Although the connections are not always obvious, personal change is inseparable from social and political change. — Harriet Lerner
I noticed where the Congressional House refused to allow the good old fashion light bulb, the incandescent bulb, to live. Politicians are bound and determined to dictate how we, the people, are to live and what we can and cannot buy. Plus they require we buy what we do not want but rather what they demand we have. We no longer live in a democracy, we live in a dictatorship. However, we, we the people voted for the leadership we now have and thus it is we the people who are to blame for our own demise.
When I first started these articles I made it clear that politics and self-help are closely related. As an individual I am responsible for my own life. Part of that responsibility is caring for my family and seeing to it that their needs are met. To that end I have not done as well as I could have. I have not done badly but I could have done much better. Voting for leaders is much like taking care of the family, responsibilities have to be met and if something is amiss then it is our responsibility to fix it. But, we don’t and therein lays the crux of the problem.
In my youth I knew what I needed to do to make a future, a good future for myself and the family. But I didn’t do it. Why? Because I got lazy and I procrastinated. I always felt that I had all the time in the world, that life would never end, and that I would stay young forever. Then one day I looked in the mirror and I saw reality, the reality of age.
In the same vein politicians see tax money as never ending, thus they are permitted (they think) to spend our money on what they want, when they want. Like me they never plan for the future nor do they consider the future consequences of their actions. Unlike me they live to raise taxes and empower themselves on a daily basis.
When I was sixteen I wondered where I would be and I would be doing when I reached the age of fifty. Well fifty came and went and at that point I should have awakened to the realities of life, but I didn’t, that is to say I didn’t change my lifestyle. However I did notice that the political landscape was changing and it was not for the better. Now, in hindsight I wonder how I could see the political spectrum and not the personal one. How could I realize that politics was affecting my life in a negative way but my own desire to improve myself was nowhere to be found?
Today life is getting worse. Unemployment is through the roof, we are in a major depression (a fact that no authority is discussing, read that main stream media), and people are hurting and they are hurting bad. Many feel that government is their solution, but I realized years ago that government is the problem and the politicians in power are becoming slave masters. Yet we the people continue to vote these plantation owners in, time after time.
I could see this political writing on the wall but I could never see my own future thus I never did anything about it. Hence I am paying the price today in terms that I always have too much month left at the end of the money.
As I write these articles I am facing my own demons and discussing why I failed to plan for my life, why I let my own future die. Now to be sure I have done some things right, most importantly I married a fantastic woman who actually has a head on her shoulders. If it wasn’t for her I would really be in a mess. And because of her we have done some things to ensure our life is not a complete disaster. These are things I want to discuss in a future article, meaning my life doesn’t totally suck thanks to her insight and wisdom. Still despite all that, I failed in my responsibility to do due diligence, to properly plan and execute that plan for a much better life than the one we now have.
We, the people who vote, are the same way. We listen to politicians with their silver tongues tell us how they can save the world if only we send them back to Washington. We conveniently forget it was they who got us into this mess in the first place. And it is they who keep us here. The latest special election in California’s 36th Congressional District proves that. The same mentality that keeps us on the plantation just won, and she will be going to Washington to help ensure we remain slaves of the government. Elections have consequences, and those consequences can be very detrimental to the nation. Failing to plan for the future is the same, which in the end can have very undesirable effects on an individual. I’m living proof of that.
Time cannot be stopped, it cannot be saved, and it cannot be repeated. Once time is gone it is gone forever and decisions made in a moment of time can have repercussions far beyond imagination. History is full of such examples. My own life is confirmation of that concept and I know that yours is as well. When I was young and I failed to plan I was planning to fail in my later years, and I succeeded very well in that regard. Now, now I have to make amends for that mistake. Is it too late? Maybe, but then again maybe not.
When I left my mild state of depression last year (2010) I knew that I had to change, that I had to readjust my thinking and modify my behavior. I am succeeding in that regard. How do I know? Because I am not only writing these words, you are reading them.
People vote the way they do because they believe that government is their savior, that government has replaced God in the grand scheme of things. But like me, people are starting to wake up and smell the cesspool, the stink politicians have arranged for us to exist in. What I discovered is it takes time to change sixty years of bad habits, but they can be changed and much faster than one realizes. It takes effort to change, but more, it takes enlightenment. This recession is starting to enlighten people.
The voters in California are just plain ignorant. They believe in government supremacy and always will. But some of us know that only self-reliance, a belief in a higher power, and a dedication to improve self is the true measure of a man or woman.
I woke up late in my personal life, but I woke up and now I am changing my future with actions, responsibility, and a very strong desire to stop living from payday-to-payday. Most of the voters in this state will never wake up (don’t ask me why I live here, that’s a complicated story) and never will. I can’t control them (nor do I want to) but I sure as hell can control me.
G.
