In this age of believing we can be whatever we want to be
or better yet, feel that we are without offering substantiating evidence, you’d
better read this. In my last vodcast I mentioned that I explain myself best
when telling a story of which I have personal experience rather than simply
discussing issues in a detached and impersonal manner. I know you lefties love
feelings so herein I will share mine. I am an erstwhile musician who years ago booked
and hosted many shows featuring award winning roots music artists of some
renown. I did this for two primary reasons. Firstly, I was deeply moved by my
guest artists’ ability to convey raw soul with such passion and skill. This included
that of the sidemen I had hired to perform in the house bands required to host
such musical journeys. Secondly, being a man of limited talent, I knew that the
ONLY way that I would ever get to perform with the calibre of talent I was featuring
in my shows was to book them myself. This allowed me to focus on the business
of running the show since I didn’t labour under any misapprehensions about my own
talent, or indeed lack thereof. No matter how much I may of ideated or desired
to be a great player, my own limitations disabused me of any such notions. And
if ever I got too cocky my fellow musicians were always more than willing to
straighten me out. I could wish that I were a Paul Butterfield or an Elvin Bishop
but that was not in the cards for me. Oddly now that I no longer play live, my
playing has improved since I have little else to occupy me in my retirement.
Yet we have developed a society and a school system that
teaches children that there are no limitations. It does our children no service
when we teach them that life is without constraints. Teaching them to achieve
to the best of their ability through hard work, dedication, initiative, study,
and cooperation will allow them to test their own boundaries to find out for
themselves where their strengths and weaknesses lie. Our job as parents is to
support such activity will providing encouragement rather than filling their
heads with ideas built on fantasies. Every game can only be played within the
rules which constrain the game for it is the rules which make playing a game possible.
Since all games seek to emulate life, we need not expect that life itself ought
to be free of constraints. Possibilities only exist within constraints; this
principle is deeply embedded in the prerequisites for game play. Obviously,
games also have winners and losers since equity of outcome would nullify the
very point of competing in a game where the ideal outcome is winning. And since
not all can be winners the manner in which we accept and deal with the
constraints of the game will determine whether or not we have behaved in a
sporting manner.
The impossibility of equal outcome is a mathematical
reality. I have spoken about this prior but nevertheless it bears repeating
that this principle can be mathematically determined. It is known both as the Pareto
Principle as well as the Matthew Principle from Matthew 25 in the Gospels. The
Pareto distribution is a powerful tool for modeling a variety of real-life
phenomena. It is named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto who
developed the distribution in the 1890s as a way to describe the allocation of
wealth in society. He famously observed that 80% of society’s wealth was
controlled by 20% of its population, a concept now known as the “Pareto
Principle” or the “80-20 Rule”. When employed as a Quality Resource I used this
to determine what top 5 issues were affecting the assembly line I monitored
since within that top 5 issues existed 80% of the assembly lines’ issues.
So, let’s examine Matthew 25 and the harsh yet mathematically
determined nature of its reality:
“14 For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a
far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.
15 And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and
to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway
took his journey.
16 Then he that had received the five talents went and
traded with the same, and made them other five talents.
17 And likewise he that had received two, he also gained
other two.
18 But he that had received one went and digged in the
earth, and hid his lord's money.
19 After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and
reckoneth with them.
20 And so he that had received five talents came and
brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveresdt unto me five
talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.
21 His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and
faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee
ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
22 He also that had received two talents came and said,
Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other
talents beside them.
23 His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful
servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over
many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
24 Then he which had received the one talent came and said,
Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown,
and gathering where thou hast not strawed:
25 And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the
earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.
26 His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and
slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where
I have not strawed:
27 Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the
exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.
28 Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him
which hath ten talents.
29 For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he
shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that
which he hath.
30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer
darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
If ever there was proof that God is a free trade, free
market loving Capitalist, here we have said proof. Note the constraints were “every
man according to his several ability” and that from the onset nothing was distributed
evenly. Moreover, that the outcome was inequitably distributed to the point
where the guy who had the least had his taken away to be given to the fellow with
the most who had traded most wisely according to his several abilities. This is
why socialism’s essential premise is a Godless lie. At its heart it seeks to
undo the mathematical reality discovered by Pareto and the metaphorical and spiritual
reality written of in Matthew 25. Therefore, the idea that we can be whatever
we want to be or that we are equally fitted to every possible task is literally
an infectious insanity being seeded from Academia where professors with nutty
ideas are attempting to turn our children into individuals who are utterly
unfit to confront the harsh realities of life. For nothing we do can reshape
reality and the inevitability of unequal outcomes, or indeed of the limitations
placed upon us by the nature of our abilities. It is only by dealing properly
with the constraints presented by life while using their talents wisely that children
will learn to flourish and thrive not despite of the constraints but because of
them!
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