A better question may be: Will we get ourselves back on track? Or will we continue our slide into hell?
Jordan B. Peterson tells activists to get their own lives in order, to “clean your room,” before you try to clean up the world. I think most people know about the biblical metaphor: Remove the plank from your own eye; then you can see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Jesse Lee Peterson, too, tells everyone to look at themselves. He once said that the way he talks to each person is with intent to awaken them, or at least those listening. Most other people are either trying to convince, appease, or make the person angry — in the case of political debate.
I think most people are incredibly petty. If you get under their skin they’re not the same person — at least not for that moment. Without real forgiveness, awakening, and knowing of self, I don’t see how the downward slide will stop.
On The Hake Report, I talk a lot about how I feel about the points Jesse makes — the importance of his message, the value that the truth brings and can bring to anyone who accepts it and acts on it.
I talk about what he says about anger and forgiveness. Any honest person has to admit it’d be so nice to live the way he (and the Bible, by the way) would recommend — as an “angry-free zone (sic).” LOL, but it’s true.
I talk about what he says about prayer and commitment to “God” and what’s right. This is something I’ve always kinda known, at least since high school/college — no Christian would technically disagree; even a fair-minded atheist would admire someone so dedicated.
I heard one man describe the way he lived and made decisions. He said: If it was right, I would do it; if it was wrong, I wouldn’t do it. What a simple way to live! SMH, must be nice! Haha…
My listeners may have picked up on it — I also talk about the failure of intellectualism. Intellectualism is emotionalism. People are obsessively intellectual, and it’s born of, like, denial, guilt, and pride. I’m not sure intellectualism ends until you “renew your mind.”
One guest years ago on The Jesse Lee Peterson Show — the Catholic author of “Making Gay Okay” — wrote about how the world rationalized homosexuality as not hurting others. (The reality is that everything around homosexuality hurts others, but the intellectuals, particularly liberal “intellectuals,” deny, excuse, distract, and deflect regarding the damage of homosexuality to families, relationships, and civilized society.)
Similarly, the things many do in life that are wrong and yet accept de facto are creating problems severely holding back our lives — and country.
I mean, honestly, look at Trump. He’d say some really good things now and then over the decades, but most of his current fans didn’t used to take him all that seriously as a potentially great political leader — but somehow he worked through the things that didn’t work for him, especially as the state of the country got more and more desperate (thanks Obama, and Bush, and Clinton, and Bush, and…) — and now at 71 he has boundless energy and ability to stick with the truth (in an effective way) like no other politicitian we’ve ever seen.
One man doing right is changing the culture. And we all have major or minor gripes with this one man. But this man is overpowering the millions of idiots marching the streets. That is nice to see and know.
So don’t get too into numbers. Jews and Christians know that David got into the idea of counting his troops during the old days of Israel, and he ended up with a puffed-up ego, having sex with his neighbor’s wife, getting that neighbor killed, and losing his son(s) as a result of the mess. A lot of people are into numbers today, and numbers are great, but there are simple things more powerful than numbers.
Meanwhile there are many instances in which smaller numbers have defeated what should have been overwhelming forces.
I heard one guy say — it may have been Jordan Peterson, or someone older — that the smallest minority is the individual. So too the most powerful person is the individual who cannot be shaken.
So the answer is going back to self. I notice that I don’t really see this talk amongst the left — but only the right. Imagine if people who each focused on being right themselves also united with one another. That’d be great. Now’s definitely the time to do it.
