Meanwhile, liberal-conservative labels have become inverted in the political realm. The liberals and far-left are now the reactionary fascists and the conservatives more closely represent freedom fighters. In the Baha'i realm, this label inversion aligns so-called liberal Baha'is with conservative or libertarian values, as they are known in the political jargon.
Economic Orthodoxy
A reader, via a private email, wrote that many Baha'is seemed to follow an "economic orthodoxy", related to ideas such as the welfare state. I replied that
As a market participant, I have to keep close to reality, very concrete reality or I loose money. I prefer to be right and make money than be wrong, but have a beautiful theory while I loose money. I can't afford too much theorizing.As implied above, the terms used by, and realities in, the secular world today are completely disconnected from anything Baha'is might mean by similar terms that might be found in the Baha'i writings. That truism is law one of survival.
Consider "social assistance" and the "welfare state" as they exist today, for the most part, which Baha'is might wrongly "pile on" to support. What is wrong here? To wit, it is borrowing money to give it away in the name of "social assistance", which, mark my words, is the path to ruin. It is, as always, the poor who will suffer the most because of it.
Thus, "welfare states" are actually hurting the needy, not helping them. Nowhere in the Baha'i writings is there any hint that one should borrow money that one cannot pay back (that is, commit fraud) in order to give that to needy people. That is what is going on now. In short, there is nowhere to be seen anything even close to the Baha'i concepts of "welfare" and therefore, next to nothing out there that Baha'is can support in good conscience beyond orphans and the truly incapacitated.
Where is the state or government running a budget surplus and therefore has funds of its own to support orphans and the needy? Nowhere. These bankrupt governments are borrowing money recklessly to buy votes from union members, people who already have jobs, the unemployed via perpetual jobless benefits and maybe, if somebody goofs, needy people get some. Thus, these ideas in the mass media have nothing whatever to do with any Baha'i thought.
The welfare state is driving Europe and the U.S. to ruin and poverty. One cannot give to the poor what one does not have. And if one insists on borrowing money to give that to the poor, that is actually pro-poverty because the government is going to fail. In short, the public's concept of a welfare state is about as far from Baha'i thought as it gets. Not to mention that the Baha'i idea is to support those who cannot work (orphans, severely disabled, etc), not any jerk who happens to be unemployed and is too lazy to find some constructive activity to do (please see trunk-and-ticket plan for those below). How many of the jerks are growing their own food on roofs in cities or in their yards? Not many. They are just where the elite wants them -- dependent on the government for even blowing their own noses.
Baha'is promote wealth creation, work, profit-sharing, charity, reasonable taxation that does not kill prosperity, freedom in economic activity, modesty in spending, avoidance of unserviceable debt, reduction of extremes in wealth and poverty and many, many more constructive ideas, not what is happening now in this upside-down world of illusions. The auto unions have had their gravy -- they are not "the poor". They are among "the rich". We will have real poverty in the U.S. soon, when food stamps, unemployment benefits, pensions and such all go belly up, which will retool our concept of what is and is not poor.
Baha'i teachings do not support the development of fascist control of every little thing in a person's life like we see in the West right now. They oppose that. There can be no confusion on that point.
Mother of all welfare
Here is my trunk-and-ticket program. If the government had the guts and was not essentially a stooge of a fascist elite intent on controlling people and buying their votes, it would immediately abolish all welfare payments to able people, and in its place, provide each person or family with a trunk filled with stuff and a one-way bus ticket.
The trunk would contain provisonal title to 40 acres of land from among the billions of acres owned by the government across the country. Also, a set of items better than any previous settler or pioneer has ever had -- an ax to cut wood, tools like a hammer, saw, etc, nails, seeds, shovel, machete, lantern, lantern oil, med kit, small supply of rations to eat and cash, a tent to use while they build their house out of wood, stone or clay-mud bricks, simple books on building and farming skills, survival techniques, etc. What a treasure trunk. And the one-way bus ticket to the 40 acres of land. Period. End of story. No more food stamps, no more welfare checks. Good luck to you all. Period. One gets the key to the trunk when one arrives at the 40 acres and full title to the land when a house, if even just one small room, is built.
This program would get poor, unemployed people out of cities, where they have no real hope, and provide them with everything needed for success in life. A collateral advantage would be reduction of the drug problem. Imagine, living out in the middle of nowhere, maybe without even an access road. Probably not many drug dealers around. You think?
Summary: In today's parlance, welfare state equals failed state, impoverished people and extreme social disorder. Get ready, it is coming to a theatre near you.
The last thing Baha'is support is anything remotely similar to the failed welfare states in the world today. I live in a place where, um, people actually have to work to eat. One can be lazy here if one wants, but one better have some family member to feed them else ... People here walk miles up into the steep hills to find or grow food.
It's Party-Time
The reader continued, "In fact you go even further by actually liking the Tea Party movement." I replied
Well, I stopped short of saying I "liked" them, trying to avoid the appearance of endorsing them. But I did say they have guts, are not wimps.Actually, I personally don't trust any political parties or groups.
But now that the topic arises, probably the Tea Party ideas are closer to Baha'i thought than anything else going around -- including the need for radical change. Today, the radical ideas are the Tea Party ideas, agreeing pretty much across the board with Baha'i thought:
==Smaller government neededand so forth. On the other hand, we have the political liberals and progressives who promote exactly the opposite of the above and opposite of what Baha'i liberals want.
==Reduce debt
==Reduce extravagant spending
==Freedom of speech
==Balanced budgets
==Follow the constitution
==Stop bailouts of evil-doers and of failed businesses
==Let the criminal financial geniuses fail and then throw them in jail
==Peaceful protest, discussion and change
Thus, the terms are inverted. If anything, Baha'i fundamentalists parallel the Democratic party, which basically supports fascism, the evil bankers, take-over of industries, etc. In like manner, the Baha'i insurgents favor bigger Baha'i Administration, dictating thoughts, conscience and speech, bigger buildings from money collected, and take-over or micro-control of local community activities and preferences.
Is the Baha'i Community in Crisis? presented the idea that crisis among U.S. voters and crisis in the Baha'i community may have some meaningful parallel. To further develop this parallel, several points might be mentioned.
First, regarding U.S. voters and the current influence of the Tea Party, the government picked a formidable group to take on. Many of these are the original Woodstock generation, and some decades later, are not going to play dead while fascism takes over the U.S. government and constitution. Big mistake. If the government wants to pick a fight, better that they chose an adversary they can beat.
The fact that the liberal, elite-controlled media and government officials disparage the Tea Party movement so much is compelling testimony to its strength, to its moral superiority to anything the bankrupt government fraudsters could attain.
Similarly, the fundamentalist insurgents in the Baha'i community took on intellectuals considered to be wimps. In both cases, we see a huge miscalculation, resulting in quite a show -- better than fiction. The usurpers feared the intellectuals and their ideas so much precisely because those ideas were main-stream Baha'i thought, not the absurdities promulgated by the control-freak insurgents.
Just days ago we had evidence of a leading retired insurgent retooling as patriot to Baha'i values. All the lower level insurgents, witnessing that, are probably rushing to do their own remakes as Baha'i patriots to join the Baha'i main-stream. In U.S. elections today, many reactionaries and bought politicians may be thrown out of office. So do you prefer the bought and paid-for politicians or do you prefer freedom a la Tea Party advocates?
The reader continued: "I would be absolutely delighted -- actually overjoyed to hear how that can [be] theologically reconciled with the [Baha'i] Faith... [to] really broaden my view on different political perspectives that can be theologically compatible."
Simple, (liberal) Baha'is are radicals, revolutionaries; so are the Tea Party folks. Watch the news. They are throwing out the encumbant reactionary Democrats and Republicans. The Baha'is need to catch up with them, and elect new blood, too. Baha'is want less, not more, government control of their lives and thoughts, whether by the secular government or by the Baha'i Administration.
Further, the Tea Party movement has guts. They know their ideas listed above will produce acute, intense suffering because those ideas will collapse the wicked financial system. In exchange for this cleansing and "clearing" of the system of unpayable debt, people can rebuild on a firm foundation for future prosperity. Anybody else in the U.S. showing guts like that? And the Tea Party folks are not only confronting a U.S. government intent on taking control of every detail of human life, making freedom ancient history, but in addition, an international, rather powerful oligarchy with an almost satanic thurst for power and wealth by any means necessary. Now that is guts.
Both the current governments and their illuminist masters are intent on the complete destruction of any shred of human dignity and nobility that might remain in the populace, so they can gain control as ranglers herding cattle, as slavers supervising captured workers. Maybe it's time for Baha'is to step up to the plate, both to assert their rights in their own community as well as to support secular freedom fighters.
This is a Proclamation 1,2,3 bonanza. With peaceful gatherings all over the U.S. of Tea Party advocates sharing so many fundamentals with Baha'i thinking, one might think that U.S. Baha'is are passing out flyers all over the place, stating their explicit agreement with these fundamental concepts of freedom. But, of course, the Baha'is might need a little guts, too. And can Baha'is show they have some guts to send fundamentalist insurgents packing, too? ...That is, if they dare show up at all.
Kidnapping Capital
The beloved reader continued: "Most Baha'is I thought would be very pro-immigration (You wrote a blog post defending the latest action taken by Arizona)... And wouldn't the oneness of humanity lead to very open borders and immigration policy?"
Perhaps I was unclear, since "defending" the law is really outside my expertise and scope. But I do defend the right of people to protect their lives and property.
Maybe I'm wrong, but the Arizona law has nothing to do with immigration or being pro-immigration. Baha'is support law and order, do they not? Or do Baha'is support anarchy, chaos, thievery, kidnappings, assassinations and the like? Do Baha'is support protecting the weak from criminals? Yes, they do. The Arizona law deals with reducing crime, protecting citizens from illegal aliens who commit crimes. So immigration has nothing whatsoever to do with the Arizona law. It is merely a diversion tactic to deflect attention from criminals invading a community.
Is there a passage in the Baha'i writings that gives a count greater than one for killings and kidnappings in a community before some defensive measures are to be contemplated? I think not.
When you have a person pointing a gun at your head in your house, are you going to sing a pro-immigration song? I don't think so. The liberal-controlled mass media want you to. But will you? I doubt it. Where in the Baha'i writings is any hint that illegal aliens should be ignored by nation-states, that criminals should be allowed to run rampant killing and pillaging? I'm game. Show me the quote. Show me the Baha'i quote supporting slavery. That is what the three stooges of the fascist, moneyed elite want -- endless illegal aliens to work as near slave labor, so that you, Mr. or Miss Baha'i, won't be able to get a job.
And if one is smart enough to see that "immigration" is a diversion from "seeing with one's own eyes", then the liberal mass-media will hope you swallow the "racism" pitch hook, line and sinker. As long as the public is unaware of what is really happening, the illuminists are happy.
And we know how eager and ready Americans, unlike any other nation on earth, literally will walk that extra mile to talk about racism, when in most cases, racism has nothing to do with much of anything these days. That is, for any situation, Americans show a marked preference to talking about racism, whether or not it is pertinent. Racism need not be present; Americans will find a way to say it is. This obsession of Americans helps the ruling class since the public will focus on the wrong hand, while the other hand is doing a number on them.
Regarding "open borders", the time has not yet come. Ideally, one could travel anywhere and work anywhere, but that is not relevant today. Concerning Mexico and Arizona, reverse the flow. You think Americans would be allowed to illegally invade Mexico? And if so, if many of these invading Americans went on crime sprees in Mexico, the Mexicans would just say, "Hey, it's immigration; live with it"?
Notice how the minions of the elitists want to strike back against freedom and states rights. Even the President, the U.S. Attorney General and other federal officials fear freedom in Arizona. What if other Americans get the scent of freedom, too? Freedom cannot be tolerated. Other pathetic pawns of the elite, in Los Angeles and San Francisco no less, threaten to take money from the Arizonans via boycotts, cancelled contracts and the like. This is better than anything one could make up as fiction.
Anybody speaking up for freedom in the U.S. today becomes an enemy of big brother, since freedom is the opposite of the enslavement of the population that the three stooges have been mandated to implement. Freedom means prosperity, less poverty, more jobs, wealth creation. The stooges strive to foster destruction so helpless people can be easily controlled. Violence will be everywhere. The helpless and gutless will be herded into figurative corrals praising the government as their savior and master.
The battle of ideas is now on. The media stooges strive for maximum confusion and chaos, to keep the population occupied by non-issues and irrelevant ideas. In politics, conservative thought more or less equals Baha'i teachings; liberal thought more or less represents reactionary, pro-government, anti-freedom thought. So forget the labels as the Universal House of Justice suggests. If it was really about immigration, then there would be no need for any law about illegal aliens, right? But, as I said, only the fascist media and their dupes call it "immigration". Baha'is are free to parrot the fascists, but why would they?
© 2010 James J Keene
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