The Colonel #93 The Pot and The Kettle

 This week one of BLM’s leaders “allegedly” used funds donated to the organization to purchase a 6 million mansion and was called out on it by a reporter from The New York Magazine. The immediate, kneejerk reaction? Racism!

That the reporter also happened to be black is inconsequential, it’s not really about color, it’s about thought and the control thereof. It is racist to break with the agreed-upon line of thought, even if you are black, if that thought is contrary to Critical Race Theory (CRT) and the social agenda founded on it.

Economists like Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams have been ostracized for their constant pointing to the numbers and the science of economics that deny minorities are worse off economically because of white oppression. That educated black men like Sowell and Williams place the fault for current social conditions at the feet of the black community cannot be anything but racist.

BLM readily admits that they are not about improving the conditions in predominately black neighborhoods and opting instead for working for some vague notion of social justice. No sense in getting to the root of the problem—no headlines there.

Of course, not being woke, I fall for numbers that tell how fatherless homes produce children in trouble, prolonged adolescence produces a sense of entitlement, and finger-pointing worldviews like CRT produce a built-in incentive, if not to fail, then to kill all sense of personal responsibility that is needed to succeed.

I am also foolish enough to think this is not a black problem, a brown problem, a red problem, or a white problem. It is a problem with human thinking. People of all races, times, and places are too quick to seek the path of least resistance. This too human tendency inspires tyrants, dictators, and megalomaniacs to give us an enemy to hate and blame while we surrender responsibility for our lives for their promise of security.

Make no mistake about it groups like BLM, the KKK, La Raza, the PLO, and any other race/political based movements' first and foremost duty is to advance their ideology, not the people they claim to represent. Hypocrisy is color blind even if we are not.

Sic Semper Tyrannis

Know Jack #342 It’s the Law

 “The acceleration of an object depends upon two variables – the net force acting on the object and the mass of the object.”

Isaac Newton

Math and physics aren’t my thing. I did well in both while in college, but…

So, I’m not going to try and explain Newton, at least not in a proper context, because I’m here to talk about writing and selling books. I’m pretty sure that Sir Isaac didn’t have authors in mind when the apple dropped on his head loosing a flood of insight into the way the universe works.

Be that as it may, Newton has important truth to share with writers about accelerating their work—at least as far as sales are concerned. I’m going to take his two variables mentioned here in reverse order, because writers hardly ever do things the way everybody else does.

The acceleration of your book to the coveted bestseller list is determined by the mass of your book. That is, the quality of your writing. Aunt Phoebe may buy your book because you’re her favorite nephew, but no one else is going to. The average self-published book sells about 50-60 copies—mostly to friends and family. The quality of the writing, or the lack thereof, is generally the reason why.

I don’t mean to rain on anyone’s parade, but it was your high school English teacher’s job to encourage you to write. Just saying… Of course, that doesn’t mean they were lying to you. If you’ve read the blog and have come to Know Jack, then you know I believe writing is a gift people are born with. You also know that’s not good enough and going it alone is a bad idea. If your target is 50-60 book sales, you don’t need much more acceleration, you’re on target.

The mass of your book, to get anywhere, needs a net force to act upon it. The force, as all Star Wars fans know, is out there, moving in and around everything. It just needs to be focused to move your book. To bring the net force into motion, you must get its attention. Remember, there is no try.

The net force, as you might have surmised is made up of readers. The more attention you focus—the more readers’ eyes you draw—the greater the potential for action! Not everyone who sees your book will buy it or read it, but a small percentage will. It’s a crapshoot at best. One thing is certain, however, if they don’t know your book exists, they are not going to read it.

The net force must act upon the mass for acceleration to occur. When I was young, most of my cars had a standard transmission. That worked out well because I can’t count the number of times that I had to push-start them. In doing so I learned the more people you have pushing, the easier it was to get the car started. (I did have one that I only parked on a hill.)

Readers are the propellant that will launch your book. Reviewers will keep it flying. There is no such thing in writing as perpetual motion, constant force is necessary. Finding your ‘tribe” or your “people” is all the rage. Don’t be surprised when you find yourself gravitating to those friends who not only read your books but introduce you as their friend—the author.

Newton's words used here aren’t just a good idea, it’s the law.

Maranatha

Lost Crusader #130 This or That

 “The devil always sends errors into the world in pairs—pairs of opposites. And he encourages us to spend a lot of time thinking which is the worse…He relies on your extra dislike of one to draw you gradually into the opposite one.”

C.S. Lewis

Earth has two poles, but generally speaking, no one lives long on either of them. Life is somewhere in between. Views on everything from morality to politics, to childrearing, to the existence of God follow the same pattern. You don’t have to look far in our society to find polarization.

We sometimes find the same polarized type of battleground in the interpretation of scripture: faith or works, knowledge or experience, to partake or to abstain. None of these is ever truly presented in the scripture as a case of this or that. The truth lies in a moderate blending of the two, worked out in each Christian’s heart through the use of reason and experience.

The truth arrived at by this method is not ambiguous. The truth, as personified in Christ, is given to us as broad principles and worked into specifics through the partnership of the individual and the Holy Spirit as that relationship actively moves through life.

That is not to say that there are many truths, but rather that there are many ways to apply our understanding to one sound principle. Some of those applications may be closer to the spirit of the principle than others but rarely are any, thoughtfully arrived at, without merit.

The ministry of Jesus has been called “radical” by some. I agree but probably not in the way such people suppose. Jesus was radical because he rebuked the legalism of the rabbis and the Council as soundly as he rebuked the abandoning of the faith by publicans and sinners (he socialized with both groups by the way). As famously told in the matter of paying taxes to Caesar, it was not a matter of paying or not paying but paying the proper authority in the proper medium of exchange. That is, the things that belonged to Caesar to him, the things of God to Him.

Isn’t it ironic that the world which criticizes Christians for being too black and white in both thinking and practice, views the scripture in the same polarized fashion and so never honestly investigates its validity through experimentation? Well, maybe not. When you live in one extreme end of the spectrum, it’s very difficult to see the other side.

Of course, the world need not go so far afield as Christian thought to find a warning against extremism. The classical philosophy of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle will tell you the same thing.

Christians are admonished by scripture to work out the practical applications of salvation in such a manner that their moderation is known to all. However, in all honesty, moderation comes with maturity—and so few in modern society, Christian and non-Christian, aspire to maturity.

Maranatha

The Colonel #92 How Much is That Freedom in the Window?

 “Whenever one object exerts force on another object, the second object exerts an equal and opposite on the first.”

Isaac Newton

To the chagrin of many, Newton’s law of motion seems to apply equally well when speaking about people. Masked in the anonymity of social media, it is believed that one can say or do whatsoever one pleases without consequence. That, my friends, is not how freedom works.

There is not a single act of freedom that does not entail a price. Jesus cautioned his followers to weigh the cost of discipleship before casting their lot in with him. The amount of his teaching lost on today’s world is unfortunate.

I shoot my mouth off on this blog with regularity. Sometimes I do it on purpose just to elicit a response, other times that’s just me shooting my mouth off because I tend to do that. I never do it unprepared for what it might cost me to give voice to my opinions.

If I have a saving grace, (hey, there might be one) it is that I allow everyone else the same privilege—for the same price. There’s nothing free about freedom, but you need not go that far, you can stop with a simple, there’s nothing free.

Every act of freedom, every free choice we make connects to an equal force that would hinder our liberty. Freedom doesn’t only affect the person exercising it. It triggers those who disagree with or oppose that choice to adopt tacit consent or take up active opposition. Action and reaction, if you’ve used Facebook or Twitter, you know how that works.

I’m all for people expressing their opinions, even those I disagree with. I publish books for people expressing views opposed to mine—which costs me at times, but I am not opposed to paying the price for the freedom to publish what I will.

Just about every Memorial Day I take a walk through a military cemetery. I’ve yet to run upon a name I know. It doesn’t matter, I am equally indebted to every person lying there for paying the cost of my freedom. God forbid that I should hide the freedom they died for, or silence it to soothe the feelings of the ungrateful.

In growing numbers, Americans are setting aside their freedom—just another commodity that has grown too expensive. It is so much easier and cheaper to shut up, mask up, and put up with the lunatic fringe peddling a new normal on television and computer screens than to be called names.

There is no reason to stand on the outside looking in. Step inside, and take the mantle of freedom off the rack, and wrap it around you—just remember you have to pay for it on your way out the door.

Sic Semper Tyrannis

Know Jack #341 I Quit

 “Then I witnessed the torture of Sisyphus, as he wrestled with a huge rock with both hands. Bracing himself and thrusting with hands and feet he pushed the boulder uphill to the top. But every time, as he was about to send it toppling over the crest, its sheer weight turned it back, and once again towards the plain the pitiless rock rolled down.”

Odysseus

Odysseus upon descent into Hades came across the tragic figure of Sisyphus, one-time king of Corinth, who twice cheated death only to be consigned by Zeus to push a huge stone up a mountain for all eternity. It is my personal belief that I will be a storyteller forever wandering endless galaxies with my stories.

To my way of thinking, that is not a bad thing. Freed of my present physical limitations it is an event to be anticipated with great joy. More than one person has told me that writing is a part of who I am. I accept that intellectually, but I am often found railing against it emotionally and physically. I can’t tell you how many times I have “quit” this strange profession because there have been so many times.

This week I announced aloud, “I’m done!” No more writing, no more editing, I wanted only to crawl into a book and never come out. Like Don Quixote, find a trusty steed, cobble together some armor, and lance in hand sally forth to battle giants. It happens all the time.

However, I never find the “right” book and never sally forth except to try and write it myself. I find the darkness of no story too much, drag myself up and shoulder to the great stone of the next book, and start it rolling.

I think if you haven’t quit writing at least twice, you might not be doing it right. If stories are like children, as experts say they are, then the joy/dismay nature of the craft certainly fits the allegory. Somewhere in the tension created by the opposing forces is the muses’ hiding place. Calliope is not going to come looking for you and neither will you find her sitting in the comfort of the dark. You must seek her.

How? Start writing, get the stone rolling, help comes when you are working. You can quit all alone—no help needed.

That said, I am currently on the third rewrite of my latest book and still only on Chapter Ten and wondering if number four is hiding just out of sight.

Maranatha

Lost Crusader #129 Every Little Thing

 “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”

John 20:30-31

 

Reading the Bible often inspires many questions for which it supplies no answers. But then, it was not the author’s intent in writing, to answer every question people might ask. It is not as presumptuous as some might think to claim to know the author’s intent—it is stated plainly by one of the scribes.

In the literature classes I’ve taken, I am forever amazed at the things assigned as the author’s intent that are read into a novel by those analyzing it. I suppose I’m not that deep. Then again, maybe sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. I have not begun to scratch the surface of the Bible as either literature or as divine revelation.

I do have to admire the One whose hook is “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” No info dump of back story, no introduction of the characters, just a giant jump in medias res—right in the middle of things. Yes, the middle things.

What was God doing before in the beginning? It was the beginning for us, not for Him. We don’t know and are given very few hints. The book is not trying to deliver that information. The text is restricted to a broad outline of the story of the relationship between the human and the divine.

I had an editor that generally took exception to my writing something like, “Jack walked across the room” because I didn’t first say that Jack stood up. How Jack might have walked across the room without standing up still escapes me. But the editor felt like the reader shouldn’t be left to guess or assume.

Ah, if God only had an editor, what secrets we would learn!

People are often disappointed in their reading of the Bible because it doesn’t explain everything
under the sun. In fairness though, it does mention there is nothing new under the sun—great principles and themes are eternal.

The Bible can speak to the skeptical. It has little to say to those unwilling to give the author a hearing. The Bible is bound to be disappointing when the intent of the author is thrown over for the predetermined intent of the reader. The author wrote the Bible as the author’s call to make peace with estranged readers—and that done—He promises to explain everything else to them as their relationship blossoms. There really is no other reason for God writing the story at all. The Bible was written for inquiring minds, but the author chooses only to satisfy those, in His own time and in a personalized fashion unique to each reader and then only as they became part of the narrative.

A man was once told by Abraham that if his brothers could not read the law of Moses and believe in God, they wouldn’t believe if someone rose from the dead and recounted the same story. If you cannot read the Gospel, hear the author’s words and believe them, seeing miracles or receiving answers to outrageously crafted prayers won’t move you. Of course, you are free to write your own version and many do.

Maranatha

 

The Colonel #91 Seizing Control

 “The Left today has badly misappropriated the word “equity,” using it to mean equality of outcome—something to be achieved through affirmative action and economic redistribution. But real equity, in the old sense, cannot be given. Real equity requires the old fashioned virtues. It is inextricable from full ownership of your own course in life.” 

Matt Rosenberg

The idea that virtue is the ground of true liberty and equality has been lost with the classic philosophers. Virtue has no scientific basis, no what’s-in-it-for me motive, no political agenda to defend. In fact, virtue requires no defense for we cannot bestow it, export it, or demand it—we may only live it for ourselves and so, no one may take it from us.

My colleague the Lost Crusader will tell you that prayer changes things and that the thing most changed by prayer is the one praying. What we pray for is a true measure of that we value. Sadly, so few pray. Prayer is too obsolete. It trusts in divine assistance rather than conjuring our own positive vibrations. How we get “positive” anything without God, as a standard to measure against, is beyond reason, but that’s for the Crusader to labor over.

The battleground of equality, equity, and the virtues that spawn them is within us, not in the political or social arena. It is better to live viewing all men are creatures of equal worth than to carry signs demanding it of others.

St. Peter once asked Jesus what another disciple was to do with his life. The Lord’s response was, “What is that to you?” follow Me. Seizing ownership of our own life provides us with the focus we need to change the world.

 We are ultimately responsible for our life and the manner in which we live it, not the mandates of government, not the consensus of Facebook likes, and not the demands of talking heads assaulting us from a screen. Tear down all the statues you will, pass the laws and regulations you can imagine, there is nothing in the world that can change the truth that we are responsible for our life. “I was just following orders” is a hollow substitute for living a life of our own.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are not the provision of government. They are something we craft from within from the demands of virtue. Where virtue is unknown, there is no ground for equality or motivation to pursue it.

Sic Semper Tyrannis