When I was eighteen years old I attended Southern Oregon State College in Ashland, Oregon. Five months prior to that I had changed my religious affiliation from Catholic to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Occasionally I passed a curious building. It looked a little like an office, yet had a sign that read The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Finally I decided to investigate and entered the building to inquire its purpose. The nice receptionist explained that the building housed the Church's Institute program. She said Institute was a program for LDS students that attended SOSC. Its purpose was to provide religious classes for the students. I told her I was a member and perhaps would like to attend some of these classes. She signed me up.
Faithfully I attended my institute classes and a very exciting thing occurred. As Brother Baird taught those classes my mind began to open to the scriptures. The difficulties I had in understanding the language and the ideas found in the ancient books disappeared. I felt the Spirit instructing me, enlightening my mind.
The excitement of what I was learning could not be contained. I would rush back to the dorm and share the many things I was learning with my non-member friend and my roommate. I can trace my excitement of reading, studying and pondering the scriptures to those institute classes held just north of SOSC.
The excitement created in me a hunger and thirst for scriptural knowledge. I desired to familiarize myself with every story and every character. The more familiar the scriptures became the more I loved them.
Familiarity with the sacred books brought clarity. I began to see clear lines of reason. The better I became at extracting principles from the books the more I was able to experiment in implementing the principles in my life. Soon blessings and success were flowing into my life.
A similar experience occurred a couple years ago as I read Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities. I loved it. It was beautiful. Like the scriptures an excitement was awakened in me. I began to hunger and thirst for knowledge concerning the French Revolution. I read everything I could get my hands on. As I studied many questions entered my mind. “Why was the French Revolution so different from the American Revolution?” “What was Robespierre thinking when he instituted the Reign of Terror?” Like the scriptures, I became familiar with the French Revolution. The familiarity brought clarity. Like the scriptures, I wanted to share what I was learning with everyone.
Like my early years in institute, I can trace my excitement for reading, studying and pondering literature, history, politics, and philosophy to the reading of Charles Dickens. This excitement helps me to hunger and thirst for knowledge in these subjects.
But is it really just knowledge I am thirsting for?
Since the scriptures have been such a great guide I consulted them. And as I pondered certain scriptures I could see that the clarity in both of my experiences could be translated as light. “For the word of the Lord is truth, and whatsoever is truth is light, and whatsoever is light is Spirit, even the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” (D&C 84:45) Obviously I know that the light of truth is what I experienced in my institute classes. But have I also experienced the light of truth in my study of literature, history, politics, and philosophy?
This question is more easily answered if I approach it from the opposite direction. It seems logical to me that the enemy of righteousness, Satan, would have desires to keep us from the most important truths contained in the gospel of Christ. “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” (2 Corinthian 4:3-4) But the father of all lies would also desire us to be ignorant of all truth, whether spiritual or secular. “And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come; And whatsoever is more or less than this is the spirit of that wicked one who was a liar from the beginning... (D&C 93:24) The wicked one desires to hide all truth from us. If true principles of history are hid, we will repeat the mistakes of the past. If truth principles of politics are hid, we will succumb to tyranny. If true principles of philosophy are hid, we will think truth is relative. What better way to destroy than to deceive and lead people from truth
So what do my two experiences have in common? Well, both of them involved light. In both instances I could feel the light of truth because things seemed so clear. They both created in me an excitement, a desire to share. I believe that being released from darkness and being able to see what I had been blind to previously, is very exciting. It is the feeling of peace and joy and freedom.
So where do I go from here? And where do others go who may also be experiencing this excitement? An epiphany came to me as I read the 33rd verse of Doctrine and Covenants section 121. “How long can rolling waters remain impure? What power shall stay the heavens? As well might man stretch forth his puny arm to stop the Missouri river in its decreed course, or to turn it up stream, as to hinder the Almighty from pouring down knowledge from heaven upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints.” Heavenly Father will endow the righteous with power. That power will come from the knowledge of truth. It will cut through all the false and impure waters of our day.
My responsibility is to seek for knowledge out of the best books. Knowledge “of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms— That (I) may be prepared in all things when (the Lord) shall send (me) again to magnify the calling whereunto (He has) called (me), and the mission with which (He has) commissioned (me).” ( D&C 88:79-80)
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Monday, May 10, 2010
The Law of Unexpected Results
Can government solve societies ills? Can it do away with poverty, racism and illiteracy? Is it the vehicle with which the world will become a better place to live? Not according to the Law of Unexpected Results.
In Paul Johnson's Modern Times, he makes one or two comments about this law. According to the Law of Unexpected Results a law or policy is put forth to solve a certain problem or injustice in society. The law is appealing to the people who think that injustices should be done away with. The media proclaims the law to be sound and surely the right thing to solve the problem. But interestingly, as the law or policy begins to unfold and begins to operate it does not do what it was professed to do. Sometimes it may create more difficulties. To the people, the law seems to be inadequate or faulty. It appears to fall short of the intended results. What is the Law of Unexpected Results: Laws and policies intended to solve societal ills fail.
But why do they fail? Government officials promise, if we take these steps to fix the problem, it will be great for the nation. The War on Poverty has not eliminated poverty. Affirmative Action has not helped the minorities. The No Child Left Behind Act continues to leave children behind. Why do these policies fail? Three basic ideas seem to be at the core of these failures. First: Just because the results were unexpected for the people does not mean the results were unexpected to the creator of the law. Second: Ideas are based on premises. If a premise is false, the ideas built on the premise cannot come to fruition. Lastly and simply: Arbitrary laws, which favor some at the expense of others, do not work.
Look at the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). Most would agree the outcome of this law is not what was intended. But has it created what was expected for those that championed it? The only real beneficiaries of this law are those involved in the educational testing and curriculum industries. Was the law really created to help students or corporations? From the beginning it has put tremendous emphasis on assessment. The results of this law may not be what students, parents and teachers wanted, but they did not write the law.
Let's continue with the NCLB. Who came up with the idea that if we assess students more they will learn more? Is that true? When you build a law on a false premise it will not produce a true outcome. Think of the more basic premise: Who is responsible for public education? Is it the federal government or the state or local government? Who is responsible for an individual's education? Is it the teacher, the parent or the student? If the responsibility lies with the student, why is education compulsory?
Is NCLB an arbitrary law? Arbitrary means at random without reason. A good test to determine if a law is arbitrary is to examine whether the law favors some at the expense of others. The NCLB was designed to focus on the disabled and disadvantaged students. The students who excel and succeed receive no benefits from this law.
I believe these huge thousand-page laws coming out of Washington, are corrupt, false and arbitrary. The results for the people in general remain the same. They do not and ca not solve problems. Most problems that government tries to solve would be best taken care of by the individual.
Now who knows what will result of our new Health Care Reform bill. But according to the Law of Unexpected Results, it will not be to reform health care. It is obviously an law designed with corruption, based on the idea that health care is a right and arbitrarily favors some at the expense of others.
Can government solve societies ills? No. We wish it could, then it would absolve us as individuals from the responsibility. Government can protect life, liberty and property. Unfortunately, most in Washington continue to try social engineering. They continue to create chaos in the form of these crazy laws. Next time a law comes around professing to solve everyone's problems, apply the Law of Unexpected Results. I think you will find it interesting.
In Paul Johnson's Modern Times, he makes one or two comments about this law. According to the Law of Unexpected Results a law or policy is put forth to solve a certain problem or injustice in society. The law is appealing to the people who think that injustices should be done away with. The media proclaims the law to be sound and surely the right thing to solve the problem. But interestingly, as the law or policy begins to unfold and begins to operate it does not do what it was professed to do. Sometimes it may create more difficulties. To the people, the law seems to be inadequate or faulty. It appears to fall short of the intended results. What is the Law of Unexpected Results: Laws and policies intended to solve societal ills fail.
But why do they fail? Government officials promise, if we take these steps to fix the problem, it will be great for the nation. The War on Poverty has not eliminated poverty. Affirmative Action has not helped the minorities. The No Child Left Behind Act continues to leave children behind. Why do these policies fail? Three basic ideas seem to be at the core of these failures. First: Just because the results were unexpected for the people does not mean the results were unexpected to the creator of the law. Second: Ideas are based on premises. If a premise is false, the ideas built on the premise cannot come to fruition. Lastly and simply: Arbitrary laws, which favor some at the expense of others, do not work.
Look at the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). Most would agree the outcome of this law is not what was intended. But has it created what was expected for those that championed it? The only real beneficiaries of this law are those involved in the educational testing and curriculum industries. Was the law really created to help students or corporations? From the beginning it has put tremendous emphasis on assessment. The results of this law may not be what students, parents and teachers wanted, but they did not write the law.
Let's continue with the NCLB. Who came up with the idea that if we assess students more they will learn more? Is that true? When you build a law on a false premise it will not produce a true outcome. Think of the more basic premise: Who is responsible for public education? Is it the federal government or the state or local government? Who is responsible for an individual's education? Is it the teacher, the parent or the student? If the responsibility lies with the student, why is education compulsory?
Is NCLB an arbitrary law? Arbitrary means at random without reason. A good test to determine if a law is arbitrary is to examine whether the law favors some at the expense of others. The NCLB was designed to focus on the disabled and disadvantaged students. The students who excel and succeed receive no benefits from this law.
I believe these huge thousand-page laws coming out of Washington, are corrupt, false and arbitrary. The results for the people in general remain the same. They do not and ca not solve problems. Most problems that government tries to solve would be best taken care of by the individual.
Now who knows what will result of our new Health Care Reform bill. But according to the Law of Unexpected Results, it will not be to reform health care. It is obviously an law designed with corruption, based on the idea that health care is a right and arbitrarily favors some at the expense of others.
Can government solve societies ills? No. We wish it could, then it would absolve us as individuals from the responsibility. Government can protect life, liberty and property. Unfortunately, most in Washington continue to try social engineering. They continue to create chaos in the form of these crazy laws. Next time a law comes around professing to solve everyone's problems, apply the Law of Unexpected Results. I think you will find it interesting.
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