Join Author David G. Woolley and start your day with a bit of Irish Luck
Never bad will, and apology accepted.I want to write some witty comment but there is nothing witty about this mess. Those numbers are mind boggling to me. Enough that I am having a hard time coming up with an articulate response. I have heard them all before, but never together and never in this graphic of an illustration.I believe that you cannot cure money problems with money because money is not the problem. Selfish behavior is the problem. And I am reminded of the 2nd chapter of Jacob.
I'm speechless. Thanks for keeping us informed. I knew things were bad, I just never stopped to consider the numbers. A little scary to see them rolling across my computer screen like that. Yikes.
I can certainly agree with the premise. We have become a nation and people who didn't show economic restraint. It has been encouraging to see that savings rates are now rising among individuals and families. I also share the concern about spending and would like us to pause and have more dialogue about this intervention before we continue our addiction to spending our way out of problems. It make little sense to me that we go into great debt so that we can get ourselves out of this economic morass. It presupposes that later, some time later, when things are better again, we will show the economic restraint to hold spending down, cut programs, and begin to pay this debt down. I question the will to do that. I fear we will just accumulate debt until it tumbles and humbles. But, here is my concern with the tone of the article. I have a hard time with conspiracy theory thinking. Why would "the government" want us to become dependent on us? Is there some back room where all the decision makers are sitting back and making grand schemes to subdue us? I realize there have been secret combinations in the past, but if this were of great concern, wouldn't I have heard more about this through a prophet? Secret combinations only work when we turn from God. What I hear is to be individually responsible, teach our families to circumscribe wants and truly distinguish between wants and needs. I hear them teaching us to live the gospel, meaning treat each other with kindness, share what we have, be good stewards over what we have. I also hear them encouraging us to get involved. I worry when the tone is apocolyptic, without a solution. Perhaps you intended this to set up what is to come. But for me when things sound a bit over the top or a bit simplistic I begin to wonder about the credibility of the message. Great points, but...
Is it within the power of others to take our agency from us? I believe not. We give it away. We may do so ever so slowly and thoughtlessly, but make no mistake, we give it freely. When we find ourselves the victims of addiction (spending included)we cry that we have been robbed of our agency. We have no control. That is true only because we chose earlier to relinquish that control. We continued making that choice until we were bound in chains. Democracy is governed by the people. That government responds to the desires of the people. If the people clamor for selfishness and greed, the government responds to please them. If the desires of the people are isatiable, the response of government is proportionate. We have chosen denial over reality, pretense over pain, entitlement over responsibility. And here we are... Please Dave, share with us the way out.
Sandra:All your comments are witty.Cami:It is astounding when its all stacked up, or in this case, falling off a cliff, in one big heap.Annita:Great points. I'm going to read them again. And again.UK Guy:You get the longest comment because you wrote the longest comment. An eye for an eye. Right?This post has some apocalyptic ideas. That was by design. There's no question that the increase of government spending with its attendant increase in taxation and debt has the effect of limiting freedom. The freedom to be self reliant. The freedom to be self determining. The freedom to decide how the sweat of your brow will be used to bless yourself, your family, your neighbors and those in need.There's also no question that secret combinations, in the final apocalyptic sense of the last days, will ultimately be present and generally responsible for the end of the world as revealed to the apostle John and to Moroni. The Book of Mormon is a fairly good authority on the process. In Ether 8 Moroni wrote:23 Wherefore, O ye Gentiles, it is wisdom in God that these things should be shown unto you, that thereby ye may repent of your sins, and suffer not that these murderous combinations shall get above you, which are built up to get power and gain-and the work, yea, even the work of destruction come upon you, yea, even the sword of the justice of the Eternal God shall fall upon you, to your overthrow and destruction if ye shall suffer these things to be.24 Wherefore, the Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation, because of this secret combination which shall be among you; or wo be unto it, because of the blood of them who have been slain; for they cry from the dust for vengeance upon it, and also upon those who built it up.25 For it cometh to pass that whoso buildeth it up seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries; and it bringeth to pass the destruction of all people, for it is built up by the devil, who is the father of all lies; even that same liar who beguiled our first parents, yea, even that same liar who hath caused man to commit murder from the beginning; who hath hardened the hearts of men that they have murdered the prophets, and stoned them, and cast them out from the beginning.The motivation to build up a secret combination is to get gain as Moroni points out in verse 23. Gain in power. Gain in money. Gain in popularity. These three are essentially the currency the Book of Mormon identifies over and over again. And, like currency, they're all interchangeable. If you have money you can buy power. If you have power you can become popular. If you're popular you can exchange it for money or power.A secret combination works by denying freedom or free agency,the ability to be self determining, and in an economically free agent sense, self reliant. Secret combinations did not begin with Cane and Able. They are a continuation of the battle that began in the pre-existence and continues to rage on this earth, essentially Lucifer denying free agency and forcing each of us individually and all of us collectively, to accept his will for us as opposed to Christ's firm assertion that we be allowed our freedom to be self reliant and self determining. Every idea enshrined in our constitutional government opposes secret combinations.Our founding fathers rejected the notion popular in Europe that democracy is a collection of ideologies in the political spectrum from left to right, communist to fascist, democrat to republican, and everything in between. The founders never envisioned political ideologies or political parties as part of American government. They wrote a constitution that limited government power rather than balancing ideologies. It was an entirely different model than what the French or English proposed. Power was to be limited. Power was to be maintained with each individual citizen. The role of Government was as a subservient guardian, safe-guarding our individual powers in the form of unalienable rights.It's a simple matter to identify a secret combination on a micro level where an individual or an identifiable group plans and carries out their generally evil purposes. On the other hand, it's nearly impossible to attribute the same planning to any specific person in a macro secret combination, essentially where large scale, generational political, social and economic factors combine to a disastrous and evil end. Macro secret combinations are not planned in a back room among willing cohorts. Instead, independently working individuals and groups, over longer periods of times, sometimes generations, working for their specific cause, assemble separate pieces of the secret combination puzzle.A group of intellectuals at Princeton in 1910 seeks to promote the progressive ideas developed in Germany that a constitution is an evolving document subject to new interpretations rather than the strict, never-changing interpretation similar to what was intended by our founding fathers. To do it they mounted an educational campaign to discredit the founders as drunkards, immoral, slave holders, men of questionable character, ungodly. Seventy years later not a single high school graduate has any depth of understanding about George Washington. Ben Franklin. Thomas Jefferson. Except the incorrect notion that they and their ideas are irrelevant to our modern world.These Princeton intellectuals likely had no idea that their progressive interpretation of the constitution would be used before the California Supreme Court last February as the basic argument for overturning proposition 8. And since marriage is central to the creator's plan and because it is central to the Mormon church, the great men of Princeton in 1910 likely had no idea that the campaign they initiated almost a century ago would likely threaten the freedom of the LDS church to limit temple weddings to between one man and one woman. The final step hasn't been reached, but if you read any of the liberal writings, it is on their agenda. Hence the hatred of that movement toward religion in general and Mormonism specifically.I submit to you that part of what Moroni saw in vision and recorded in verse 25 of Ether 8, is that in large scale secret combinations in the last days, men acting independently of one another can and do assemble the different parts of a national or global secret combination, or at least prepare the ground for its assembly. In a future post in this series I hope to lay out all the different pieces of an economic secret combination that is essentially enslaving people by limiting or removing their ability to become or operate as self reliant individuals and thereby limiting their free agency. All of the actors in macro secret combination typically act unwittingly and independently of the other, but each of them act under the influence of Satan, the great symphonic conductor of secret combinations. If Moroni wrote apocalyptically then I can only restate his vision:25 For it cometh to pass that whoso buildeth it up seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries; and it bringeth to pass the destruction of all people, for it is built up by the devil, who is the father of all lies.
I'm going to interupt for a second to say,Happy Easter, David.
Me too. :) Happy Easter! And your last comment was a great extension to your post! I wish I had your insight.....thanks for sharing it with us! :)
Dave, there is much to admire in your response. You have given this much thought and research. I agree with much of what you say. I am convinced that an accumulation of many "little" things can lead to larger things - "A New World Order" or some other form of secret combination. No doubt that is one of the reasons we are told that we would gather to the top of the mountains and that there would be strength as we remained united. Here are some questions for you?So the world's way is to seek money, power, and popularity. What should be our response?Satan has a deception, that you can buy anything if you just have enough money...but our response should be...We have sufficient?Is there a distinction between freedom and agency? (I believe some of our freedoms can be taken from us, but we can only surrender our agency - it cannot be taken from us).You use the term "liberal" as a derogatory term. I worry about using labels like that so casually. Is it a false dichotomy to label "liberal" as bad? What is the opposite "conservative"? Righteous? I'm not sure there is a very clear causal link between 1910 intellectuals and what has occured since. Was there anything good that came from liberals/intellectuals? Is the internet a bad thing or a good thing? It depends on use. Could that be the same with ideas in some cases.Our positions are probably more alike than different. You obviously are concerned about the direction we are headed. Me too. You want to open our eyes to some of the current dangers. I am interested in what you will say. You are an avid student of the scriptures. I respect that deeply. I know something of your life and admire and respect you very much. If I have any concern is the polarizing tone that may come. I have the same feeling at times when I hear how wicked a world we live in, but my own personal experience is how the people I generally know, neighbors, friends, coworkers are actually mostly good and kind. I know the world is getting wicked, but if we overly focus on what is wrong (maybe that is not what you are doing) we could begin to fear, and distrust, and not bring out the best in us or others. I guess my concern is not your ideas, but the fact that they sound at times a little too polarized. It seems like most the real work that God does on this earth is through the weak and simple, the unlearned, the meek, and Satan chooses his minions from among the apparently strong and powerful. He does want to rule - and do it with violence and force. Is our response to fight back? Is it too let God fight our battles? Is it to bury our weapons deep in the ground? Probably some of each. Well enough for now. Thank you for being committed to seeing eyes opened and good being done.kuguy
Very well said!
tap, tap, tap. Anybody out there? or is my computer not working right? hello??We miss you Dave. But we do understand that you are busy. How's the book coming?
You know, even though I'm *staff* at TOTM, I *NEVER* get to see you, Dave! You must not be doing any of your writing at the office. ;>I had another co-worker ask me if I knew you as the author of "Promised Land," and when was the next book coming out? She sure enjoys them! :)Hurry back! You're missed!
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11 comments:
Never bad will, and apology accepted.
I want to write some witty comment but there is nothing witty about this mess. Those numbers are mind boggling to me. Enough that I am having a hard time coming up with an articulate response. I have heard them all before, but never together and never in this graphic of an illustration.
I believe that you cannot cure money problems with money because money is not the problem. Selfish behavior is the problem. And I am reminded of the
2nd chapter of Jacob.
I'm speechless. Thanks for keeping us informed. I knew things were bad, I just never stopped to consider the numbers. A little scary to see them rolling across my computer screen like that. Yikes.
I can certainly agree with the premise. We have become a nation and people who didn't show economic restraint. It has been encouraging to see that savings rates are now rising among individuals and families. I also share the concern about spending and would like us to pause and have more dialogue about this intervention before we continue our addiction to spending our way out of problems. It make little sense to me that we go into great debt so that we can get ourselves out of this economic morass. It presupposes that later, some time later, when things are better again, we will show the economic restraint to hold spending down, cut programs, and begin to pay this debt down. I question the will to do that. I fear we will just accumulate debt until it tumbles and humbles. But, here is my concern with the tone of the article. I have a hard time with conspiracy theory thinking. Why would "the government" want us to become dependent on us? Is there some back room where all the decision makers are sitting back and making grand schemes to subdue us? I realize there have been secret combinations in the past, but if this were of great concern, wouldn't I have heard more about this through a prophet? Secret combinations only work when we turn from God. What I hear is to be individually responsible, teach our families to circumscribe wants and truly distinguish between wants and needs. I hear them teaching us to live the gospel, meaning treat each other with kindness, share what we have, be good stewards over what we have. I also hear them encouraging us to get involved. I worry when the tone is apocolyptic, without a solution. Perhaps you intended this to set up what is to come. But for me when things sound a bit over the top or a bit simplistic I begin to wonder about the credibility of the message. Great points, but...
Is it within the power of others to take our agency from us? I believe not. We give it away. We may do so ever so slowly and thoughtlessly, but make no mistake, we give it freely. When we find ourselves the victims of addiction (spending included)we cry that we have been robbed of our agency. We have no control. That is true only because we chose earlier to relinquish that control. We continued making
that choice until we were bound in chains. Democracy is governed by the people. That government responds to the desires of the people. If the people clamor for selfishness and greed, the government responds to please them. If the desires of the people are isatiable, the response of government is proportionate. We have chosen denial over reality, pretense over pain, entitlement over responsibility. And here we are...
Please Dave, share with us the way out.
Sandra:
All your comments are witty.
Cami:
It is astounding when its all stacked up, or in this case, falling off a cliff, in one big heap.
Annita:
Great points. I'm going to read them again. And again.
UK Guy:
You get the longest comment because you wrote the longest comment. An eye for an eye. Right?
This post has some apocalyptic ideas. That was by design. There's no question that the increase of government spending with its attendant increase in taxation and debt has the effect of limiting freedom. The freedom to be self reliant. The freedom to be self determining. The freedom to decide how the sweat of your brow will be used to bless yourself, your family, your
neighbors and those in need.
There's also no question that secret combinations, in the final apocalyptic sense of the last days, will ultimately be present and generally responsible for the end of the world as revealed to the apostle John and to Moroni. The Book of Mormon is a fairly good authority on the process. In Ether 8 Moroni wrote:
23 Wherefore, O ye Gentiles, it is wisdom in God that these things should be shown unto you, that thereby ye may repent of your sins, and suffer not that these murderous combinations shall get above you, which are built up to
get power and gain-and the work, yea, even the work of destruction come upon you, yea, even the sword of the justice of the Eternal God shall fall upon you, to your overthrow and destruction if ye shall suffer these things to be.
24 Wherefore, the Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation, because of
this secret combination which shall be among you; or wo be unto it, because of the blood of them who have been slain; for they cry from the dust for vengeance upon it, and also upon those who built it up.
25 For it cometh to pass that whoso buildeth it up seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries; and it bringeth to pass the destruction of all people, for it is built up by the devil, who is the father of all lies; even that same liar who beguiled our first parents, yea, even that same liar who hath caused man to commit murder from the beginning; who hath hardened the hearts of men that they have murdered the
prophets, and stoned them, and cast them out from the beginning.
The motivation to build up a secret combination is to get gain as Moroni points out in verse 23. Gain in power. Gain in money. Gain in popularity. These three are essentially the currency the Book of Mormon identifies over and over again. And, like currency, they're all interchangeable. If you have
money you can buy power. If you have power you can become popular. If you're popular you can exchange it for money or power.
A secret combination works by denying freedom or free agency,the ability to be self determining, and in an economically free agent sense, self reliant. Secret combinations did not begin with Cane and Able. They are a
continuation of the battle that began in the pre-existence and continues to rage on this earth, essentially Lucifer denying free agency and forcing each of us individually and all of us collectively, to accept his will for us as opposed to Christ's firm assertion that we be allowed our freedom to be self reliant and self determining. Every idea enshrined in our constitutional
government opposes secret combinations.
Our founding fathers rejected the notion popular in Europe that democracy is a collection of ideologies in the political spectrum from left to right,
communist to fascist, democrat to republican, and everything in between. The founders never envisioned political ideologies or political parties as part of American government. They wrote a constitution that limited government power rather than balancing ideologies. It was an entirely different model than what the French or English proposed. Power was to be limited. Power was to be maintained with each individual citizen. The role of Government was as a subservient guardian, safe-guarding our individual powers in the form of unalienable rights.
It's a simple matter to identify a secret combination on a micro level where an individual or an identifiable group plans and carries out their generally
evil purposes. On the other hand, it's nearly impossible to attribute the same planning to any specific person in a macro secret combination, essentially where large scale, generational political, social and economic
factors combine to a disastrous and evil end.
Macro secret combinations are not planned in a back room among willing cohorts. Instead, independently working individuals and groups, over longer periods of times, sometimes
generations, working for their specific cause, assemble separate pieces of the secret combination puzzle.
A group of intellectuals at Princeton in 1910 seeks to promote the progressive ideas developed in Germany that a constitution is an evolving document subject to new interpretations rather than the strict, never-changing interpretation similar to what was intended by our founding fathers. To do it they mounted an educational campaign to discredit the founders as drunkards, immoral, slave holders, men of questionable character, ungodly. Seventy years later not a single high school graduate has any depth of understanding about George Washington. Ben Franklin. Thomas
Jefferson. Except the incorrect notion that they and their ideas are irrelevant to our modern world.
These Princeton intellectuals likely had no idea that their progressive interpretation of the constitution would be used before the California Supreme Court last February as the basic argument for overturning proposition 8. And since marriage is central to the creator's plan and because it is central to the Mormon church, the great men of Princeton in 1910 likely had no idea that the campaign they initiated almost a century ago would likely threaten the freedom of the LDS church to limit temple weddings to between one man and one woman. The final step hasn't been reached, but if you read any of the liberal writings, it is on their agenda.
Hence the hatred of that movement toward religion in general and Mormonism specifically.
I submit to you that part of what Moroni saw in vision and recorded in verse 25 of Ether 8, is that in large scale secret combinations in the last days, men acting independently of one another can and do assemble the different
parts of a national or global secret combination, or at least prepare the ground for its assembly. In a future post in this series I hope to lay out all the different pieces of an economic secret combination that is essentially enslaving people by limiting or removing their ability to become or operate as self reliant individuals and thereby limiting their free agency.
All of the actors in macro secret combination typically act unwittingly and independently of
the other, but each of them act under the influence of Satan, the great symphonic conductor of secret combinations.
If Moroni wrote apocalyptically then I can only restate his vision:
25 For it cometh to pass that whoso buildeth it up seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries; and it bringeth to pass the destruction of all people, for it is built up by the devil, who is the father of all lies.
I'm going to interupt for a second to say,
Happy Easter, David.
Me too. :) Happy Easter! And your last comment was a great extension to your post! I wish I had your insight.....thanks for sharing it with us! :)
Dave, there is much to admire in your response. You have given this much thought and research. I agree with much of what you say. I am convinced that an accumulation of many "little" things can lead to larger things - "A New World Order" or some other form of secret combination. No doubt that is one of the reasons we are told that we would gather to the top of the mountains and that there would be strength as we remained united. Here are some questions for you?
So the world's way is to seek money, power, and popularity. What should be our response?
Satan has a deception, that you can buy anything if you just have enough money...but our response should be...We have sufficient?
Is there a distinction between freedom and agency? (I believe some of our freedoms can be taken from us, but we can only surrender our agency - it cannot be taken from us).
You use the term "liberal" as a derogatory term. I worry about using labels like that so casually. Is it a false dichotomy to label "liberal" as bad? What is the opposite "conservative"? Righteous?
I'm not sure there is a very clear causal link between 1910 intellectuals and what has occured since. Was there anything good that came from liberals/intellectuals? Is the internet a bad thing or a good thing? It depends on use. Could that be the same with ideas in some cases.
Our positions are probably more alike than different. You obviously are concerned about the direction we are headed. Me too. You want to open our eyes to some of the current dangers. I am interested in what you will say. You are an avid student of the scriptures. I respect that deeply. I know something of your life and admire and respect you very much. If I have any concern is the polarizing tone that may come. I have the same feeling at times when I hear how wicked a world we live in, but my own personal experience is how the people I generally know, neighbors, friends, coworkers are actually mostly good and kind. I know the world is getting wicked, but if we overly focus on what is wrong (maybe that is not what you are doing) we could begin to fear, and distrust, and not bring out the best in us or others. I guess my concern is not your ideas, but the fact that they sound at times a little too polarized. It seems like most the real work that God does on this earth is through the weak and simple, the unlearned, the meek, and Satan chooses his minions from among the apparently strong and powerful. He does want to rule - and do it with violence and force. Is our response to fight back? Is it too let God fight our battles? Is it to bury our weapons deep in the ground? Probably some of each. Well enough for now. Thank you for being committed to seeing eyes opened and good being done.
kuguy
Very well said!
tap, tap, tap. Anybody out there? or is my computer not working right? hello??
We miss you Dave. But we do understand that you are busy. How's the book coming?
You know, even though I'm *staff* at TOTM, I *NEVER* get to see you, Dave! You must not be doing any of your writing at the office. ;>
I had another co-worker ask me if I knew you as the author of "Promised Land," and when was the next book coming out? She sure enjoys them! :)
Hurry back! You're missed!
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