Undermining While Upholding

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A great man once said that what we obtain easily we esteem lightly. We seem to care about and for things that cost us something. I think that a lot of people do not appreciate what they have because when the costs mount they manage to convince or compel others among us to pay the price for them that they were and are unwilling to pay. On an emotional appeal they make what they call a rational argument and demand that the responsible subsidize their lack of wisdom and forethought. Far too many people leverage guilt in order to compel charity, not because they mean it but because they know that you do. Continued subsidies and “charity” without concomitant accountability actually undermine both individuals and nations because they ignore the principle of the harvest and rescue people from consequences. Either people reap what they sow, or they do not, and when people reap other than what they sow it does change their behavior and has other consequences as well.

I am aware of several coworkers who received raises during the budget crisis even though that’s apparently not allowed. Some of them probably received them because they have expensive medical bills or because they live beyond their means. I miss the part where that’s my problem or my fault. The problem with this kind of methodology is that it doesn’t get to the heart of the matter. If you can’t manage money, then it matters little whether you receive a $3000 raise or a $30,000 raise. If you have medical bills but don’t change your behavior, the bills will continue because the problem will persist. If anything, it reinforces bad behavior because we reward it. Rather than reward those who do the work, we penalize them because they do not have problems. How is that karma? How is that consistent with the law of the harvest?

Years ago, I was successfully sued in court for a large sum of money. The judge didn’t even bother to look at the briefcase full of paperwork I provided. He was only interested in awarding money, and I think he thought he was doing justice. However, he did justice neither to her nor to me, because she is back in the exact same place in life under the same burdens, and he essentially sucked away one year of my life and gave it to her. This reinforced her notions that she was in the right, and so she has persisted because she “succeeded” in court, thinking that her misguided notions will lead her to victory once again. Even worse, she now has a child who will grow up and learn from her mother’s example that this method is how you win at life.

They say that to the victor go the spoils, but then they give the spoils to others. All too often, the victor is not the virtuous but he with the vocal vichyssoise of verbiage. When you take away the profit motive, people are sapped of their desire to achieve. I know when I had a job that paid incentives, I was motivated originally because I could earn more money as a reward for hard work. When I found that we were punished or rewarded as a group and that some of the group ALWAYS dragged us down, I started doing just what was required and nothing more. So, the organization suffered.

At other times, we blame something or someone else for our own failures. Some of my students will no doubt blame ME for the fact that the recent exam I gave came back with a 61% average. However, I know that it’s not necessarily my fault. Only one of my students came to see me, and she scored an 87% and is on track to receive an A for the semester. Several others attended tutoring, which I know because the tutors email me summaries of what they discuss. Most of those who complain never asked questions in class, never came by outside of class, never saw a tutor and probably spent as little time studying as possible. Yet, they blame me because they expect me to compensate for their inadequacies.  When it comes down to brass tacks, they lash out at me because I don't make things easy for them because it's easier to blame than to work.

My first semester teaching, a young lady came to me a week before grades were posted to ask how to rescue her grade. I told her, “When you repeat this course, don’t let this experience go to waste.” Then I explained what she could learn from her failure about how to improve her lot. I think she was upset, but how can I reward people who do not do their due diligence when there are students who manage to receive an A? That reinforces the notion that people can get things they do not earn, and when we do that, higher education suffers as a consequence. When they retake the class for a higher grade, unless they change their modus opporendi their behavior won’t change because someone will take pity on them. (That student subsequently graduated and is now working as a nurse.)

Far too often, we prop up the weakest among us rather than doing what will strengthen them. I tell my students that if they end up in medicine they will essentially be tasked with keeping alive people who would be dead in previous eras of time. We have people with bad genetics or bad habits who are kept alive and pass on their genes when in previous ages we would “evolve” to be better as bad genes were bred out. Instead, these genes expand their holding and render us a genetically weaker species as technology makes it possible. Even more alarming, we now institutionalize attitudes in successive generations as people learn from the example of their parents how to game the system and get something for nothing. We talk about minimum wage rather than maximizing opportunity. We talk about safety nets rather than inspiring. We do this because it’s easier; really doing what is necessary takes work and effort, and experience shows that people will do almost anything as long as it costs them nothing at all. The lazy don’t care who it costs, because it doesn’t cost them. Instead of increasing in wisdom and stature as a civilization, we render ourselves fit for scorn as a society because fiscal policy makes it possible. Such a pattern of behavior dilutes the strength of a people and weakens them, either for destruction or for conquest.

Most of us say we do not want a diluted or weakened state even as we continue to vote for and demand it. What do you call the person who receives the lowest passing score in medical school? You call him Doctor, but all of us want the very best person we can find for the money that we pay. We don’t want someone who isn’t willing to pay the price to become a doctor servicing people who do pay the price. At the end of the day, some of the people who demand more than they are willing to give laughably talk about karma, as if karma works only positively for them and only negatively for those who “wrong” them. Karma is supposed to be about virtue, and neither greed nor dishonesty are virtues.

People prattle the principle of fairness without being fair themselves. They give special favors to friends and extra scrutiny to strangers and enemies. They complain about greed in others and emphasize their own need without asking why another person thinks they need it. We all seem to feel that we are virtuous while everyone else is not. We also seem to ignore the fact that the world does not reward virtue; the world rewards those who reward it. “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you (John 15:19).” This is why programs will continue to prop up the weak, not because we really care about the weak as much as we like, but because we can gain from it. We love the world more than we love virtue, truth and God. We love the rewards of our “charity”. Sometimes the weak vote for us; sometimes all they do is like us, but we’re not doing anyone any favors by doing for them things that they will not do themselves. I know this sounds heartless, but it is actually heartfelt. I desire that every man may stand on his own and rise to meet the opportunities that appear rather than simply subsisting. Medicine isn’t just about prolonging life, but about expanding the quality of life.

When we support things that should die, we essentially undermine the entire system. I remember watching some of my beagles throw a litter and cast out some of their young who inevitably died. No matter how often I pushed the rejected back to the mother or how often I fed puppies she would not, the ones the mother knew would die always did. Somehow the rest of nature knows when to call it quits even as we continue in our hubris to insist that we can cheat consequences. Sure some people will survive who would otherwise suffer, and we care about some of the suffering because their faces are real to us. At the same time we do this we ignore the fact that things become stronger when they are tempered, and if we protect them from challenges they are unprepared to come off conqueror.

Christian charity must come coupled to contrition. God does not force any of us to follow Him. Even when we do He doesn’t force any of us to obey Him. Only the penitent man will pass. In His great mercy, He provided a Savior who accepts responsibility for the mistakes of the truly penitent. He fixes things that we cannot fix. He helps those who truly mean it. Men cannot tell who actually needs help, which is why God commands us to help where we are able, but God does not help people who do not mean their contrition. God continues to hold consequences in place, but the sting of sin is taken away through Christ and opportunities in the future are restored through His sacrifice and mercy. God’s plan of consequence vindicates the vigilant and the virtuous. Perhaps this is why they say God helps those who help themselves, because He knows what our behavior actually evinces and can tell a Judas from a Peter.