphHarris 18 of 21

Image“And they also say: Surely, your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay. However, behold, I will show unto them, saith the Lord of Hosts, that I know all their works. For shall the work say of him that made it, he made me not? Or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, he had no understanding? However, behold, saith the Lord of Host: I will show unto the children of humans that it is yet a very little while and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field; and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest. And in that say shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. And the meek also shall increase, and their joy shall be in the Lord, and the poor among humans shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. For assuredly as the Lord liveth they shall see that the terrible one is brought to naught, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off; and they that make a human an offender for a word and lay a snare for one that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of naught. Therefore, thus saith the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale. However, when he seeth his children, the work of my hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21

Image“They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and the that murmured shall learn doctrine,” reports 2 Nephi 27.1-35. O LORD our God, the Bread of Heaven, the Life of the World, I have sinned against Heaven and before Thee, and am not worthy to partake of Thine immaculate Mysteries;–but in Thy Divine tenderness do Thou vouchsafe my by Thy grace to partake of Thy holy Body and precious Blood, without condemnation, unto remission of sins and eternal life. O God of my delight, Thy throne of grace is the pleasure ground of my soul. Here I obtain mercy in time of need, here see the smile of Thy reconciled face, here joy pleads the name of Jesus, here I sharpen the sword of the Spirit, anoint the shield of faith, put on the helmet of salvation, gather manna from Thy word, am strengthened for each conflict, nerved for the upward race, empowered to conquer race, empowered to conquer every foe; please hep me to come to Christ as the fountain head of descending blessings, as a wide open flood-gate of mercy. I marvel at my insensate folly, that which such enriching favours within my reach I am slow to extend the hand to take them. Have mercy upon my deadness for Thy name’s sake. Ouicken me, stir me, fill me with holy zeal. Strengthen me that I may cling to Thee and not let Thee go. May Thy spirit within me draw all blessings from Thy hand. When I advance not, I backslide. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21

ImagePlease let me walk humbly because of good omitted and evil done. Impress on my mind the shortness of tie, the work to be engaged in the account to be rendered, the nearness of eternity, the fearful sin of despising Thy Spirit. May I never forget that Thy eye always sees, Thy ear always hears, Thy recording hand always writes. May I never give Thee rest until Christ is the pulse of my heart; the spokes-person of my lips, the lamp of my feet. O LORD our God, Who hast called us Christians after the Name of Thine Only-begotten Son, as hast given us Baptism in the Font for the remission of sins; please make us, we beseech Thee, worthy now to receive this Communion for the remission of our sins, and to glorify Thee with thanksgiving. O LORD my God, grant me so to receive the Body and Blood of Thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ, that by means thereof I may receive forgiveness of all my sins, and be filled with Thy Holy Spirit, O our God, Who livest and reignest World without end. Cleanse us, O Lord, from our secret faults, and mercifully absolve us from our presumptuous sins, that we may receive Thy holy things with a pure mind; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Grant, O Lord, that our bodies may be sanctified by Thy holy Body, and that they may avail for the pardon of our offences and remission of our sins. Glory be to Thee forever, O Lord God. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21   Image

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Counting sheep will be a thing of the past when you live #MillsStation. 💭🐑😴

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#CresleighRanch
#CresleighHomes

Humans were Born Free, and Everywhere Humans are in Chains!

ImageWhen people are regarded superficially their differences are accentuated. However, as we understand each other, differences fade and the oneness of humans emerges—the same needs, the same fears, the same struggles, the same desires. Here comes everybody! Education stands firmly as the cornerstone of our great nation. A commitment to education is a commitment to our children and their future. Our children are our most precious resource and we, as citizens and communities, must never forget that the skills and knowledge we provide our children with today will become the foundation of tomorrow. We must make certain that the opportunity for a quality education is available for all children. The dedication and tireless efforts put forth by our educators to enhance the learning process is essential to the growth and prosperity of our communities and our nation. If you lecture upon morality, or political economy, official bodies will be found to make this request to the Government: That henceforth science be taught not only with sole reference to free exchange (to liberty, property, and justice), as has been the case up to the present time, but also, and especially, with reference to the facts of legislation (contrary to liberty, property, and justice) that regulate French industry. #RandolphHarris 1 of 24

ImageThat, in public lecterns salaried by the treasury, the professor abstain rigorously from endangering the slightest degree the respect duet to the laws now in force. So that is a law exists that sanctions slavery or monopoly, oppression or plunder, in any form whatever, it must not even be mentioned—for how can it be mentioned without damaging the respect that it inspires? Still further, mortality and political economy must be taught in connection with this law—that is, under the supposition that it must be just, only because it is law. Another effect of this deplorable perversion of the law is that it gives to human passions and to political struggles, and, in general, to politics, properly so called, an exaggerated importance. I could prove this assertion in a thousand ways. However, I shall confine myself, by way of an illustration, to bringing it to bear upon a subject which has of late occupied everybody’s mind: universal suffrage. Whatever may be thought of it by the adepts of the school of Rousseau, which professes to be very far advanced, but which I consider 20 centuries behind, universal suffrage (taking the word in its strictest sense) is not one of those scared strict and rigid doctrines with respect to which examination and doubt are crimes. Serious objections may be made to it. #RandolphHarris 2 of 24

ImageIn the first place, the word universal conceals a gross sophism. There are, in France, 67,000,000 inhabitants. To make the right of suffrage universal, 67,000,000 electors should be reckoned. The most extended system reckons only 18,000,000. Approximately 74 percent, then, are excluded. Upon what principle is this exclusion founded? Upon the principle of incapacity. Universal suffrage, then, means: universal suffrage of those who are capable. In point of fact, who are the capable? Are age, gender, and judicial condemnation the only conditions to which incapacity is to be attached? On taking a nearer view of the subject, we may soon perceive the reason why the right of suffrage depends upon the presumption of incapacity; the most extended system differing from the most restricted in the conditions on which this incapacity depends, and which constitutes not a difference in principle, but in degree. This motive is, that the elector does not stipulate for oneself, but for everybody. If, as the republicans of the Greek and Roman tone pretend, the right of suffrage had fallen to the lot of every one at one’s birth, it would be an injustice to adults to prevent women and children from voting. Why were women in the past, and minors currently prevented from voting? Because they are presumed to be incapable. #RandolphHarris 3 of 24

ImageAnd why is incapacity a reason for exclusion from voting? Because the elector does not reap alone the responsibility of one’s vote; because every vote engages and affects the community at large; because the community has a right to demand some assurances, as regards the acts upon which its well-being and its existence depend. I know what might he said in answer to this. I know what might be objected. However, this is not the place to settle a controversy of this kind. What I wish to observe is that, that this same controversy (in common with the greater part of political questions) that agitates, excites, and unsettles the nations, would lose almost all its importance if the law had always been what it ought to be. In fact, if law were confined to causing all persons, all liberties, and all properties to be respected—if it were merely the organization of individual right and individual defense—if it were the obstacle, the check, the chastisement opposed to all oppression, to all plunder—is it likely that we should dispute much, as citizens, on the subject of the greater or lesser universality of suffrage? Is it likely that it would compromise that greatest of advantages, the public peace? Is it likely that the excluded classes would not quietly wait for their turn? Is it likely that the enfranchised classes would be very jealous of their privileges? And is it not clear, that the interest of all being one and the same, some would act without much inconvenience to others? #RandolphHarris 4 of 24

ImageHowever, if the fatal principle should come to be introduced, that, under pretense of organization, regulation, protection, or encouragement, the law may take from one party in order to give to another, help itself to the wealth acquired by all the classes that it may increase that of one class, whether that of the agriculturists, the manufacturers, the ship owners, or artist and comedians; then certainly, in this case, there is no class which may not try, and with reason, to place its hand upon the law, that would not demand with fury its right of election and eligibility, and that would overturn society rather than not obtain it. Even beggars and vagabonds will prove to you that they have an incontestable title to it. They will say: “We never buy wine, tobacco, or salt, without paying the tax, and a part of this tax is given by law in perquisites and gratuities to humans who are rich than we are. Others make use of the law to create an artificial rise in the price of bread, land, meat, dairy, fuel, water, iron, or cloth. Since everybody traffic in law for one’s own profit, we should like to do the same. We should like to make it produce the right to assistance, which is the less affluent human’s plunder. To effect this, we ought to be electors and legislators, that we may organize, on a large scale, alms for our own class, as you have organized, on a large scale, protection for yours. #RandolphHarris 5 of 24

Image“Do not tell us that you will take cause upon yourselves, and throw to us $1,400,000 francs to keep us quiet, like giving us a bone to pick. We have other claims, and, at any rate, we wish to stipulate for ourselves, as other classes have stipulated for themselves!” How is this argument to be answered? Yes, as long as it is admitted that the law may be diverted from its true mission, that it may violate property instead of securing it, everybody will be wanting to manufacture law, either to defend oneself against plunder, or to organize it for one’s own profit. The political question will always be prejudicial, predominant, and absorbing; in a word, there will be fighting around the door of the Legislative Palace. The struggle will be no less furious within it. To be convinced of this, it is hardly necessary to look at what passes in the Chambers in France and England; it is enough to know how the question stands. With this understanding, let us examine the value, the origin, and the tendency of this popular aspiration, which pretends to realize the general good by general plunder. The Socialists say, since the law organizes justice, why should it not organize labour, instruction, and religion? Why? Because it could not organize labour, instruction, and religion, without disorganizing justice. For remember, that law is force, and that consequently the domain of the law cannot properly extend beyond the domain of force. #RandolphHarris 6 of 24

ImageWhen law and force keep a person within the bounds of justice, they impose nothing upon one but a mere negation. They only oblige one to abstain from doing harm. They violate neither one’s personality, one’s liberty, nor one’s property. They only guard the personality, the liberty, the property of others. They hold themselves on the defensive; they defend the equal right of all. They fulfill a mission whose harmlessness is evident, whose utility is palpable, and whose legitimacy is not to be disputed. This is so true that, as a friend of mine once remarked to me, to say that the aim of the law is to cause justice to reign, is to use an expression that is not rigorously exact. It ought to be said, the aim of the law is to prevent injustice from reigning. In fact, it is not justice that has an existence of its own, it is injustice. The results from the absence of the other. However, when the law, through the medium of its necessary agent—force—imposes a form of labour, a method or a subject of instruction, a creed, or a worship, it is no longer negative; it acts positively upon humans. It substitutes the will of the legislator for their own will, the initiative of the legislator for their own initiative. They have no nee to consult, to compare, or to foresee; the law does all that for them. The intellect is for them a useless encumbrance; they cease to be humans; they lose their personality, their liberty, their property. #RandolphHarris 7 of 24

ImageTry to imagine a form of labour imposed by force, that is not a violation of liberty; a transmission of wealth imposed by force, that is not a violation of property. If you cannot succeed in reconciling this, you are bound to conclude that the law cannot organize labour and industry without organizing injustice. When, from the seclusion of one’s office, a politician takes a view of society, one is struck with the spectacle of inequality that presents itself. One mourns over the sufferings that are the lot of so many of our brethren, sufferings whose aspect is rendered yet more sorrowful by the contrast of luxury and wealth. One ought, perhaps, to task oneself whether such a social state has not been caused by the plunder of ancient times, exercised in the way of conquests; and by plunder of more recent times, effected though the medium of the laws? One ought to ask oneself whether, granting the aspiration of all humans to well-being and improvement, the reign of justice would not suffice to realize the greatest activity of progress, and the greatest amount of equality compatible with that individual responsibility that God has awarded as a just retribution of virtue and vice? One never gives this thought. One’s mind turns towards combinations, arrangements, legal or factitious organization. #RandolphHarris 8 of 24

ImageOne seeks the remedy in perpetuating and exaggerating what has produced the evil. For, justice apart, which we have seen is only a negation, is there any one of these legal arrangements that does not contain the principle of plunder? You say, “There are people who have no money,” and you apply to the law. However, the law is not a self-supplied fountain, whence every stream may obtain supplies independently of society. Nothing can enter the public treasury, in favour of one citizen or one class, but what other citizens and other classes have been forced to send to it. If everyone draws from it only the equivalent of what one has contributed to it, your law, it is true, is no plunder, but it does nothing for people who want money—it does not promote equality. It can only be an instrument of plunder. Examine, in the light, the protection of tariffs, subsidies, right to profit, right to labour, right to assistance, free public education, progressive taxation, gratuitousness of credit, social workshops, and you will always find at the bottom legal plunder, organized injustice. You say, “There are people who want knowledge,” and you apply to the law. However, the law is not a torch that sheds light that originates within itself. It extends over a society where there are people who have knowledge, and others who have not; citizens who want to learn, and other who are disposed to teach. #RandolphHarris 9 of 24

ImageThe law can only do one of two things; either allow a free operation to this kind of transaction, id est, let this kind of want satisfy itself freely; or else preempt the will of the people in the matter, and take from some of them sufficient to pay professors commissioned to instruct others for free. However, in this second case, there cannot fail to be a violation of liberty and property—legal plunder. You say, “Here are people who are wanting in mortality or religion,” and you apply to the law; but law is force, and need I say how far it is a violent and absurd enterprise to introduce force in these matters? As the result of its systems and of its efforts, it would seem that socialism, notwithstanding all its self-compliancy, can scarcely help perceiving the monster of legal plunder. However, what does it do? It disguises it cleverly from others, and even from itself, under the seductive names of fraternity, solidarity, organization, association. And because we do not ask so much at the hands of the law, because we only ask it for justice, it alleges that we reject fraternity, solidarity, organization, and association; and they brand us with the name of individualists. We can assure them that what we repudiate is not natural organization, but forced organization. It is not free association, but the forms of association that they would impose upon us. It is not spontaneous fraternity, but legal fraternity. It is not providential solidarity, but artificial solidarity, which is only an unjust displacement of responsibility. #RandolphHarris 10 of 24

ImageIn any encounter of humans with humans, power is active, the power of the personal radiation, expressed in language and gestures, in the glance of the eye and the sound of the voice, in face and figure and movement, expressed in what one is personally and what one represents socially. Every encounter, whether friendly or hostile, whether benevolent or indifferent, is in some way, unconsciously or consciously, a struggle of power with power. In this struggle decisions are made continuously about the relative power of being, actualized in all those who are involved in the struggle. Creative justice does not deny these encounters and the conflicts implicit in them. For this is the price which must be paid for the creativity of life. Such struggles start in the life of an individual in the moment of one’s conception and go on up to the moment of one’s last breath. They permeate one’s relations to everything and everybody one encounters. Justice is the form in which these struggles lead to ever-changing decision about the power of being in each of the struggling beings. The impression given by this picture, the truth of which can hardly be denied, is the complete dependence of justice in personal encounters on the power of relation between person and person. #RandolphHarris 11 of 24

ImageHowever, this impression is false because it does not take into consideration that every being which enters the struggle of power with power has already a definite power of being. It is a plant and not a stone, a beast and not a tree, a man and not a dog, a female and not a male. These and innumerable other qualities are given before the struggle in the personal encounter starts and they are the basis for the intrinsic claim for justice, which every being has. However, this claim has a large margin of indefiniteness, rooted in the dynamic side of every power of a being. And it is this undefined element in the power of a being about which new decision are always me. This of course is also the source of all injustice. If the new decision destroy the essential claim of a being, they are unjust. It is not unjust that in the struggle between power and power one of the beings involved shows a superior power of being. The manifestation of this fact is not unjust but creative. However, injustice occurs if in this struggle the superior power uses its power for the reduction or destruction of the inferior power. This can happen in all forms of personal encounters. Most frequent are those forms in which the personal encounter occurs within the frame of an institutional structure and the preservation and growth of the institution gives the pretext for unjust compulsion. #RandolphHarris 12 of 24

ImageThere is unjust psychological compulsion in family relations, in educational relations and in all other authority relations. It often happens that parents who look at a young child with an especially severe or angry expression become responsible for a life-long abnormal anxiety of the child. It feels rejected and loses any self-assurance concerning the power and justice of its own being. Its just claims are repressed or transformed into unjust ones, exempli gratia unconscious destructiveness against itself or against others. This, on the other hand, gives the parents a feeling of being resisted or avoided by the child. Their intrinsic claim as parents is not fulfilled either. Authority can, besides its external compulsory power, exercise a psychological compulsion which conflicts with the justice of person-to-person encounters. Here the large problem arises as to whether there is a type of authority which is, by its very nature, unjust, and another one which is by its very nature just. This seems to be the case: there is “authority in principle” and there is “authority in fact.” Authority in principle means that a person has authority by the place one occupies and that one is beyond criticism because of the place. So—to give the most famous example—the Pope as Pope is ultimate authority for every Catholic believer. #RandolphHarris 13 of 24

ImageThus, the Bible as Bible is ultimate authority for every orthodox Protestant. Thus, the dictator as dictator is ultimate authority in a totalitarian system. Thus, parents are authority for infants and try to remain in this place for ever. So teacher become authorities for pupils without trying to liberate the pupils from their authority. All this “authority in principle” is unjust authority. It disregards the intrinsic claim of group, or, as it is called if it has a manifest center, a social organism. An organism is the more developed and has a greater power of being, the more different elements are united around an acting center. Therefore, humans produce the richest, most universal and most powerful social organisms. However, the individuals who constitute this organism are each independent centers for themselves, and so they can resist the unity of the social organism to which they belong. And there the limits of the analogy between biological and social organism becomes visible. In a biological organism the parts are nothing without the whole to which they belong. This is not the case in social organisms. They destiny of an individual who is separated from the group to which one belongs may be miserable but the separation is not necessarily fatal. #RandolphHarris 14 of 24

ImageThe fate of a limb which is cut off from the living organism to which it belongs is in decay. In this sense no human group is an organism in the biological sense. Neither is the family the cell of a quasi-biological organism, nor is the nation something like a biological organism. This statement is politically significant. Those who like to speak of social organisms do it usually with a reactionary tendency. They want to keep dissenting groups in conformity and they use for this purpose biological metaphors in a literal sense. Prussian conservatism and Roman Catholic family glorification agree at this point. However, the individual person is not a limb of a body; one is an ultimate, independent reality, with both personal and social functions. The individual human is a social being, but the society does not create the individual. They are interdependent. Another moral problem is the inability to take a definite stand and the undependability that goes with it. The neurotic rarely takes a stand in accordance with the objective merits of a person, idea, or cause but rather on the basis of one’s own emotional needs. Since these, however, are contradictory, one position can easily be exchanged for another. Hence many neurotics are readily swayed—unconsciously bribed, as it were—by the lure of greater affection, greater prestige, recognition, power, or “freedom.” #RandolphHarris 15 of 24

ImageThis applies to all their personal relationships, whether individual or as part of a group. They often cannot commit themselves to a feeling or opinion about another person. Some unsubstantiated gossip may alter their opinion. Some disappointment or sight, or what is felt as such, may be reason enough to drop a “very good friend.” Some difficulty encountered may turn their enthusiasm into listlessness. They may change their religious, political, or scientific views because of some personal attachment or resentment. They may take a stand in a private conversation but give way under the slightest pressure by some authority or group—often without knowing why they changed their opinion or even that they have do so at all. A neurotic may unconsciously avoid obvious wavering by not making up one’s mind in the first place, but “sitting on the fence,” leaving every alternative open. One may rationalize such an attitude by pointing to the actual intricacies of the situation, or one may be determined by a compulsive “fairness.” Unquestionably a genuine striving to be fair is valuable. It is true also that a conscientious wish to be fair makes it harder to take a definite stand in many situations. #RandolphHarris 16 of 24

ImageHowever, fairness can be a compulsory part of the idealized image, and its function then is to make taking a stand unnecessary, while at the same time allowing the person to feel “anointed” for being above prejudiced struggle. In this case there is a tendency to be indiscriminate in believing that two viewpoints are really not so contradictory, or that in a dispute between two persons there is right on both sides. It is a pseudo objectivity which prevents a person from recognizing the essential issues in any matter. Earlier I mentioned our various list of “do’s and do not’s.” We have looked at some typical “do not’s”: do not go to the beach, do not play pool, do not eat peanut butter. If this list seems humorous to you, you are wondering how anyone could have such unusual notions, consider that your own list could look just as foolish to someone else. However, foolish or not is not the issues. The issue is that God has not appointed any of us to be the Thought Police or other believer. However, what about the “do’s.” By the “do’s” I am thinking particularly of activities I call spiritual disciplines: having regular private devotions, studying the Bible, memorizing Scripture, meeting with a group Bible study, or faithfully attending a weekly prayer meeting. #RandolphHarris 17 of 24

ImageSpiritual disciplines are provided for our good, not for our bondage. “Spiritual disciplines were made for human, not humans for spiritual disciplines,” reports Mark 2.27. We can become just as legalistic about our “do’s” as we can about the “do nots.” In fact, newer believers coming into our fellowship from totally unchristian backgrounds usually do not have many cultural “do nots.” However, the spiritual disciplines are fertile ground for legalistic thinking. They can easily become a performance measurement by which we gauge whether to expect God’s blessing or not. If I have been doing pretty well, having a regular quiet time, studying my Bible, and so on, then I am hopeful about God’s blessing. However, if I have not been doing so well—have not “been faithful” as we say—then, I might as well go back to bed. We get more legalistic about spiritual disciplines with others. We try subtly (or maybe not so subtle) coercion by communicating ever so slightly that a person who is not practicing the same disciplines we are is not “committed.” Or we do not allow a person into our “in” group if he or she is not doing what we do. Again we think God should lead everyone else in spiritual growth as He does us. I do not think we should actively promote spiritual disciplines. They are absolutely necessary for growth in our Christian lives. #RandolphHarris 18 of 24

ImageAnd since ours is a largely undisciplined age, many believers are losing out on the benefits of those disciplines that could help them grow to maturity in Christ. However, we should promote them as benefits, not as duties. Perhaps we should stop talking about being “faithful” to have a quiet time with God each day, as if we were doing something to earn a reward. It would be better to talk about the privilege of spending time with the God of the Universe and the importance for our own sake of being consistent in the practice. If we are involved in a one-to-one discipling relationship, we must remember Paul’s attitude when he wrote, “Not that we Lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, because it is by faith you stand firm,” reports 2 Corinthians 1.24. In a one-to-one discipling relationship, we are there to serve, not to Lord it over the other person. We should encourage the use of spiritual disciplines and do all we can to help the person succeed in them, but we should never require them as a condition of acceptance—either by God or by us. We must remember that the methods of spiritual disciplines are a means to the end, not the ends themselves. We need to teach grace before commitment, because, as we saw, grace understood and embrace will always lead to commitment. However, commitment required will always lead to legalism. #RandolphHarris 19 of 24

ImageChrist will minister to the Nephites—Nephi foresees the destruction of his people—they will speak from the dust—the Gentiles will build up false churches and secret combinations—the Lord forbids humans to practice priestcrafts. About 559-545 Before Christ. “And after Christ shall have risen from the dead he shall show himself unto you, my children, and my beloved brethren; and the words which he shall speak unto you shall be the law which ye shall do. For behold, I say unto you that I have beheld that many generations shall pass away, and there shall be great wards and contentions among my people. And after the Messiah shall come there shall be signs given unto my people of his birth, and also of his death and resurrection; and great and terrible shall that say be unto the wicked, for they shall perish; and they perish because they cast out the prophets, and the saints, and stone them, and slay them; wherefore the cry of the blood of the saints shall ascend up to God from the ground against them. Wherefore, all those who are proud, and that do wickedly, the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, for they shall be as stubble. And they that kill the prophets, and the saints, the depths of the Earth shall swallow them up, saith the Lord of Hosts; and mountains shall cover them, and whirlwinds shall carry them away, and buildings shall fall upon them and crush them to pieces and grind them to powder. #RandolphHarris 20 of 24

Image“And they shall be visited with thunderings, and listenings, and Earthquakes, and all manner of destructions, for the fire of the anger of the Lord shall be kindled against them, and they shall be as stubble, and the day that cometh shall consume them, saith the Lord of Hosts. O the pain, and the anguish of my soul for the loss of the slain of my people! For I, Nephi, have seen it, and it well nigh consumeth me before the presence of the Lord; but I must cry unto my God: They ways are just. However, behold, the righteous that hearken unto the words of the prophets, and destroy them not, but look forward unto Christ with steadfastness for the signs which are given, notwithstanding all persecution—behold, they are they which shall not perish. However, the Son of Righteousness shall appear unto them; and he shall heal them, and they shall have peace with him, until three generations shall have passed away, and many of the fourth generation shall have passed away in righteousness. And when thee things have passed away a speedy destruction cometh unto my people; for, notwithstanding the pains of my soul, I have seen it; wherefore, I know that it shall come to pass; and they sell themselves for naught; for, the reward of their pride and their foolishness they shall reap destruction; for because they yield unto the devil and choose works of darkness rather than light, therefore they must go down to hell. #RandolphHarris 21 of 24

Image“For the Spirit of the Lord will not always strive with a human. And when the Spirit ceaseth to strive with a human then cometh speedy destruction, and this grieveth my soul. And as I spake concerning the convincing of the Jews, that Jesus is the very Christ, it must needs be that the Gentiles be convinced also that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God. And that he manifesteth himself unto all those who believe in him, by the power of the Holy Ghost; yea, unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, working mighty miracles the children of humans according to their faith. However, behold, I prophesy unto you concerning the last days; concerning the days when the Lord God shall bring these things forth unto the children of humans. After my seed and the seed of my brethren shall have dwindled in unbelief, and shall have been smitten by the Gentiles; yea, after the Lord God shall have camped against them round about, and shall have laid siege against them with a mount, and raised forts against them; and after they shall have been brought down low in the dust, even that they are not, yet the words of the righteous shall be written, and the prayer of the faithful shall be heard, and all those who have dwindled in unbelief shall not be forgotten,” reports 2 Nephi 26.1-15. #RandolphHarris 22 of 24

ImageWe beseech Thee, O Lord, please let the earnest desire of Thine obedient people move Thy pity, and let their faithful supplication obtain Thy mercy; that what they cannot claim by merits they may receive by the abundance of Thy pardon; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Great God, in public and private, in sanctuary and home, may my life be steeped in prayer, filled with the spirit of grace and supplication, each prayer perfumed with the incense of atoning blood. Please help me, please defend me, until from praying ground I pass to the realm of unceasing praise. Urged by my need, invited by Thy promises, called by Thy Spirit, I enter Thy presence, worshipping Thee with Godly fear, awed by Thy majesty, greatness, glory, but encourage by Thy love. I am all poverty as well as all guilt, having nothing of my own with which to repay Thee, but I bring Jesus to Thee in the arms of faith, pleading his righteousness to offset my iniquities, rejoicing that he will weigh down the scales for me, and satisfy Thy justice. I bless Thee that great sin draws out great grace, that, although the least sin deserves infinite punishment because done against an infinite God, yet there is mercy for me, for where guilty is most terrible, there Thy mercy in Christ is most free and deep. #RandolphHarris 23 of 24

ImagePlease bless me by revealing to me more of his saving merits, by causing Thy goodness to pass before me, by speaking peace to my contrite heart; strengthen me to give Thee no rest until Christ shall reign supreme within me, in every thought, word, and deed, in a faith that purifies the heart, overcomes the World, works by love, fastens me to Thee, and ever clings to the cross. O God of Heavenly powers, Who givest more than we ask or deserve; please grant, we beseech Thee, that what we cannot have by reliance on our own deserts may be granted to us by Thy mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. May Thy perpetual gifts, O Lord, be confirmed to Thy faithful servants, that in receiving them they may seek Thee, and in seeking Thee may endlessly receive them; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Bless, O Lord, Thy family in Heavenly places, and fill them with Thy spiritual gifts; grant them love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, hope, faith, chastity; that being replenished with all Thy gifts, they may attain their desires of coming safe unto Thee; through our Lord. Take away from us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, all our iniquities, and the spirit of pride and arrogance, which Thou resistest, and fill us with the spirit of fear, and give us a contrite and humbled heart, which Thou dost not despise,–that we may be enabled with pure minds to enter into the Holy of Holies; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #RandolphHarris 24 of 24Image

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Dinner is served. 🤩 #BrightonStation Residence 4 has a beautiful formal dining room accessible through the butler’s pantry (in the back left) or through the main hallway, creating connectivity and flow. 🙌 https://cresleigh.com/brighton-station/residence-4/

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God Bless the Inventor of Sleep, the Cloak that Covers All People’s thoughts, the Food that Cures All Hunger!

ImageThe rewards of educating comes from a teachers’ innate belief that every day they have the opportunity to enrich the lives of their students by igniting the human spirit, dignifying the human experience, and inspiring human excellence. You know the old saying, “If you plan ahead God goes with you.” Commerce is everything, but everybody goes about consulting astrologers, talking about magic, and trying to drive out evil spirits. People have families, eat, drink, and try to achieve success in every way possible, yet carry on all the time about luck. Now Americans do not talk about demons, no, but they rattle on about “negative thinking,” and “self-destructive ideas” and “bad self-image.” It is a lot the same, Babylon and America. The law has become perverted! The law—and, in its wake, all the collective forces of the nation—the law, I say, not only diverted from its proper direction, but made to pursue one entirely contrary! The law has become the tool of every kind of avarice, instead of being its check! The law guilty of that very iniquity which it was its mission to punish! Truly, this is a serious fact, if it exists, and one to which I feel bound to call the attention of my fellow citizens. We hold from God the gift that, as far as we are concerned, contains all others, Life—physical, intellectual, and more life. #RandolphHarris 1 of 24

ImageHowever, life cannot support itself. One who has bestowed it, has entrusted us with the care of supporting it, of developing it, and of perfecting it. To that end, He has provided us with a collection of wonderful faculties; He has plunged us into the midst of a variety of elements. It is by the application of our faculties to these elements that the phenomena of assimilation and of appropriation, by which life pursues the circle that has been assigned to it are realized. Existence, faculties, assimilation—in other words, personality, liberty, property—this is human. It is of these three things that it may be said, apart from all demagogic subtlety, that they are anterior and superior to all human legislation. It is not because humans have made laws, that personality, liberty, and property exist. On the contrary, it is because personality, liberty, and property exist before hand, that humans make laws. What, then, is law? Law is the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense. Nature, or rather God, has bestowed upon every one of us the right to defend one’s person, one’s liberty, and one’s property, since these are three constituent or preserving elements of life; elements, each of which is rendered complete by the others, and that cannot be understood without them. For what are our faculties, but the extension of our personality? And what is property, but an extension of our faculties? #RandolphHarris 2 of 24

ImageIf every person has the right of defending, even by force, one’s person, one’s liberty, and one’s property, a number of humans have the right to combine together to extend, to organize a common force to provide regularly for this defense. Collective right, then, has its principle, its reason for existing, its lawfulness, in individual right; and the common force cannot rationally have any other end, or any other mission, than that of the isolated forces for which it is substituted. Thus, as the force of an individual cannot lawfully touch the person, the liberty, or the property of another individual—for the same reason, the common force cannot lawfully be used to destroy the person, the liberty, or the property of individual classes. For this perversion of force would be, in one case as in the other, in contradiction to our premises. For who will dare to say that force has been given to us, not to defend our rights, but to annihilate the equal rights of our brethren? And if this be not true of every individual force, acting independently, how can it be true of the collective force, which is only the organized union of isolated forces? It is not for one to work for humanity by only helping particular persons and by alleviating isolated distresses. One’s form of service must be stretch over wider areas, must affect a multitude of persons. However, this is possible only if one works in deeper ground and through secret unobtrusive ways. #RandolphHarris 3 of 24

ImageThe World being what it is, human nature what it has long been, and human affairs all-too-repetitious, one will not waste time and energy attempting to re-arrange the by surface efforts.  One may do nothing more than put one’s mite of cheering truth and softening goodness into the grim World around one, but this will be enough. One cannot contribute more than one has. The ultimate result of this contribution may be little, but one has tried to do God’s will on Earth. Nothing, therefore, can be more evident than this: The law is the organization of the natural right of lawful defense; it is the  substitution of collective for individual forces, for the purpose of acting in the sphere in which they have a right to act, of doing what they have a right to do, to secure persons, liberties, and properties, and to maintain each in its right, so as to cause justice to reign over all. Just the fact that one is here, on this planet and at this time, makes its own contribution to humanity’s welfare. This is still true even though one may not try to manage other people’s lives on the plea of serving them. One’s service may not be immediately, or locally, apparent; it may need time to come up from the subconscious levels that are the deeper layers of mind and spirit, but it will be nevertheless real. Although it is not one’s direct purpose, one’s existence will lessen humanity’s suffering, and increase its hope and goodwill through obeying and enforcing law and order. #RandolphHarris 4 of 24

ImageAnd if people established upon this basis were to exist, it seems to me that order would prevail among them in their acts as well as in their ideas. It seems to me that such people would have the most simple, the most economical, the least oppressive, the least to be felt, the most restrained, the most just, and, consequently, the most stable Government that could be imagined, whatever its political form might be. For under such an administration, everyone would feel that one possessed all the fullness, as well as all the responsibility of one’s existence. So long as personal safety was ensured, so long as labour was free, and the fruits of labour secured against all unjust attacks, no one would have any difficulties to content with in the State. When prosperous, we should not, it is true, have to thank the State for our success; but when unfortunate, we should no more think of taxing it with our disasters than our less affluents think of attributing to it the arrival of hail or of frost. We should know it only by the inestimable blessing of Safety. Those who cross this path may feel like it is only a once in a lifetime experience, and they will receive instruction, even though they are not outwardly being taught. America is under God’s divine blessing and God’s grace has bestowed us with Manifest Destiny, which has influenced kings and rulers and leaders of humans and culture. #RandolphHarris 5 of 24

ImageManifest Destiny has guaranteed America with the birth rite to expand its boarders from sea to shining sea. The poem of the Statue of Liberty is a prophecy that one day, America will be One World, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I mean, really, who would not like to move around the World and be protected by the laws, rights, and justice that Americans are granted on their beautiful island? Americans have emerged into public view in order to quicken the pace of evolution by active external work, but some do not have their spiritual identity and as a result their efforts where not always successful because they had to deal with frail stubborn human nature. Knowing this convinces us better than printed arguments of the eternal Spiritual truths. It may further be affirmed, that, thanks to the non-intervention of the State in private affairs, our wants and their satisfactions would develop themselves in their natural order. We should not see less affluent families seeking for literary instruction before they were supplied with bread. We should not see those great displacements of capital, of labour, and population, that legislative measures occasion; displacements that render so uncertain and precarious the very sources of existence, and thus enlarge to such an extent the responsibility of Governments. #RandolphHarris 6 of 24

ImageUnhappily, law is by no means confirmed to its own sphere. Nor is it merely in some ambiguous and debatable views that it has left it proper sphere. It has done more than this. It has acted in direct opposition to its proper end; it has destroyed its own object; it has been employed in annihilating that justice which it ought to have established, in effacing amongst Rights, that limit which it was its true mission to respect; it has placed the collective force in the service of those who wish to traffic, without risk and without scruple, in the persons, the liberty, and the property of others; it has converted plunder into a right, that it may protect it, and lawful defense into a crime, that it may punish it. How has this perversion of law been accomplished? And what has resulted from it? The law has been perverted through the influence of two very different causes—naked greed and misconceived philanthropy. Let us speak of the former. Self-preservation and development is the common aspiration of all human, in such a way that if every one enjoyed the free exercise of one’s faculties and the free disposition of their fruits, social progress would be incessant, uninterrupted, inevitable. However, there is also another disposition which is common to them. This is to live and to develop, when they can, at the expense of another. This is no rash imputation, emanating from a gloomy, uncharitable spirit. #RandolphHarris 7 of 24

ImageHistory bears witness to the truth of it, by the incessant wars, the migrations of races, sectarian oppressions, the universality of slavery, the frauds in trade, and the monopolies with which it annals universal, and invincible sentiment that urges it towards its well-being, and makes it seek to escape pain. Humans can only derive life and enjoy from a perpetual search and appropriation; that is, from a perpetual application of one’s faculties to objects, or from labour. This is the origin of property. However, also one may live and enjoy, by seizing and appropriating the productions of the faculties of one’s fellow humans. This is the origin of plunder. Now, labour being in itself a pain, and humans being naturally inclined to avoid pain, it follows, and history proves it, that whatever plunder is less burdensome than labour, it prevails; and neither religion nor morality can, in this case, prevent it from prevailing. When does plunder cease, then? When it becomes more burdensome and more dangerous than labour. It is very evident that the proper aim of law is to oppose the fatal tendency to plunder with the powerful obstacle of collective force; that all its measures should be in favour of property, and against plunder. However, law is made, generally, by one human, or by one class of humans. #RandolphHarris 8 of 24

ImageAnd as law cannot exist without the sanction and the support of preponderant force, it must finally place this force in the hands of those who legislate. This inevitable phenomenon, combined with the fatal tendency that, we have said, exists in the heart of humans, explains the almost universal perversions of law. It is easy to conceive that, instead of being a check upon injustice, it becomes its most invincible instrument. It is easy to conceive that, according to the power of the legislator, it destroys for its own profit, and in different degrees amongst the rest of the community, personal independence by slavery, liberty by oppression, and property by plunder. It is in the nature of humans to rise against the injustice of which they are the victims. When, therefore, plunder is organized by law, for the profit of those who perpetrate it, all the plundered classes tend, either by peaceful or revolutionary means, to enter in some way into the manufacturing of laws. These classes, according to the degree of enlightenment at which they have arrived, may propose to themselves two very different ends, when they thus attempt the attainment of their political rights; either they may wish to put an end to lawful plunder, or they may desire to take part in it. Woe to the nation where this latter thought prevails amongst the masses, at the moment when they, in their turn, seize upon the legislative power! #RandolphHarris 9 of 24

ImageUp to that time, lawful plunder has been exercised by the few upon the many, as is the case in the case in countries where the right of legislating is confined to a few hands. However, now it has become universal, and the equilibrium is sought in universal plunder. The injustice that society contains, instead of being rooted out of it, is generalized. As soon as the injured classes have recovered their political rights, their first thought is not to abolish plunder (this would suppose them to possess enlightenment, which they cannot have), but to organize against the other classes, and to their own detriment, a system of reprisals—as if it was necessary, before the reign of justice arrives, that all should undergo a cruel retribution—some for their iniquity and some for their ignorance. It would be the consequences of such a perversion? It would require volumes to describe them all. We must content ourselves with pointing out the most striking. In the first place, it would efface from everybody’s conscience the distinction between justice and injustice. No society can exist unless the laws are respected to a certain degree, but the safest way to make them respected is to make them respectable. When law and morality are in contradiction to each other, the citizen find oneself in the cruel alternative of either losing one’s moral sense, or of losing one’s respect for the law—two evils of equal magnitude, between which it would be difficult to choose. #RandolphHarris 10 of 24

ImageIt is so much in the nature of law to support justice that in the minds of the masses they are one and the same. There is in all of us a strong disposition to regard what is lawful as legitimate, so much so that many falsely derive all justice from law. It is sufficient, then, for the law to order and sanction plunder, that it may appear to many consciences just and sacred. Slavery, protection, and monopoly find defenders, not only in those who profit by them, but in those who suffer by them. If you suggest a doubt as to the morality of these institutions, it is said directly—“You are dangerous experimenter, a utopian, a theorist, a despiser of the laws; your would shake the basis upon which society rests.” The imagination is responsible for imagery of all kinds. It is the representation of an individual thought. The imagination reproduces images made originally by the senses or held in memory and creates images either in cooperation with reason or in its own right. These functions are in turn revealed in three kinds of imagination, the first joined with belief of that which is to come; the second joined with memory of that which is past; and the third is of things present, or as if they were presented; imaginations are feigned and at pleasure; as if one should imagine such a person to be in the vestments of a Pope, or to have wings. #RandolphHarris 11 of 24

ImageExamination of the three kind of imagination, the first joined with the memory of that which is to come; the second joined with memory of that which is past; and the third is of things present, as if they were present, discloses the reproductive and creative roles of imagination, and about the force of imagery qua imagery, exempli gratia, imagination intensive. What is the representation of an individual thought? At the level of understanding and reason, thought could be so abstract as to be impalpable. Imagination has the power of rendering abstract thought tangible. The tangible manifestation appeared most widely as words in speech and writing, for the words were the images of thought, the images of cogitations. Thinking can occur in the absence of imagery, but if it were to be available to sense, it has to appear as auditory and verbal imagery. Thought images serve as if they were the contents of perception, but thinking does not take place at all without some kind of an image. The mind can frame a purely mental proposition without the use of words. So from the point of view of the mind that makes them, the imagery of speech and language is the concrete analogue of abstract thought. The imagination thus gives body to thought. A thought occurred, an image followed upon it. Imagery is in this sense a re-presenting of thought. #RandolphHarris 12 of 24

ImageThe objectification of thought as verbal imagery is strikingly perceived when one contemplates the context within which we locate speech and writing along with the communication, or transmission, of ideas among the rational or intellectual arts. We distinguish four intellectual or logical activities, and these give their names to corresponding arts. Reason is the discursive movement of the understanding, and logic is a term applied to the study of its modes of discursion as they appear in discourse. There is invention—the finding and discovering of ideas; there is judging—the evaluation and criticism of the results of invention; there is memory—the retention of what is judged acceptable; and there is the transmission and communication of ideas. The first three of these activities are mental, or as more properly, psychological, processes. They were unavailable to our sense directly. To the extent that they became available as discourse, rather than through spirit (human or divine) or in other nondiscursive, immediate ways, they must appear as material and form. So we place under the transmission of ideas three other features of intellectual discursiveness; the organ of discourse, the method of discourse, and the illustration of discourse. #RandolphHarris 13 of 24

ImageThe organ of discourse deals with the smallest physical elements, and the smallest number of them, that can be used alone or in combination to depict thought and its process. In ordinary languages these are speech and writing, though other kinds of characters have been used, such as hieroglyphics. Abstractly considered, the organ of discourse is grammar; concretely considered, the organ of discourse is speech and writing. The organ is so designated precisely because reason in its discursiveness needs and organ. On the other hand, the understanding as such, or pure reason, does not require an organ. In brief, the sound images of voice and speech and the visual images of language written are the simplest and most pervasive products of imagination. They are somehow bound in with thought. Imagine and thought are two facets of a unitary whole. The whole may be a modulation of the spirit. As to miracle, it is the sign-event which has occasioned or provoked the ecstatic awareness of revelation. It does not require special supernatural interference in natural process. The structure of natural causality is not broken. What happens is that certain natural events, when encountered in a special turn of mind, point to the mystery of being and non-being, and induce the beholder to commit oneself unconditionally to this revelation. #RandolphHarris 14 of 24

ImageThe sign-events in which the mystery be being gives itself consist in special constellations of elements of reality in correlation with special constellations of elements of the mind. Miracle occasions ecstasy; yet the event in question has become a miracle only through ecstasy. The subjective and the objective condition one another. Taking these revelatory elements together, one can say that ecstasy is the miracle of the mind and that miracle is the ecstasy of reality. By definition, religion originates in a correlation of miracle and ecstasy. The basic problem of all religions, however, is that literally anything may be a medium of revelation. Any event may be a miracle. Nature, history, groups, individuals and the word may be, and have been, mediums of revelation. The multiplicity of revelatory situations is at the origin of many different symbols of ultimate concern which have been developed by religions. Faith is unique. However, its symbols are manifold. Could there be only one symbol, there would be only one concrete content of faith, and therefore one religion. This naturally raises the problem of a final revelation: is there one revelatory event that transcends and underlies all others? The problem of Christianity and of its universal claim is thus posited. #RandolphHarris 15 of 24

ImageNo discussion of Christianity is meaningful if we leave out the sight of conception of a revelatory experience: a final revelation, if there is one, is first of all a constellation of revelatory character. The discipline of petitionary prayer: The practice of prayer—the list, the quiet, the place, the time, the posture, preparation, and the length—all suggest one thing—discipline. Work—candidly, prayer is work, not a sport. It is not something that you do if you like it, or devote your spare time to, or do only if you are good at it. Prayer is the proper work of the soul which loves Christ (Ephesians 6.18): And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayer and requests. With this in mind, be alter and always keep on praying for all the saints. This is a call to work! We must never wait until we feel like praying—otherwise we may never pray, unless, perhaps, we fall headfirst into an open wall. The context of Paul’s charge in Ephesians 6 is spiritual warfare—and that is what prayer is! Christian people face the World in prayer. Work and war, war and work—these are the words we must keep before us if we are to become humans of prayer. “Now I, Nephi, do speak somewhat concerning the words which I have written, which have written, which have been spoken by the mouth of Isaiah. For Behold, Isaiah spake many things which were hard for many of my people to understand; for they know not concerning the manner of prophesying among the Jews. #RandolphHarris 16 of 24

Image“For I, Nephi, have not taught them many things concerning the manner of the Jews; for their works were works of darkness, and their doings were doings of abominations. Wherefore, I write unto my people, unto all those that shall receive hereafter these things which I write, that they may know the judgments of God, that they come upon all nations, according to the word which he hath spoken. Wherefore, hearken, O my people, which are of the house of Israel, and give ear unto my words; for because the words of Isaiah are not plain unto you, nevertheless they are plain unto all those that are filled with the spirit of prophecy. However, I give unto you a prophecy, accord to the spirit which is in me; wherefore I shall prophesy according to the plainness which hath been with me from the time that I came out from Jerusalem with my father; for behold, my soul delighteth in plainness unto my people, that they may learn. Yea, and my soul delighteth in the words of Isaiah, for I came out from Jerusalem, and mine eyes hath beheld the things of the Jews, and I know that the Jews do understand the things of the prophets, and there is none other people that understand the things which were spoken unto the Jews like unto them, save it be that they are taught after the manner of the things of the Jews. #RandolphHarris 17 of 24

Image“But behold, I, Nephi, have not taught my children after the manner of the Jews; but behold, I, of myself, have dwelt at Jerusalem, wherefore I know concerning the regions round about; and I have made mention unto my children concerning the judgments of God, which hath come to pass among the Jews, unto my children, according to al that which Isaiah hath spoken, and I do not write them. However, behold, I proceed with mine own prophecy, according to my plainness; in the which I know that no person can err; nevertheless, in the days that the prophecies of Isaiah shall be fulfilled people shall know of a surety, at the times when they shall come to pass. Wherefore, they are of worth unto the children of humans, and one that supposeth that they are not, unto them will I speak particularly, and confine the words unto mine own people; for I know that they shall be of great worth unto them in the last days; for in that day shall they understand them; wherefore, for their good have I written them. And as one generation hath been destroyed among the Jews because of iniquity, even so have they been destroyed from generation to generation to generation according to their iniquities; and never hath any of the been destroyed save it were foretold them by the prophets of the Lord. #RandolphHarris 18 of 24

Image“Wherefore, it hath been told them concerning the destruction which should come upon them, immediately after my father left Jerusalem; nevertheless, they hardened their hearts; and according to my prophecy they have been destroyed, save it be those which are carried away captive into Babylon. And now this I speak because of the spirit which is in me. And notwithstanding they have been carried away they shall have return again, and possess the land of Jerusalem; wherefore, they shall be restored again to the land of their inheritance. However, behold, they shall have wars, and rumors of wars; and when that day cometh that the Only Begotten of the Father, yea, even the Father of Heaven and of Earth, shall manifest himself unto them in the flesh, behold, they will reject him, because of their iniquities, and the hardness of their hearts, and the stiffness of their necks. Behold, they will crucify him; and after he is laid in a sepulcher for the space of three days he shall rise from the dead, with healing in his wings; and all those who shall believe on his name shall be saved in the kingdom of God. Wherefore, my soul delighteth to prophesy concerning him, for I have seen his day, and my heart doth magnify his holy name. #RandolphHarris 19 of 24

Image“And behold it shall come to pass that after the Messiah hath risen from the dead, and hath manifested himself unto his people, unto as many as will believe on his name, behold, Jerusalem shall be destroyed again; for wo unto them that fight against God and the people of his church. Wherefore, the Jews shall be scattered among all nations; yea, and also Babylon shall be destroyed; wherefore, the Jews shall be scattered by other nations. And after they have been scattered, and the Lord God hath scourged them by other nations for the space of many generations, yea, even down from generation to generation until they shall be persuaded to believe in Christ, the Son of God, and the atonement, which is infinite for all humankind—and when that say shall come that they shall believe in Christ, and worship the Father in his name, with pure hearts and clean hands, and look not forward any more for another Messiah, then, at that time, the day will come that it must needs be expedient that they should believe these things. And the Lord will set his hand again the second time to restore his people from their lost and fallen state. Wherefore, one will proceed to do a marvelous work and a wonder among the children of humans. Wherefore, he shall bring forth his words unto them, which words shall judge them at the last day, for they shall be given them for the purpose of convincing them of the true Messiah, who was rejected by them. #RandolphHarris 20 of 24

Image“And unto the convincing of them that they need not look forward any more for a Messiah to come, for there should not any come, save it should be a false Messiah which should deceive the people; for there is save one Messiah spoken of by the prophets, and that Messiah is one who should be rejected of the Jews. For according to the words of the prophets, the Messiah cometh in six hundred years from the time that my father left Jerusalem; and according to the words of the prophets, and also the word of the Angel of God, his name shall be Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And now, my brethren, I have spoken plainly that ye cannot err. And as the Lord God liveth that brought Israel up out of the land of Egypt, and have unto Moses power that he should heal nations after they have been bitten by the poisonous serpents, if they would cast their eyes unto the serpent which he did raise up before them, and also gave him power that he should smite the rock and the water should come forth; yea, behold I say unto you, that as these things are true, and as the Lord God liveth, there is none other name given under Heaven save it be this Jesus Christ, of which I have spoken, whereby humans can be saved. Wherefore, for this cause hath the Lord God promised unto me that these things which I write shall be kept and preserved, and handed down unto my seed, from generation to generation, that the promise may be fulfilled unto Joseph, that his seed should never perish as long as the Earth should stand. #RandolphHarris 21 of 24

Image“Wherefore, these things shall go from generation to generation as long as the Earth shall stand; and they shall go according to the will and pleasure of God; and the nations who shall possess them shall be judged of them according to the words which are written. For we labour diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do. And, notwithstanding we believe in Christ, we keep the law of Moses, and look forward with the steadfastness unto Christ, until the law shall be fulfilled. For, for this end was the law given; wherefore the law hath become dead unto us, and we are made alive in Christ because of our faith; yet we keep the law because of the commandments. And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins. Wherefore, we speak concerning the law that our children may know the deadness of the law; and they, by knowing the deadness of the law, may look forward unto that life which is in Christ, and know for what end the law is given. And after the law is fulfilled in Christ, that they need not harden their hearts against him when the law ought to be done away. #RandolphHarris 22 of 24

Image“And now behold, my people, ye, are a stiffnecked people; wherefore, I have spoken plainly unto you, that ye cannot misunderstand. And the words which I have spoken shall stand as a testimony against you; for they are sufficient to teach any human the right way; for the right way is to believe in Christ and deny him not; for by denying him ye also deny the prophets and the law. And now behold, I say unto you that the right way is to believe in Christ, and deny him not; and Christ is the Holy One of Israel; wherefore ye must bow down before hum, and worship him with all your might, mind, and strength, and your whole soul; and if ye do this ye shall in nowsie be cast out. And, inasmuch as it shall be expedient, ye must keep the performances and ordinances of God until the law shall be fulfilled which was given uno Moses. O LORD God, Who hast taught us to pray all together, and hast promised to hear the united voices of two or three invoking Thy Name; hear now, O Lord, the prayers of Thy servants unto their salvation, and give us in this World knowledge of Thy truth, and in the World to come life everlasting. Living by prayer—O God of the open ear, please teach me to live by prayer as well as by providence, for myself, soul, body, children, family, church; please give me a heart frameable to Thy will; so might I live in prayer, and honour Thee, being kept from evil, known and unknown. #RandolphHarris 23 of 24

ImagePlease help me to see the sin that accompanies all I do, and the good I can distil from everything. Let me know that the work of prayer is to bring my will to thine, and that without this it is folly to pray; when I try to bring Thy will to mine it is to command Christ, to be above him, and wiser than he: this is my sin and pride. I can only succeed when I pray according to Thy precept and promise, and to be done with as it pleases Thee, according to Thy sovereign will. When Thou commandest me to pray for pardon, peace, brokenness, it is because Thou wilt give me the thing promised, for Thy glory, as well as for my good. Help me not only to desire small things but holy boldness to desire great things for Thy people, for myself, that they and I might live to show Thy glory. Teach me that it is wisdom for me to pray for all I have, out of love, willingly, not of necessity; that I may come to Thee at any time, to lay open my need acceptably to Thee; that my great sin lies in my not keeping the savour of Thy ways; that the remembrance of this truth is one way to the sense of Thy presence; that there is no wrath like the wrath of being governed by my own lusts for my own ends. Regard, O Lord, the prayers of Thy family, and please grant Thine assistance to their humble supplications; that, by means of the assistance which they require, they may persevere in the confession of Thy Name: through Jesus Christ our Lord. #RandolphHarris 24 of 24Image

BRIGHTON STATION AT CRESLEIGH RANCH
Rancho Cordova, CA |
Now Selling!

4 Bedrooms – 3.5 Bathrooms – 2,757 square feet

ImageBrighton Station at Cresleigh Ranch is Rancho Cordova’s newest home community! This charming neighborhood offers an array of home types with eye catching architecture styles such as Mid-Century Modern, California Modern, Prairie, and Contemporary Farmhouse.

ImageLocated off Douglas Road and Rancho Cordova Parkway, the residents of Cresleigh Ranch will enjoy, being just minutes from shopping, dining, and entertainment, and quick access to Highway 50 and Grant Line Road providing a direct route into Folsom. Residents here also benefit from no HOA fees, two community parks and the benefits of being a part of the highly-rated Elk Grove Unified School District. https://youtu.be/yQTnZ0oO2OEhttps://youtu.be/yQTnZ0oO2OE

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