To be of the
World but
Not in it

Is the same
As being in the world
But not of it.

This wisdom
Brought me
A good friend.

Forgetting it,
We separated.

For, we must 
Not love the world.
That is what it is truly
Saying.

Nations are burdened by periods of long-suffering
Equal to the opulence of their citizens.
It is not a sin to be wealthy; for comfort
Breeds an environment where suffering
Cannot choke out compassion.
Yet, the decadence of generations
Who inherit their predecessors' wealth
And become idle in their work;
Refusing to do work, or take up no activity,
And leech off the fat of the previous generations,
This leads to a corruption so deep and bitter.
The citizens become worse than any tyrant.
Then, by their own designs, does corruption
Seep into governments, and like a whip
The government cracks against the back of its citizens.
Where once they were free, they are now bonded
By their own greed and lust, and desire for idleness.
Then, they suffer for, sometimes, six generations.
The people who are natured to be violent die
And the ones who are hearty and compassionate survive.
The government continues to be wretched
Until the people rise up, and challenge it;
For they have been chastened, and must no longer
Bear the grief. Or, if they still be wicked,
The government holds them for another generation.

As a good man living in one of these times;
The very few of us there happens to be,
Remember Daniel, Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego.
They were protected in the lion's dens;
They were not singed by the furnace.
Or Mordecai and Esther, righteous were they.
Or Ezekiel, righteous was he.
The fact is, one ought to remain silent under the oppression
And bear it with grace. For, six good men cannot
Save a nation. They can only save themselves.

The nation enters into its colonial age;
It is founded by strong men.
It grows through its various wars,
And if it survives them,
It grows into its golden age.
America, she had two golden ages
And lucky were her inhabitants.
Then, the golden age disintegrates
Into pleasure-seeking.
The beautiful highways, architecture
Ethics and culture which built the nation
Begin to come under scrutiny.
The inhabitants then begin to focus
Their arts on effeminate objects
Or grotesque objects.
It starts in the intelligentsia 
And then bleeds down into the masses.
When this happens, the masses
Are as opulent as kings;
Then, there comes a first crisis.
If the crisis is averted,
Some three and a half generations later
There comes a second.
I do not know of any thirds.

Goethe argues on the shade,
And hails experience determines color.
Newton claims the color is inherent
Within the object, by reflected wavelength.

Scientists argue about it for centuries.
Did it ever occur to any of them
That both could be simultaneously true?
Like all systems of knowledge
Invented, the inventor thinks it exclusive.

Obviously, light is experienced subjectively
For no two objects are nigh a source of light the same.
Yet, obviously, within any object is its inherent color.
Yet, it is... The color exists and can indeed be described.
Though the light reflects off the table a white
And though the shadow creates multitudes of shade;
It can be described accurately. It is as scientific
As Newton's inherent color.

This is too wise for those who wish
To calculate and say that truth is subjective---
For, it is not. Color in both cases can be accurately described.
One on the chemical level, and the other on the photogenic level.
What we learn is that light interacts with color
Differently, depending on where the source is.

I'm sure I'm not the only one to have discovered this.
I look at Goethe, so impressed by phenomenology.
To express our differences---yet we are all inherently the same;
We can indeed know the experiences of others;
Just the same that Goethe can write about his.
Fools are enamored by slight differences.
Wise men are enamored by the consistency of life;
Yet, the opposite is true for the fool
When it suits their aims at committing mischief.
For, truly, there are only righteous men and wicked.
Each will find their wisdom in either truth or folly.
To me, it is folly to believe that either system must
Be the only law or the only axiom. Truth is multifaceted,
And based in objectivity. It is not, however, based in personal opinion.
What is my truth, is also your truth;
It just so happens that I may not suffer for the same reasons that you do.

There is no such thing.
It is just a demon;
A mass hallucination;
A photorealistic Pixilation;
A madness.

Having the 200iq he did,
He made a good life for himself.
His unpopularity comes from
This fact, so said a man in a lecture I once heard.

The man in the lecture
Was the American
Fully embracing everything
Popular about Americanism.
I heard him speak on Mencius,
And it's like these men were
Aliens to his own understanding of the world.

What I draw from Goethe is a supreme
Sympathy... Given his highest IQ
He could see both sides of every argument
And be fully convinced of it, simultaneously.
Yet, his personality did not fracture;
He held both viewpoints within one being.

Though, there is something cute about the way
The lecturer understood their subject
Intellectually, but did not fully grasp
Or agree with it. I like him because he is an American
Unapologetically. Naivety reams from his lectures;
A blind acceptance to a miserable code.
Yet, he like Goethe is happy---
He sees in Goethe the pursuit of life's joys.
There, I see it, too. I am not an intellect infatuated
With the world's suffering.
I am infatuated with joy and peace.

Yet, I look to the conditions of what makes man happiest.
Not very many men have iqs above 200
And thereby, can inherit fortunes
And forge for themselves happiness.
I know I can, through my writing,
Like he with his own.

However, a daemon once said of Goethe
"I wish he had died miserable."
And the lecturer thought, 
"Genius must suffer."
I chuckled. True geniuses do not suffer;
What makes them truly genius
Is their ability to forge happiness
In this world.

Many think that by giving the homeless
Aught they need, they will ultimately be successful.
This is not true. The homeless, the abjectly poor,
If given all their desires will do what all men do.
They will spend it on their belly, then their members,
And then growing affluent, they will seek to destroy.
For, men who have gained a fortune without work
Will become bored, and must seek to muse themselves
Like any other man.

Rather, every poor man you see, give him his immediate
Need. Proportionate to that. Do not give him excess,
Do not give him below the means he needs.
Give to him his immediate needs only.
Do not pass him by and say, "I wish to teach this man
"How to take care of himself." Some men cannot.
If you must, bring them into your houses,
And be their servant, but vet the ones you help
And make sure they are not swine.

Give proportionally, to each his immediate need
And no further. For, excess will create waste.
A poor man is uneducated. Therefore, he does not know
How to conduct business. It is not his fault that he does not know this
But, you will not do anything for him that he cannot do for himself.
If the poor man gets wisdom, he will invest his money and time
On an occupation, and will accrue fortune on his own.
If the poor man cannot, he will remain poor
And such a one needs their portions like any other man.
Passing him by on the street, and saying,
"I ought to teach him how to make his fortune,"
Will not feed him, will it?
Yet, giving him everything, so he has no lack,
Will only create waste.

These are the harsh realities of charity.
If you have a day's bread in your pocket
Give the poor man that.
If you have a day's shelter in your pocket,
Give the poor man that.
That is what he needs, and no more.
Any more, and he will in five years time
Find himself in prison, for his lack comes from idleness.
Yet, some men cannot do anything but be idle.
These men, their work is to beg.
Give them their portion, what they need,
And no more. And also, no less.
You will help them by doing this
More than by giving a fortune away
Or by needlessly pondering on how you can teach them to knead dough.

Yet, always feed him with kind words
Proportional to your kind gift.

In the West, we protect our citizens.
In the East, they do not.

As horrible the government in America is
It does not reach one thousandth of the violence
The Chinese and Russian Governments commit.

We can be impressed by their philosophers;
We can be impressed by their affluence;
We can be impressed by the appearance of freedom.
We can be impressed by the abundance of food.
We can be impressed by the happiness of their citizens.

Underneath that, however, is a machine
Which kills for pleasure, and enslaves many.

The citizens are unruly and wicked in the West.
They deserve to be punished, but by whom?
Will China or Russia be that whip?
When, their citizens are righteous and salt of the Earth?

Personally, I'd rather live unmolested by my government
And tolerate the abusive inhabitants while patiently learning virtue,
Than live a righteous life and be in perpetual fear.

The principles of Chinese Philosophy are true,
Yet the government are sophists.
The government rules benevolently,
Yet it deliberately kills people it deems unworthy.
What compassion or benevolence is that?
None whatsoever. A poor beggar can still live happily
If he have love in his heart.
And often they have love in abundance
While the rest of the affluent masses do not.

Would I rather live underneath a hypocritical government
Where the people are good and kind and right?
Or, would I rather live underneath a just government,
Where my neighbor will oppress me, yet also be struck down by Law?
The latter, of course. I can tolerate the evil of my neighbors
If I am still fed by the fat of the land.

China is a golden city of philosophy
And at one point in time in its history it actually
Lived by the standards it preached.
But, I'd rather serve under a well ordered government
Where corruption can even be rooted out,
Than a hypocritical one that bears no shame

























.

A lecturer, in his naivety
Gracefully defended the decadence
Of America.
Contrasted against Mencius,
Our system did not hold up.

I come from a more ancient boundary.
America was free, but was bridled by
Religion's yoke, which kept her safe.
Without it, America has become dangerous.

Seeing the man speak in naïve words
Making America great because of its greed
It's disregard for parental authority,
Its disregard for all things good.
This is not the tradition handed down
By my fathers, but yet was broken
In the sixties, when the beginning
Of generational curses set in.
And four generations later
We have the generation which
Oppresses the poor and does violence.

Mencius was right---
As that was the Judges of Israel
Who having the Law of Jah
Followed it, and God ruled.
In China, the hierarchy
Of parental bonds and honor
Ruled. Righteousness, Propriety, Benevolence and Wisdom.

The Chinese did not listen to either Mencius
Or Confucius, until many moons later
When the countries were prosperous.
There are poor even in the United States---
We can see them on the street corners.
It is a universal problem of all mankind,
However, you can judge the civilization
By the affluence and number of their middle classes.
And China, under rule of Confucius,
Had a sizable middle class compared
To other ancient worlds.

What I see is good, 
Is the filial respect 
And the honoring of the commandment,
"Honor thy father and mother."
And also to honor the ruler.
Americans love to rebel against presidents.
We love to cast them at low approval ratings
While our affluence is greater than 
Even the best ancient kingdom.

Yet, it was not our libertine attitude
Which garnered the wealth,
But the work of a generation
Who honored their family traditions
Back to the nation's founding.
And like all nations,
There is a generation which rebels,
And then brings on its downfall. 

Selfishness is evil.
Love is evil, if purely for one's own gratification;
Then, it is not love, but is selfishness.
Selfishness taints all that it touches.
It darkens the mind with desire.
It satiates at others' expense.
It feeds on others' wellbeing.
It harms the soul of all around you.
It seeks its gratification always
Above all else.

Another word for it is "Self-love".

Draw strength from Christ,
Love outwardly, not inwardly,
Seek the welfare of others first.
Bear hardship and grief with outpourings of grace.
Build the soul of those around you.
Fill their cups until you are empty.
Perish before giving evil a foothold in your heart.