Several weeks ago I posted an opinion piece entitled The Hayride » The Monsters Among Us.  Ed Niedbalski, a friend of The Hayride, forwarded his comments to me today, indicating that they were rejected by the blog as having been too lengthy.  Herewith are Ed’s comments –

At the risk of being totally misunderstood and passed off as a “kumbyaist”, I am going to dive in with an analysis that I firmly believe is at the essence of why the USA is such a great nation, and why we must fight to maintain our way, even though it gives opportunity to those among us who would steal and plunder as a normal course of behavior.

God created us all equal, with a free will to choose to do what is right and what is wrong.  Jesus walked among us ( atheists and agnostics please hold your comments, because no matter who you believe in, what you believe is probably in line with what you will read as you go on), he taught us to care for those in need, and to give food and shelter to those who did not have it.  In his words, “Whatever you do for the least of my brothers, you do for me.”

But you never heard of Jesus telling people to lay back and let someone else take care of them.  You never heard of him attempting to establish certain behaviors so that he and his apostles could rise to power and profit from it.  In fact, he did not encourage anyone to force his teachings on anyone….it is our free choice to follow the tenets of Jesus Christ, and neither man nor God has the right to interfere with the individuals freedom to choose.

As we have seen with all socialist states, characterized by the desire to establish a society that somehow takes care of everyone’s needs , the process is pushed by those who want to control the world as they envision it, and who feel that they should profit inordinately from their efforts to “make everything right”.  This is where good intentions run smack into human behavior.  It doesn’t work because people don’t behave (don’t forget they have a free will, and they won’t forget it either) as society would wish them to….they behave selfishly, which is why capitalism and a free society works. 

Instead of a few who will seek power at any cost, we have everyone behaving in their own best interests and that behavior, which we choose to call the markets –  be they for food, cars, health care services, political power, energy – reflects the desires of everyone, not just of a few.  Yes, it creates problems as those with greater gifts attempt to profit from the system, but it also creates the opportunity for solutions dictated by society and not by a few people in power.  I believe this is the test that mankind was given, whether you can learn to balance the selfish desires that are innate with learned behaviors that Jesus promulgated and do it of your FREE WILL rather than because all  your actions have been dictated by the “laws of society.”

We should be spending our time working with people so that they make the right decision of their own free will and not be dictating their behaviors to them, because we know through the experience of every society that tried, dictating behaviors to people never works.  Unless they are free to choose, they wither and die.

So, Mike, you are right, the monsters are those of us who want the easy way out and are not willing to put in the hard work, as Jesus did, without thinking about how we will profit from our efforts.  Our motivation should be as were Jesus,’ who worked tirelessly to improve human behavior without once suggesting that society pass laws to force everyone to behave as they should.  This is the hard way, but it is the right way, and it is the way for which the human soul was intended.