"The Giver & The Takers"

"If you could erase all the mistakes of your past, you would also erase all the wisdom of your present. Remember the lesson, not the disappointment.”

My first response to the wisdom in this quote has to do with current history and the renewed push to PURGE American culture & erase the past. Once again, tearing down & defacing historic, national monuments has become an AGENDA ... most recently deemed unworthy to stand ... or remain are:

... George Washington ... Abraham Lincoln ...Teddy Roosevelt ... Francis Scott Key ... Ulysses S Grant ... even Gandhi & Cervantes.

These monuments serve as a reminder of our past ... while standing, they might serve to inspire how far we have come. There are no perfect people in history.

“If the present tries to judge the past, it will lose the future. All men make mistakes but only wise men learn from their mistakes” ~ Winston Churchill

Good leaders are good students of history. They rightly apply that knowledge. The ability to do this is called “wisdom”. The ability to live wisely with that knowledge is called “understanding.”

"The past is another country they do things differently there" ~ L.P, Harley The Go-Between

A lesson from this book: “humanity is alienated from the past, yet not free from it, a past that continues to exist in and to control the subconscious”

... Profound TRUTH ...

This shout out to the wrong-thinking “leaders” who are inciting the removal & to the misguided “takers & breakers” bent on destruction.

“Removing historic statues does NOT remove the reality of the past or the truth of history.” ~ fem-v

“Only deluded people think that moving the hands on the face of a clock changes the time.” ~ fem-v

Deluded: believing something that is not true ... not believing truth

"If you reject the history of the past ... refuse to remember its lessons ... then you diminish your future." ~ fem-v

Mindlessness ... lawlessness ... violence & blaring IGNORANCE seems to be the prevailing wind in certain communities.

“Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.” ~ Isaac Asimov

God help the people who reside in these communities because law enforcement can’t effectively act (another subject entirely)

If one understands human behavior, you could say they were acting like toddlers ... who, at times, demand to have their way. This can be accepted in tiny beings who are brailing their world. This behavior tests parental authority. A parent worth their salt knows it is WRONG to cave in to the demands of a kicking & crying toddler.

It is an exponentially greater WRONG to cave into the “demands” of anarchists ... who, in this case test governmental authority.

DESTROYING, tearing down, looting, robbing .and violence ... is the behavior of an invading army. WAKE UP !!!

Likening this to a “block party” or a “Love-fest” is utter LUNACY ... utter STUPIDITY ... chosen BLINDNESS

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

This army has NO apparent regard for the country they are invading. Their mission is taking away & tearing down.

When they are done tearing down and taking away: I’m curious what THEY will build ... what THEY will contribute ... what monuments THEY will erect?

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe” ~ Albert Einstein

“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

Present relevance & prescience in unexpected places: a children’s book “The Giver” by Lois Lowry

There are rich lessons to be found in this book ... which is not just for children. It is about a man-created utopia.

The “Elders” in this “perfect” society did not think the citizens should experience “pain” or make “wrong” choices so history was hidden from them

... it was held by “the Giver”

In this “perfect” community, the children were schooled in “sameness”

... This methodology was to drive home the “elders” concept of “equality”

A are a few things that stayed vividly with me after reading this book:

… One is that “sameness” is the same mindset of “political correctness”

... The concept of utopia set forth in this story was based on deception

…The other is that God was left out of their “perfect world”

Does any of this sound familiar ... ring true as you look around?

“Submitting to censorship is to enter the seductive world of The Giver: the world where there are no bad words and no bad deeds. But it is also the world where choice has been taken away and reality distorted. And that is the most dangerous world of all.” ~ Lois Lowry

https://blog.independent.org/2014/09/18/the-givers-dystopia-total-equality-and-no-humanity/

This principle is as sure as gravity:

Right-thinking produces right actions & good outcomes

Wrong-thinking produces wrong actions & bad outcomes

"In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act." ~ George Orwell

IDEAS always have consequences: Good ideas lead to good culture and good government, and bad ideas lead to bad culture and bad government.

Decades of bad IDEAS are now blossoming into chaos.

Who's “The Giver” now?

More then 50 years ago .. Malcolm Muggridge wrote:

So the final conclusion would surely be that whereas other civilizations have been brought down

by attacks of barbarians from without, ours had the unique distinction of training its own

destroyers at its own educational institutions, and then providing them with facilities for

propagating their destructive ideology far and wide, all at the public expense. Thus did Western

Man decide to abolish himself, creating his own boredom out of his own affluence, his own

vulnerability out of his own strength, his own impotence out of his own erotomania, himself

blowing the trumpet that brought the walls of his own city tumbling down, and having convinced

himself that he was too numerous, labored with pill and scalpel and syringe to make himself

fewer. Until at last, having educated himself into imbecility, and polluted and drugged himself

into stupefaction, he keeled over--a weary, battered old brontosaurus--and became extinct.”

June 24th 2020

Giving honor where honor is due: 

... to John Rylance  for the enhanced of quote by Winston Churchill 

... to Steve Anthony on LI for the quote by George Orwell  https://www.spaceandmotion.com/Philosophy.htm

Image: https://www.duyhuynh.com/

All rights reserved:  Fay Marmalich-Vietmeier 

If my words make you think … Great ;~)

As “iron-sharpens-iron” … I enjoy bantering with other BEES … please know, your feedback is as “honey”

A glimpse of the “Bee” called “me” ;~)

My caring nature makes me an advocate. My curious nature makes me a “queen of questions” … but gifted with the ability to listen ;~) I am a woman of deep faith, a blessed mother, a voracious reader, a blossoming writer, a grateful person, and a lover of beauty … I treasure family, true friendships and my loyal clients ... enjoy traveling, learning, good movies, good wine and golf. I’m a “heart-to-heart” communicator.

https://www.bebee.com/@fay-vietmeier-pennsylvania

https://www.linkedin.com/in/faymarmalichvietmeier/detail/recent-activity/

https://twitter.com/femvietmeier

https://www.facebook.com/fayemv