I really wanted to title this post “Glenn Beck can suck it” but that’s not exactly how I want to get into a search engine. And that’s a thought I often have (especially every time he ends up looking like an idiot on The Daily Show) but it’s not really pertinent to the thought at hand.
Sometimes I get a little fuzzy on the evils of communism. Well… let me be more exact. I think I understand a lot of the evils of communism as it tends to be practiced. It’s atheistic, and while I try really hard to respect people’s right to believe (or not) as they will, this whole government-decreed-religion-or-lack-thereof thing just doesn’t work for me. I’m really glad that I live in a country where I can legally be Mormon or Catholic or Jewish or Muslim or Pagan or Spaghetti Monsterist freely. I think that Communism kills a lot of ambition, which kills a lot of hope. And I think that people are just too messed up to be able to do it properly.
But it’s such a lovely idea. We all live together, we’re all on the same level, we work together for the greater good, there are no poor, no hungry, so untreated illnesses… these parts are so lovely. Mostly because they indicate that if it can be done it’s because mens’ souls has changed. Men have become selfless and as devoted to the well-being of others as they are to themselves. I don’t know if it could really work, if we can ever be that in this life, but it’s such a lovely thought.
But people are imperfect and selfish. And getting to be less of those things is the work of a lifetime. And what interests me in this idea this morning is me thinking about the Book of Mormon. Whatever your beliefs on the idea of individual responsibility vs. government action in the questions of poverty, etc. I think the one of the messages of the Book of Mormon is pretty clear. The more we take care of each other the better off we are. The more we worry about how we look, and what we’ve got, and what we’ve got that other people don’t have, the worse off we’re going to be. Taking care of other people brings us closer to God and makes us better people and a better society. Hoarding, spending, being focused on what we’re wearing and how we decorate, focusing on keeping as much as we want away from other people, refusing to help someone because they are poorer than us… these things are the way to spiritual death. They will kill souls and society.
Shannon,
Thank you. You expressed how I feel very well. Yes communism, as it is suppose to be in theory, is a wonderful thought, but we as a society are not at all ready for it.