Posted by Jim Baxter on [27 Nov 2009 09:34AM] jbaxter@choicemaker.net Notify me about Responses? (yes)
2009 AD: The Season of Generation-Choicemaker Joel 3:14 kjv INTRODUCTION Every September, I recall that is more than half a century (64 years) sinceI landed at Nagasaki with the 2nd Marine Division in the original occupationof Japan following World War II. This time every year, I have watched andlistened to the light-hearted 'peaceniks' and their light-headedsymbolism-without-substance of ringing bells, flying pigeons, floatingcandles, and sonorous chanting and I recall again that 'Peace is not acause - it is an effect.' In July, 1945, my fellow 8th RCT Marines [I was an ARman] and I returned toSaipan following the successful conclusion of the Battle of Okinawa. We wereissued new equipment and replacements joined each outfit in preparation forour coming amphibious assault on the home islands of Japan. B-29 bombing had leveled the major cities of Japan, including Kobe, Osaka,Nagoya, Yokohama, Yokosuka, and Tokyo. We were informed we would land three Marine divisions and six Armydivisions, perhaps abreast, with large reserves following us in. It wasestimated that it would cost half a million casualties to subdue theJapanese homeland. In August, the A-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima but the Japanese governmentrefused to surrender. Three days later a second A-bomb was dropped on thecity of Nagasaki. The Imperial Japanese government finally surrendered. Following the 1941 sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, a Japanese admiral said, 'Ifear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant...' Indeed, they had.Not surprisingly, the atomic bomb was produced by a free people functioningin a free environment. Not surprisingly because the creative process is anatural human choice-making process and inventiveness occurs most readilywhere choice-making opportunities abound. America! Tamper with a giant, indeed! Tyrants, beware: Free men are nature's pitbulls of Liberty! The Japanese learned the hard way what tyrants of anygeneration should know: Never start a war with a free people - you neverknow what they may invent! As a newly assigned member of a U.S. Marine intelligence section, Ihad a unique opportunity to visit many major cities of Japan, includingTokyo and Hiroshima, within weeks of their destruction. For a full year Iobserved the beaches, weapons, and troops we would have assaulted hadthe A-bombs not been dropped. Yes, it would have been very destructivefor all, but especially for the people of Japan. When we landed in Japan, for what came to be the finest and most humaneoccupation of a defeated enemy in recorded history, it was with greatappreciation, thanksgiving, and praise for the atomic bomb team, includingthe aircrew of the Enola Gay. A half million American homes had been sparedthe Gold Star flag, including, I'm sure, my own. Whenever I hear the apologists expressing guilt and shame for A-bombing andending the war Japan had started (they ignore the cause-effect relationbetween Pearl Harbor and Nagasaki), I have noted that neither the effetecritics nor the puff-adder politicians are among us in the assaultlanding-craft or the stinking rice paddies of their suggested alternative,'conventional' warfare. Stammering reluctance is obvious and continuous, butthey do love to pontificate about the Rights that others, and the Bomb, havebought and preserved for them. The vanities of ignorance and camouflaged cowardice abound as license forthe assertion of virtuous 'rights' purchased by the blood of others - thoseothers who have borne the burden and physical expense of Rights whiningapologists so casually and self-righteously claim. At best, these fakers manifest a profound and cryptic ignorance of causalrelations, myopic perception, and dull I.Q. At worst, there is a word anddescription in The Constitution defining those who love the enemy more thanthey love their own countrymen and their own posterity. Every Yankee DoodleDandy knows what that word is. In 1945, America was the only nation in the world with the Bomb and itbehaved responsibly and respectfully. It remained so until two among usbetrayed it to the Kremlin. Still, this American weapon system has been theprime deterrent to earth's latest model world- tyranny: Seventy years ofSoviet collectivist definition, coercion, and domination of individual humanbeings. The message is this: Trust Freedom. Remember, tyrants never learn. Therestriction of Freedom is the limitation of human choice, and choice is thefulcrum-point of the creative process in human affairs. As earth'schoicemaker, it is our human identity on nature's beautiful blue planet andthe natural premise of man's free institutions, environments, and respectfulrelations with one another. Made in the image of our Creator, free menchoose, create, and progress - or die. Free men should not fear the moon-god-crowd oppressor nor choose any of hisways. Recall with a confident Job and a victorious David, 'Know ye not youare in league with the stones of the field?' Semper Fidelis -Jim BaxterSgt. USMCWW II and Korean Warpoint-man/follower of The Lion of Judah 2009 AD: The Season of Generation-ChoicemakerJoel 3:14 Psalm 25:12 kjv Consider: The missing element in every human 'solution' is an accurate definition of the creature. In an effort to diminish the multiple and persistent dangers and abuseswhich have characterized the affairs of man in his every Age, and to assistin the requisite search for human identity, it is essential to perceive andspecify that distinction which naturally and most uniquely defines the humanbeing. Because definitions rule in the minds, behaviors, and institutions of men,we can be confident that delineating and communicating that quality willassist the process of resolution and the courageous ascension to which man is called. AsAmericans of the 21st Century, we are obliged and privileged to join ourforebears and participate in this continuing paradigm proclamation. 'WHAT IS MAN...?' God asks - and answers:HUMAN DEFINED: EARTH'S CHOICEMAKERby James Fletcher Baxter (c) 2009 AD The way we define 'human' determines our view of self, others,relationships, institutions, life, and future. Many problems in humanexperience are the result of false and inaccurate definitions of humankindpremised in man-made religions and humanistic philosophies. Human knowledge is a fraction of the whole universe. The balance is a vastvoid of human ignorance. Human reason cannot fully function in such a void;thus, the intellect can rise no higher than the criteria by which itperceives and measures values. Humanism makes man his own standard of measure. However, as with allmeasuring systems, a standard must be greater than the value measured. Basedon preponderant ignorance and an egocentric carnal nature, humanism demotesreason to the simpleton task of excuse-making in behalf of the rule ofappetites, desires, feelings, emotions, - and glands. Because man, hobbled in an ego-centric predicament, cannot invent criteriagreater than himself, the humanist lacks a predictive capability. Thus, hisman-made criteria rises no higher than eyebrows - and too often, no higherthan pubic hair! Without instinct or transcendent criteria, humanism cannotevaluate options with foresight and vision for progression and survival.Lacking foresight, man is blind to potential consequence and is unwittinglycommitted to mediocrity, collectivism, averages, and regression - and worse.Humanism is an unworthy worship. The void of human ignorance can easily be filled with a functional faithwhile not-so-patiently awaiting the foot-dragging growth of human knowledgeand behavior. Faith, initiated by the Creator and revealed and validated inHis Word, the Bible, brings a transcendent standard to man the choice-maker.Other philosophies and religions are man-made, humanism, and thereby lackwhat only the Bible has: 1.Transcendent Criteria and2.Fulfilled Prophetic Validation. The vision of faith in God and His Word is survival equipment for today andthe future. Only the Creator, who made us in His own image, is qualified todefine us accurately. Human is earth's Choicemaker. Psalm 25:12 He is by nature and nature's God acreature of Choice - and of Criteria. Psalm 119:30,173 His unique anddefinitive characteristic is, and of Right ought to be, the naturalfoundation of his environments, institutions, and respectful relations tohis fellow-man. Thus, he is oriented to a Freedom whose roots are in theOrder of the universe. selah At the sub-atomic level of the physical universe quantum physics indicates amultifarious gap or division in the causal chain; particles to whichposition cannot be assigned at all times, systems that pass from one energystate to another without manifestation in intermediate states, entitieswithout mass, fields whose substance is as insubstantial as 'a probability.' Only statistical conglomerates pay tribute to deterministic forces.Singularities do not and are therefore random, unpredictable, mutant, and inthis sense, uncaused. The finest contribution inanimate reality is capableof making toward choice, without its own selective agencies, is thiscontinuing manifestation of opportunity as the pre-condition to choice itdefers to the natural action of living forms. Biological science affirms that each level of life, single-cell to manhimself, possesses attributes of sensitivity, discrimination, andselectivity, and in the exclusive and unique nature of each diversified lifeform. The survival and progression of life forms has all too often been dependentupon the ever-present undeterminative potential and appearance of one uniqueindividual organism within the whole spectrum of a given life-form. Only theuniquely equipped individual organism is, like The Golden Wedge of Ophir,capable of traversing the causal gap to survival and progression. Merereproductive determinacy would have rendered life forms incapable of suchpotential. Only a moving universe of opportunity plus choice enables the presentreality. Each individual human being possesses a unique, highly developed, andsensitive perception of variety. Thus aware, man is endowed with a naturalcapability for enacting internal mental and external physical selectivity.Quantitative and qualitative choice-making thus lends itself as the superiorbasis of an active intelligence. Human is earth's Choicemaker. His title describes his definitive andtypifying characteristic. Recall that his other features are but vehicles ofexperience intent on the development of perceptive awareness and thefollowing acts of decision and choice. Note that the products of man cannotdefine him for they are the fruit of the discerning choicemaking process andinclude the cognition of self, the utility of experience, the development ofvalue measuring systems and language, and the acculturation ofcivilization. The arts and the sciences of man, as with his habits, customs, andtraditions, are the creative harvest of his perceptive and selective powers.Creativity, the creative process, is a choice-making process. His articles,constructs, and commodities, however marvelous to behold, deserve neitherawe nor idolatry, for man, not his contrivance, is earth's own highestexpression of the creative process. Human is earth's Choicemaker. The sublime and significant act of choosingis, itself, the Archimedean fulcrum upon which man levers and redirects theforces of cause and effect to an elected level of quality and diversity.Further, it orients him toward a natural environmental opportunity, freedom,and bestows earth's title, The Choicemaker, on his singular and plural brow. Deterministic systems, ideological symbols of abdication by man from hisnatural role as earth's Choicemaker, inevitably degenerate intocollectivism; the negation of singularity, they become a conglomerateplural-based system of measuring human value. Blunting an awareness ofdiversity, blurring alternatives, and limiting the selective creativeprocess, they are self-relegated to a passive and circular regression. Tampering with man's selective nature endangers his survival for it wouldrender him impotent and obsolete by denying the tools of variety,individuality, perception, criteria, selectivity, and progress. Coerciveattempts produce revulsion, for such acts are contrary to an indeterminatenature and nature's indeterminate off-spring, man the Choicemaker. Until the oppressors discover that wisdom only just begins with a respectfulacknowledgment of The Creator, The Creation, and The Choicemaker, they willbe ever learning but never coming to a knowledge of the truth. The rejection ofCreator-initiated standards relegates the mind of man to its own primitive,empirical, and delimited devices. It is thus that the human intellect cannotascend and function at any level higher than the criteria by which itperceives and measures values. Additionally, such rejection of transcendent criteria self-denies man thevision and foresight essential to decision-making for survival andprogression. He is left, instead, with the redundant wreckage of expensivehind sight, including human institutions characterized by averages,mediocrity, and regression. Humanism, mired in the circular and mundane egocentric predicament, isill-equipped to produce transcendent criteria. Evidenced by those who do notperceive superiority and thus find themselves beset by the shifting winds ofthe carnal-ego; i.e., moods, feelings, desires, appetites, etc., the mindbecomes subordinate: a mere device for excuse-making and rationalizingself-justification. The carnal-ego rejects criteria and self-discipline for such instruments aretools of the mind and the attitude. The appetites of the flesh have no needof standards for at the point of contention standards are perceived asalien, restrictive, and inhibiting. Yet, the very survival of our physicalnature itself depends upon a maintained sovereignty of the mind and of thespirit. It remained, therefore, to the initiative of a personal and living Creatorto traverse the human horizon and fill the vast void of human ignorancewith an intelligent and definitive faith. Man is thus afforded the primetool of the intellect - a Transcendent Standard by which he may measurevalues in experience, anticipate results, and make enlightened and visionarychoices. Only the unique and superior God-man Person can deservedly displace theego-person from his predicament and free the individual to measure valuesand choose in a more excellent way. That sublime Person was indicated in thewords of the prophet Amos, '...said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel.' Y'shua MashiyachJesus said, 'If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto myself.' As long as some choose to abdicate their personal reality and submit to thedelusions of humanism, determinism, and collectivism, just so long will theybe subject and re-acting only, to be tossed by every impulse emanating fromothers. Those who abdicate such reality may, in perfect justice, findthemselves weighed in the balances of theirown choosing. That human institution which is structured on the principle, '...all men areendowed by their Creator with...Liberty...,' is a system with its roots inthe natural Order of the universe. The opponents of such a system arenecessarily engaged in a losing contest with nature and nature's God.Biblical principles are still today the foundation under WesternCivilization and the American way of life. To the advent of a new season wecommend the present generation and the 'multitudes in the valley ofdecision.' Let us proclaim it. Behold!2009 AD: The Season of Generation-Choicemaker Joel 3:14 KJV CONTEMPORARY COMMENTS'I should think that if there is one thing that man has learned abouthimself it is that he is a creature of choice.' Richard M. Weaver 'Man is a being capable of subduing his emotions and impulses; he canrationalize his behavior. He arranges his wishes into a scale, he chooses;in short, he acts. What distinguishes man from beasts is precisely that headjusts his behavior deliberately.' Ludwig von Mises 'To make any sense of the idea of morality, it must be presumed that thehuman being is responsible for his actions and responsibility cannot beunderstood apart from the presumption of freedom of choice.' JohnChamberlain 'The advocate of liberty believes that it is complementary of the orderlylaws of cause and effect, of probability and of chance, of which man is notcompletely informed. It is complementary of them because it rests in partupon the faith that each individual is endowed by his Creator with the powerof individual choice.' Wendell J. Brown 'These examples demonstrate a basic truth -- that human dignity is embodiedin the free choice of individuals.' Condoleeza Rice 'Our Founding Fathers believed that we live in an ordered universe. Theybelieved themselves to be a part of the universal order of things. Statedanother way, they believed in God. They believed that every man must findhis own place in a world where a place has been made for him. They soughtindependence for their nation but, more importantly, they sought freedom forindividuals to think and act for themselves. They established a republicdedicated to one purpose above all others - the preservation of individualliberty...' Ralph W. Husted 'We have the gift of an inner liberty so far-reaching that we can chooseeither to accept or reject the God who gave it to us, and it would seem tofollow that the Author of a liberty so radical wills that we should beequally free in our relationships with other men. Spiritual libertylogically demands conditions of outer and social freedom for itscompletion.' Edmund A. Opitz 'Above all I see an ability to choose the better from the worse that hasmade possible life's progress.' Charles Lindbergh 'Freedom is the Right to Choose, the Right to create for oneself thealternatives of Choice. Without the possibility of Choice, and the exerciseof Choice, a man is not a man but a member, an instrument, a thing.' ThomasJefferson THE QUESTION AND THE ANSWERQ: 'What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that Youvisit him?' Psalm 8:4A: 'I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have setbefore you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, thatboth you and your descendants may live.' Deuteronomy 30:19 Q: 'Lord, what is man, that You take knowledge of him? Or the son of man,that you are mindful of him?' Psalm 144:3A: 'And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselvesthis day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers servedthat were on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites, inwhose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.'Joshua 24:15 Q: 'What is man, that he could be pure? And he who is born of a woman, thathe could be righteous?' Job 15:14A: 'Who is the man that fears the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way hechooses.' Psalm 25:12 Q: 'What is man, that You should magnify him, that You should set Your hearton him?' Job 7:17A: 'Do not envy the oppressor and choose none of his ways.' Proverbs 3:31 Q: 'What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You takecare of him?' Hebrews 2:6A: 'I have chosen the way of truth; your judgments I have laid before me.'Psalm 119:30 'Let Your hand become my help, for I have chosen Yourprecepts.'Psalm 119:173 References:Genesis 3:3,6 Deuteronomy 11:26-28; 30:19 Job 5:23 Isaiah 7:14-15; 13:12;61:1 Amos 7:8 Joel 3:14 Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 DEDICATIONSir Isaac NewtonThe greatest scientist in human history a Bible-Believing Christian, anauthority on the Bible's Book of Daniel committed to individual value andindividual liberty Daniel 9:25-26 Habakkuk 2:2-3 selah 'What is man...?' Earth's Choicemaker Psalm 25:12 http://www.blogger.com/profile/4744267http://www.choicemaker.netjbaxter@choicemaker.net An old/new paradigma - Mr. Jefferson would agree! (Alternative? There isno alternative.) 'No one is smarter than their criteria.' selah jfb
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