Elana Kagan gave a speech years ago in which she basically drooled over how great Barack Obama was. Kagan says Obama left his teaching position at the University of Chicago so that he could do more for the people. Anyone who leaves an institution of higher learning to ‘do more for the people’ uses that as a ruse for their own aggrandizement. The most important work you can do for the people is to raise your children well. Next to that, it would be to help other people raise their children well. To that end, it would have been more fitting to become a Boy Scout Scoutmaster or to expand his teaching to more sections or more institutions or maybe a different institution where he could influence more people or people more efficiently. What Barack Obama wanted to really do was get more power over the people, under the auspices that it would help him serve them better.
Consider if you will a scene from the life of Sir Thomas More. In A Man for All Seasons, a young acquaintance of his, Richard Rich, comes to him in search of an appointment at court. More knows why Rich wants that and recommends that if he wants to make a difference, why not be a teacher. You know that Rich doesn’t really want to make a difference in a way that matters because his next move is to complain about who would know him if he did that. This is the hallmark of a narcissist- they do great service to be seen of men and not for the sake of the service itself. As answer to his selfishness, More replies with a brilliant comment about who would notice Rich’s service, “You; your pupils; your friends; God. Not a bad public, that.” Rich, like Obama, wanted to serve in such a way that he would be seen of men.
In the end of that story, Richard Rich ascends to a position of courtly authority over Wales, in exchange for his soul. His life, and his accusations against More testify to the fact that his aspirations were never so much about whom else he might serve but rather about how he might best serve himself. It is a common tendency of the left to claim they do what they do for the good of the people. They will lay hold on charity and adopt Christian virtues when it serves them. However, Christianity at its core says that great love and great service consists in sacrifice of self. Liberals never sacrifice of themselves. At the time of the 2008 election, Joe Biden had given in his entire lifetime to charity what I donate annually. Oh, they want you to sacrifice, but they selfishly horde what is theirs, and of course so that they can better serve.
Most people who are interested and invested in the public good work unseen and with people you may never meet. Very few politicians are interested in the public good. If you want to really do more for the people, do good works for people you can actually see. Then you will know that your efforts reached their intended targets, and you will be able to see the fruits of your labor blossom in the lives of people you actually know.
Consider if you will a scene from the life of Sir Thomas More. In A Man for All Seasons, a young acquaintance of his, Richard Rich, comes to him in search of an appointment at court. More knows why Rich wants that and recommends that if he wants to make a difference, why not be a teacher. You know that Rich doesn’t really want to make a difference in a way that matters because his next move is to complain about who would know him if he did that. This is the hallmark of a narcissist- they do great service to be seen of men and not for the sake of the service itself. As answer to his selfishness, More replies with a brilliant comment about who would notice Rich’s service, “You; your pupils; your friends; God. Not a bad public, that.” Rich, like Obama, wanted to serve in such a way that he would be seen of men.
In the end of that story, Richard Rich ascends to a position of courtly authority over Wales, in exchange for his soul. His life, and his accusations against More testify to the fact that his aspirations were never so much about whom else he might serve but rather about how he might best serve himself. It is a common tendency of the left to claim they do what they do for the good of the people. They will lay hold on charity and adopt Christian virtues when it serves them. However, Christianity at its core says that great love and great service consists in sacrifice of self. Liberals never sacrifice of themselves. At the time of the 2008 election, Joe Biden had given in his entire lifetime to charity what I donate annually. Oh, they want you to sacrifice, but they selfishly horde what is theirs, and of course so that they can better serve.
Most people who are interested and invested in the public good work unseen and with people you may never meet. Very few politicians are interested in the public good. If you want to really do more for the people, do good works for people you can actually see. Then you will know that your efforts reached their intended targets, and you will be able to see the fruits of your labor blossom in the lives of people you actually know.
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