Some worthwhile (I think) and non-political (I think) thoughts from https://swiftsilentdeadly.com
Making civilization work is worth the effort. 
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Thatās all well and good, I was checking off the boxes, as I feel the authors points are basic principles.
The big issue is either not addressed or glossed over.
I donāt think Trump, despite his persona of being rather egotistical, felt he could MAGA on his own, so I think the author was a bit off base in his āindividualā leader line.What I felt Trump did was make it easier for business and individuals to succeed. Noting the pushback he got brings me back to the big issue.
Follow the authors guidelines, and have a better chance of making it through the crap of our new reality. We will never uniteā¦and divided we fall.
My philosophy these days is āmake my street greatā. Talk to the neighbors, get people on board the same train, and if you have the experience and resources, help make them an ally.
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Good article, Thanks. 
I need to work on my weight.
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Great article! The weight thing is a real problem. I became a Covid-19 couch potato, fear and paranoia set in and I completely stopped. Now the problem is how to lose the xtra two sizes Iāve gained. Iām a task master. A job I start today will be finished today, even if it means working around the clock.
Taking off the weight will NOT be overnight nor will it be in six months. Unfortunately, itās going to take many many months, unaccomplished goals kick my ass! So I gave up. If things were normal I probably would never have retired and kept the weight off. This is worse than quitting smoking, I did that after 35 years of smoking. It took 60 days to quit. Iām not going to lose 60 pounds in 60 days, not at my age and discipline level.
After seeing this in writing, I should join the NAVY SEALs, let them beat the weight right off of me, probably during āHell Weekā! The hardest thing is doing this alone, teamwork! Donāt get me wrong, I get up accomplish the three SSSās make the bed, complete chores, lawn house work, shopping, etc. Running around the block doesnāt seem to accomplish much, canāt even run anymore. Itās more like a speed walk! If I had to run for my life Iād be dead! If youāre running from a bear, I got your back! Iām the one in the green shirt!
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Iām not certain that Iām taking your point correctly, but I believe Justin does address the big issue directly, and immediately. I hear him saying that whoās in charge, whoās to blame, MAGA, Trump, Biden, Benghazi, Ukraine, fa gangs, anti-fa gangs, or whatever other political candle is burning hottest at any given moment is not the big issue.
The big issue is whether individual Americans are willing to do the actual work of citizenship, or would rather piss the whole experiment away by taking the lazy path ā being led to blame, hate, and trying to blow up āthe other teamā. Whoever they might think that is.
Thatās why I passed Justinās essay along, but maybe Iām reading him wrong.
At the retail level, I think that is exactly the right nation-building mission for most of us. But I donāt think it requires everybody to get on the same train, nor be allies in every sense. It involves sharing, learning, understanding, tolerating, finding common goals, and supporting common interests to build a common community. If you learn that everyone doesnāt have the same goals or interests, thatās what elections are for in a democracy. But still there is understanding and tolerance in a strong neighborhood ā of 30 people, or 300 million people.
Maybe we have the same philosophy, maybe we donāt.
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imo the big issue is that I donāt believe we will come to terms with those having opposing philosophies. We can be in shape, smoke free, stick to green tea (and the whites are pretty good too lol), go on our diets, volunteer 'til the cows come home, but I donāt see left/right, up/down, lib/conservative, lefty/righty coming together within whatās left of my lifetime.
In the midst of the final details of a road trip starting tomorrow, may have mis interpreted somewhere along the way, but seemed to be a very individualistically focused self help program that is supposed to enrich the country as a unit. Hey, improving ones self is where it startsā¦anyways, got to find one more campground, civil war museum across the street from it (oh, the irony of your thread) that Iāll be checking out. Yankee heading south of the Mason-Dixonā¦this should be fun. 
I feel we definitely share the same philosophy; I have perhaps unfortunately, perhaps realistically, felt that division in this country is too great to be overcome. I work on me, and as mentioned, those I come in contact with. I dropped 87 former friends 5 years back, as their hysteria was not something I could help change nor deal with. Donāt miss a single one.
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Annnnnd, just skipped that RV park as my wife as usual was right in her prediction that the museum went āwoke.ā. Found another in the woods, on a riverā¦where weāll sip our herbal tea and appreciate nature. The more I see of people the more I like birds.
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We are going to Shiloh National Military Park this weekend, then heading over to Grinderās Stand, the burial place of Meriwether Lewis. Just an over-nighter to get out of the county for a while. Shiloh is a good site, very spread out and well marked. Thereās also a Mississippian mound nearby.
On a side note, Shiloh is not far from Savannah, TN, where Rafe Eledge (the Antiques Roadshow Civil War appraiser) has his store.
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Maybe lack of division is not how democracies succeed?
I would point out that our political system has produced winners and losers for advocates of the Chief Executive since George Washington retired. Likewise, for every lower office and public policy over more than 200 years, with very few really difficult scrapes. Has now somehow become the time that only spoiled babies dueling to the death can resolve our differences?
Much as I would prefer that everyone always be so wise as to agree with me 
ā would the world really become a better place over time without arguments about which road to take? 
I donāt think the point is to ācome togetherā or eliminate division, but to learn how to cope with our differences and muddle along. There will be people and ideas which are so destructive as to fall outside the fellowship of human society ā if we canāt develop a common understanding of what those bounds are, then, yeah, maybe we are doomed.
Enjoy your exploration of the historic setting for one of the difficult scrapes weāve more or less survived.
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That is more a blueprint for how socialist/communist regimes succeed. In my estimation, it is the only way they can succeed. Democracies seem to operate as a constant struggle to find a middle ground which is large enough and common enough to be accepted by the majority. Inevitably this is an ever-shifting field, which I think of as the basis for the Social Contract, which allows us to function as a society by accommodating our differences rather than enforcing our conformity.
Democracies are by nature inclusive, while Unity is generally achieved through exclusion. I have observed that those who direct the drive for unity believe themselves to be of an elite class who āKnow Whatās Best for You For Your Own Goodā and seek to force us all to conform to their vision, but are usually not subject their own edicts. They have the unshakable belief they they can force people to be ābetterā. (According to their definition of ābetterā.) The best you can get through conformity is stagnation and isolation, leading to backwardness and decay.
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The problem with democracy is that it needs a firm base to operate from. There has to be non-negotiable standards AKA The Bill of Rights and our Constitution. Since democracy forces compromise, those things that are moral and just end up being compromised and slide the body farther down the slope to the immoral and the unjust.
No matter how endangered people may āfeel,ā our right must always remain our rights. Even is what we call Red States, our rights have been infringed in order to mollify the fears of the timid. That should never have happened, but once it does; it is a hard path to correct.
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Freedom is messy. Most people seem to forget that many of the early European Americans came here to escape religious and political control over their lives.
The constitution wasnāt set up to ensure majority rule. It was set up to protect minorities from the tyranny of the majority.
Agree with the premise in the article that everyone needs to spend more time taking care of themselves and contributing to their communities if we want this country to live up to its potential. Half the people blaming everything that is wrong on the other half is just a waste of time and we donāt have a lot of time left to waste.
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It is important to keep a clear eye on our foundations, but I feel obliged to point out that negotiation of āthe standardsā has been going on since before the US Constitution was adopted, and ever since.
The Bill of Rights itself is an adaptation which was not originally part of āthe standardsā. We have negotiated changes to āthe standardsā a number of times further over the intervening decades ā almost always to correct some oversight or inequity in the original. And Article III created an entire branch of government, the basic function of which is to figure out āwhat the hell does that mean, anyway?ā
Well, I suppose it is a hypothetical hazard of democracy that we might all choose the same path to immorality and injustice. Currently, it seems like all of us think that half of us are doing exactly that. There are systems of government which avoid that problem ā no compromise, no negotiation, just do what somebody tells you, or else. Iām an American. I would not have that system. Would you?
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I disagree totally the politicians can and are destroying what made this country what it once was. When they take away our freedoms we canāt be what we were. The word great is a spin word that has nothing to do with freedoms.
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Despite what people may have been taught, compromise is not necessarily a virtue - not when it permits immoral behavior. The ānormalā we have now says that killing children growing in a motherās womb is OK, stealing a persons wages to give to another is OK, denying a person right to defend self and family is āgood,ā and denying a personās right to earn a living is acceptable.
That is the government we have now. Seems to me, we already have that government to ask about. The āor elseā is in full display.
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For sure. At some point in a democracy, you need to just call the question ā then live with the results or leave the island. But compromise is one way to stick around until the next vote.
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I think compromise is simply a way to surrender just one foot at a time. People either stand for what is right or they fall - a foot at a time. Enough surrender will make a fall complete.
If true Patriots (you know, the ones who did study how the Federal Government is supposed to work) donāt draw a line in the sand, they will be erased - all in the name of compromise.
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Ok. Opinions. Everybody gets to have one.
This one seems to argue against the merits of love, family, friend, community, government, society, and humanity. Without compromise, all of those are impossible. Only self. Have a good weekend.
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Shows what I know. 
I still think that making civilization 
work is worth the effort.
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No sir, it is not about self. At all.
There is a way to sustain love, family, friends, community without compromise. Matter of fact, Jesus taught his followers to do exactly that. Jesus did not compromise Godās values. Man does, and now we are experiencing the benefit of those compromises.
Our real problem stems from this civilization that is in work has proved it is not about Godās will for us; it is about profits and control. There is no way to fix that without Godās help, but I think we have already surrendered to the control of those who have no god but themselves and their masters. It is nearly impossible to fix it now - especially trying to ācompromiseā a fix.
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