August is Already Over

That was fast...August, I mean. Feels like it was just July.
I've been watching the major cable news stations and the response to Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally from this past Saturday. I've watched the rally and listened to the messages delivered. I am pretty sure that none of the commentators speaking about it have. If they did watch, they didn't understand it, or they are making up what they wanted the rally to be. They are reporting their agenda. I call that propaganda. I wonder what the animosity is based on, the animosity against Beck. If he is as the commentators call him then why such the big deal about him? They try to paint him as inconsequential and full of hot air, but then why do they keep talking about him? Is it simply because they think it is easy to make fun of him? I suggest that they keep talking about him and slandering him because he is speaking the truth. At least what I believe to be the truth, and I recognize that. Not everyone sees the same things as being truth. That's fine. If we don't agree, great. Let's discuss it and be friends and see how we can teach each other, because I think most people have something good to share with others, regardless of political or religious or social points of view. So why can't Keith Olberman allow that Glenn Beck believes differently and appreciate that? And the same goes for Beck. I think the aggressive attacks on Beck are because some people can't accept the fact that others believe differently than they do, and they feel that they need to make everyone believe as they do. That is dangerous. If you don't think the same way I do then you probably think what I'm saying is hypocritical, and perhaps it is, or at least sounds that way. I know I have a hard time hearing some things and accepting that someone believes that without trying to run it through my perception of truth. But I try to. I guess I just have a hard time understanding how someone is going to attack Beck for encouraging faith in God, hope and charity. How can a man who talks about putting God first in our lives be so bad? Have faith, be responsible for your self and your family and your neighbors. Alveda King, at the Restoring Honor rally, talked about how we need to see past skin color and realize that we are all a human family. What's wrong with that? Nothing. Why are we a human family? Because we are all children of God. We are all a family because God created us and we are his children. But I suppose that's just what I believe. It happens to be what Glenn Beck believes it and a lot of other Americans as well. So what about that makes us racists or hate mongers? That's something I've been thinking about.
You know what else frustrates me? People who want to be victims. Sociology calls them conflict theorists. Conflict theory is one of the main theories of sociology. Marx would be considered a conflict theorist. This theory says that all problems are caused by people with power. Whether it is men having power over women, white people in America having power over black people in America or rich people having power over poor people. Everything is conflict. I think that when conflict becomes your reason for everything and your lens through which you view the world then you are embracing contention and anger. I joke about being an angry guy, and sometimes I get more frustrated with certain things than I should, but I think for the most part anger isn't one of my key characteristics. And I hope to root out that weakness entirely. It isn't a happy way to be, always finding fault in people and placing blame. Playing the victim. That's what anger and contention do. It comes down to selfish pride. You feel like you deserve something and if you don't get it then it must be because someone else is preventing you from getting it. You play the victim and if there isn't a real oppressor, because sometimes there will be (i.e. Hitler), you have to have a make believe oppressor. May I suggest a rich, white man? This type is the popular target from many conflict theorists. It just bothers me when people don't accept responsibility for getting the things they want or need. If you are capable of getting it, then do it. If you expect someone to hand it to you without work, then I'm saddened by you. An interesting note from Beck's rally, afterwards the area of the rally was clean and free from litter. After the last presidential inauguration the area was trashed. Perhaps Beck paid people to pick up the trash so he could use this comparison as a feather in his own cap, or perhaps the people who attended his rally are responsible people who work for what they have and take care of themselves and the people attending the inauguration are expecting a handout from the government because they are "entitled." Something to think about. Or I'm still being what I was condemning earlier. I'm not perfect or close to it in anyway. When I look at things that I don't agree with and try to theorize solutions I'm not trying to single anyone out, I'm making generalizations. And I include myself in the audience. I don't think you have to be perfectly honest to recognize the importance of honesty and the wrongness of lying. If you had to be perfectly clean to understand what clean was then no one would ever understand what clean is. Does that make sense?
Finally, I was talking to some folks tonight and one of them said something about rhetorically asking God how long he can see the injustices of the world and stay his hand. She wasn't asking how God could let bad things happen, but rather how long will he allow us to go so wrong in so many ways. In my mind I thought a possible answer to that question might be "How long can you sit by and watch these things happen?" I believe that we are agents to act for ourselves. With this being the case, we have to be free to succeed and free to fail (did you hear that Government? Free to fail). When we see injustice across the globe and wonder how God can let it continue, perhaps we should wonder how we can let it happen. Perhaps we ought to see how we can fix it. Maybe that's what life is about. God knows how to fix these problems and he has always told us the solutions through prophets. The resources are there, we just need to care and seek them out. Do we have faith that God is there and that he has given us the resources. Do we have hope that we can achieve these good things? Do we have charity, or love for others, enough to fight injustice by carrying out what God has taught us? When I contemplate these questions I feel a bit of guilt. This is what the revolution is all about. I've got to change. I need to revolve. This isn't the first time I've had moments like this. They always seem to hit, last for a bit and then fade into the distracting sources of entertainment that are so plenteous these days. Change is possible for everyone with the mental capacity and function to do so, which means most of us. If you desire to change you can do it. The difficulty comes in maintaining the change. Preservation of self-improvement. That is the topic I need to give some time to.