New World 2012

When Alexis de Tocqueville came to America in the first half of the 19^th century (1835), the thing that impressed him most about America was it's public postal system. That fact that even during the Indian wars of that time, people on the frontier (Old West) were still informed about the world, could still correspond with their family, newspapers and mail were delivered.

Even in my lifetime, we so looked forward to what arrived in the mailbox, the delivery of the newspaper. In rural areas of eastern North Carolina, and, I believe, in most of America, as I have heard my mother say, there are few vehicles on country roads, but you could depend on the mailman and the school bus going down the road every weekday.

Today, most newspapers have gone out of business, the postal service has priced itself out of business, the school bus is just a vehicle for social engineering (attempt to mix races, ethnic groups, economic classes). Eventually, the liberal-socialist Democrats, the left-wing of American society will achieve the communist system of mixing all children at the nursery as they finally achieve the destruction of the family. Because of the unreliability of the media, as in Russia, China and all communist countries print material from the government will be disseminated publicly, they will be gathered together in large groups. Associated people, for one reason or another, will become more and more isolated. You can see that already, most people living together do not know who lives on either side of them.

In this technology/computer age, you can handle most of life's needs online...shopping, education courses, advice on everything from health/homeopathy to economics, hobbies, personal interests of any type, including pornography. Most young people who have worked for me in recent years have used the computer for online dating, finding someone to share interests and eventually to “shack up” with. Young people can learn all they'd want to know about one another through facebook and twitter, they do not need to endure the expense and disappointment of dating.

Today's world is a world of information fatigue. Right in your own house, information searched from from the 4 corners of the world on everything: ailments, treatments, every area of human endeavor, professional knowledge, disciplines, hobbies, every area of personal interest. Advanced graduate degrees are affordable and available on almost any discipline. The day of the encyclopedias and reference books are over. The talking heads on the television can no longer keep up with everything. Attempting to stay up with everything happening in the world, all the knowledge of the world, one does not have time to think about anything anymore.

Great discoveries were made by people just thinking, unraveling the lengths and depths of the research that many had done before them. The most important area in discovery is that of separation, separating the true from the false, the proven from the disproven. On last count, there are currently 600 uprisings in some part of the world, insurrections such as we are witnessing across North Africa and the Middle East, usually originate in the price of food. When people are hungry and are no longer able to buy the most basic necessities of life, uprisings and riots begin. Food costs usually rise because of the increased cost of gasoline for their delivery, increased costs of fertilizer for the growing. The basics of crude oil-energy production...as the cost of energy increases, so does the cost of food, and so does the cost of uprisings, often leading to actual war.

Increasingly, we are seeing two-tiered cultures throughout the world: the small number who ride in Mercedes, the huge number who are riding on donkeys, ox carts or camels. In the oil-rich Middle East, the disparity between peoples of the same nation has been evident from the beginning of history. Because technology has reached these places (television, computer, etc.) the lower classes, those who ride on donkeys and camels, are resenting those who ride in the Mercedes, who live behind walls and gates. In America, the secular press gives a hedge of protection to the limousine liberals, the private jet televangelists/politicians/rockstars. More and more, because of television and computer technology, the common man is aware of the decadence/hypocrisy...the ones who had their pockets picked in excessive taxation and submission to provide the splendor of high living.

In the world of 2012, the country pays for patriotism...there are more contractors on the battlefield than uniformed fighters. I am told that many of these contractors are paid $30,000 a month. Your government pays for research results, always guiding by a finger in the wind, likewise your government pays for polling results. One does not need a Nobel prize to inform you that human loyalties have been dispersed and often reversed.

In the cocoon of survival, the individual has decided that neither God nor government is available. In the survival instinct, the individual has retreated from large crowds. Sports stadiums and convention centers will eventually shut down, just as will the mega-church. Crowds are too attractive to a terrorist. Finding religious spontaneity/satisfaction in the living room from the very best, the church, the fraternal clubs, the civic clubs, now with a sprinkling of white hair, will become an occasion of the past.

In my lifetime, air travel was a thing of leisure and temptation, beautiful treatment, nice food, well-dressed, well-mannered travelers; on planes, like church, people dressed up instead of down. In my lifetime, train travel was a system of leisure and comfort, comfortable dining cars, superior service. All these things are history, the people who did ride the trailway bus are now in the plane, travel to “faraway places with strange-sounding names” will mostly take place in your living room. We will study and dream about the luxury liners with nice cabins and meals, steamer trunks, gala evening, all the semblances of a past of glamor and glory. Now, a cattle-boat treatment and fast-food, drive-thru status.

The country clubs, for the elitists, will survive for awhile, inner circles among the common man will be replaced by groupings, relegated by skin color, home-schooling interests, diehard sports enthusiasts. It was relatively safe on the golf course, but the day of the hunter is over, weapons are a no-no. Even the Queen of England is afraid that she is the last ruling monarch of the United Kingdom. The UK members such as Canada, Australia, etc. no longer have loyalties to Caesar, have had all they could stomach in nearby politicians and pickpocket bureaucrats. Even in America, governors, politicians, bankers are always immaculately dressed, often a carnation pinned to the lapel.

Queen Victoria, with her marriage to Prince Albert in 1840, set the standard for weddings around the world. As there are fewer and fewer weddings anywhere, economics dictate just shacking up...unmarried households, production of children at the convenience of the unwed mother. We have probably seen our last royal wedding, the royals, like everything else in fairy-tale land, are on its way out.

There is a famous Broadway play called I Remember Mama, God help those who do not have nice memories. A few of the living still have the wonderful memory of America, when she was great.

Inheritance

In historic Westminster Abbey, where kings and queens have been crowned, their bodies eulogized for centuries, second in line to the British throne, Prince William will marry Kate Middleton on April 29th. I remember very well, getting up very early to watch television coverage of his parent's wedding at St. Paul's cathedral. I like to see those beautiful horses, beautiful carriages, the pomp and circumstance of British nobility, such an inheritance...for those of us who are descendents of a people in the time when such was important.

In London, I said to one member of the British royals, “do you think the Queen will retire, in favor of Prince Charles?” She said, “no, they will haul her away in a box, she loves being Queen, this is her 59^th year.” The Queen of England was at one time one of the world's richest royals, but today, because of the oil-rich royals of the Middle East, she is twelveth. Like everyone else, her real estate values have declined. Buckingham Palace is worth $100 million less than it was a few years ago, and so it is with her large real estate holdings in London and elsewhere. Even so, the inheritance of the royal family, in terms of wealth, is incomparable.

English nobility is not as impressive as it was at one time, I remember being in Sicily while the Queen was there. The great yacht Britannica in the harbor, red carpets laid everywhere she would put her foot, her private train, her castles, horses, servants...an inheritance for those who follow her on the throne.

Books could be written about the rich people of the world and those who will inherit. think of those who inherited the Rockefeller fortune, the Kennedy fortune, even Sinatra's fortune. Politics, technology, sports, have all changed wealth, families like the Vanderbilts have been replaced by a single, unwed mother called Oprah Winfrey...worth a reported $2.7 billion, a foundation will inherit her wealth. The richest man on earth is Carlos Slim Helu, from the “broke” nation of Mexico.

I have known some wealthy people in my time, those who have inherited wealth. But, believe me, other than for the satisfaction that comes with money, they are very much like the rest of us...put on their socks one at a time, subject to the world, the flesh, the devil and all the diseases that take the lives of the poorest among us. It makes no difference how much money the Queen of England, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates controls, in the end, when God says, “enough”, neither can buy one more second of life. Then, the only important thing, if the richest or the poorest, are joint heirs with Jesus Christ, the greatest inheritance in the world. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. (Romans 8:17)

As I aged, I became more appreciative of my inheritance, not so much the substantial family inheritance, but other things. My ancestors, from the time they arrived in New Jersey, were all just hardworking, God-fearing, taxpaying, farming land owners. I have in my possession a survey map of the first farm in New Jersey, where the family founded Morristown. The poor side of the family moved to North Carolina, deeply religious, well-known farm people. They prospered...God, family, country.

To this day, if I could see, I could take you to the farm land, the homesteads, churches and the cemeteries where they lived and are buried. Our Lord appreciated families, ancestry. In the Old Testament, you have ancestral roots of those mentioned, even Christ's ancestral earthly family was given.

My greatest inheritance in my family, is the work ethic. Christian principles and participation, patriotism, with moral living and giving. It bothers me greatly that so many young people do not appreciate or even acknowledge their ancestry. It is hard for me to believe that I am related to people who have let our ancestral homes disappear into the chasm of misuse. In the prosperous country community where I was raised, descendents of the old families have all left with their educations, in the chase for wealth in other places, The old homes are mostly now section 8, lived in by those who know nothing of history or accomplishment. The houses and home sites will eventually disappear.

I live in the historic section of a city, beautiful, well-designed antebellum homes. With the progress of the city, heirs of these homes which had been a source of pride to a growing nation, built ranch-type rabbit boxes in suburbia, gun rack type designed condos on the beach. Beautiful old homes, majestic with their architectural lines, antebellum design-integrity, became occupied by riff-raff, chopped up in two apartments. The most beautiful areas of most Southern cities became slums with slum lords. I well remember that beautiful southern antebellum mansion in which I lived while a student in Memphis, chopped up into student affordable apartments. The great spiral staircase, unimaginable carved woodwork, marble fireplaces, tiled and hardwood floors, a place occupied by people who would never appreciate such. I still remember how quickly relatives discarded antique furniture, handed down through many generations, side boards, magnificent tiger oak dressers and beds, and picture frames...even portraits of ancestors behind bubble glass. They thought phoney imitation veneer over plywood was so beautiful, so shiny, “so modern”.

In most of these cities, a few people who had inherited enough history, to have imagination about these cities, began moving back and redeveloping and restoring the landmark city homes and buildings. Houses with old southern architecture, or an architecture of any type in our history, such as the townhouses up north, stick out, or do not look architecturally correct in suburbia.

Another tragedy of America, the deserting of magnificent downtown cathedrals and churches for mega-church complexes with large parking lots in the countryside. We are supposed to have inherited from those who poured forth their physical and financial energy to produce them, these fine, never-to-be reproduced churches, houses and commercial buildings. In some places, the great churches and cathedrals have been restored, I so appreciate the ancestral-historical attitude of Europe, where inheritance, not only of wealth, but history and philosophy still means something.

We have inherited our waterways, rivers, shorelines, harbors, but have not cared for them. We have inherited the old water pipes, some of the first plumbing known to man, and have not kept it in repair. Many of our illnesses come from the seepage and leakage of ancient plumbing. In thinking of the money or property you may or may not inherit, with taxation, longer living, gigantic before-death expenses in professional care, estates are becoming smaller every day.

Be thankful to Almighty God, firstly for your DNA designed by Him in the council chambers of eternity, just for you. Your religious inheritance, the blessedness of being born and raised in America.

Permanent Prosperity

Prince Phillip, husband of the Queen of England, who is now in his 80s as is the Queen, the parents of 4 British Royal children Charles, Anne, Andrew, and Edward.  Is perhaps more popular in the UK than is the Queen.  On his 40th birthday, the media asked him what he wanted for his birthday, he said , “I want nothing but positive news on the front page of all the newspapers in Britain.” I wondered if this would be remotely possible today, they had a hard time then finding a front page of positive news.

Every morning of my life, when I get up early for my time of communion with bread, wine and prayer, I then get on the treadmill and listen to the radio. I often wonder, can things get any worse. There is nothing on the news but bad news especially in this time of financial depression.

Our nature from Gods word, which is a law book, where we are told to rest on the 7th day to let the land rest every 7th year, and to watch the animals such as ants and squirrels as they make preparations for winter or hard times, that we should likewise prepare for the times in our lives when we are not prosperous.

Traveling in the Cameroons (on the west coast of Africa), I noticed there were large baskets up in the trees and I asked my guide, “what are those large baskets (which measured about 4 feet across) in the trees?“ The guide said, “the farmers know that hard times will come eventually through droughts etc. but their animals must have something to eat so they prepare ahead of time.”

The free market has always worked in any country in which it is tried. The problem in this country is that the inmates are running the asylum. In the asylum, Washington DC, Alan Greenspan, an economist, did not put his money in the stock market but rather in instruments giving him a definite rate of interest.  His successor Ben S. Bernanke said yesterday, “inflation seems to be under control” what a brilliant statement at a time when the country is in depression, the unemployment rate is increasing everyday. 

As Judge Bork and other writers have said, “FDR only made the great depression worse by throwing money at government jobs.” From 1933 to 1941, the unemployment rate was always 18%. When you use government money to build a bridge you have given a few people a job, a short time,  the same workers can cross the bridge in another direction looking for a job. 

“But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” (Daniel 12:4)

With the increased emphasis on education and we have more knowledge than ever before, people all over the world are still running up and down the streets looking for solutions to their problems. In 1932, automobile production had a decline of 90%. We have learned nothing. Throwing money at automobile manufacturing companies did not help then, nor will it now. (China is the world's largest automobile manufacturer, can you imagine that Detroit, the motor city, is a dead city? Officials in China have ordered the purchase of all automobile factories in Detroit. You nephews and nieces will drive Chinese made cars.) We never hear about changes on the board of directors of these corporations. For instance, Erskine Bowles well known democrat politician, Clinton's right hand man, now former president of the UNC system (a democrat political appointment), has been on the GM board for a long time. 

When traveling through the African bush in the Congo, the native women would carry large jugs of water from the watering hole, to their homes on their heads. I overheard one lady say to another, “what are those women carrying on their heads,” the reply from the other lady, “I think it is their cosmetics.” To the uninitiated, everything is obscure.

When I was in the UNC system as a student, there were a few communist sympathizers, since generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek was falling in 1949, many were thrilled at his defeat by communist Mao, even though Mao had killed a reported 100 million Chinese to accomplish his purpose. Today, each of the schools in the university system is a cauldron of Marxism, a salad of groups promoting every communist ideology, from the gay agenda to abortion, euthanasia, and collectivism. The Sunni Muslim, Marxist President Obama has appointed perennial politician Bowles, along with gadfly Senator Simpson, formerly of Wyoming, as his advisers to bring life into this dead debauched and defrocked capitalist, democratic republic. We have all heard the song, “the times they are a-changing”. Yes, changing for the worst. See the USA in the Fiat Panda.