Volume 9, Issue 14
What drives an individual to default to a certain choice pressured by emotional circumstances?
We are all products of our cultural background, our nuclear family training, and our personal worldview. There is nothing we can do about the ethnicity of our birth. Our talents and proclivities are mostly predetermined. Our physical nature, emotional psyche, and personality traits are also, in large part, due to our biological ancestry. We come to conclusions in reference to our station in life, many times disconnected from the reality of our natural existence.
The only thing totally in our control is our moral worldview.
Most critical choices are embedded in the concept of the query: is there a God or is there only a universe of no known meaning? People are capable of functioning every day as they go about their business in a normal protocol. The choices made under duress when the adrenaline is running high, at times, can be a logical extension of: in what do you trust? If you believe that there is purpose in coexistence because an all-loving God loves everyone because of their diversity, diversity is not threatening. Then confrontation by trial is easier to navigate
The family structure is the unit of moral authority. Values are learned, respected, and augmented through a way of life that reflects the family’s world view. Cities demand government policy consistent with the family’s perceived value in the universe.
Government leaders are challenged to design and implement policy that mirrors society’s request for unhindered pursuit of happiness. The system comes full circle when society’s choices are consummated in national character. Nation-states reinforce the choices made by their citizens.
Which brings us to China.
Last month, State Department dignitaries from the United States and China met in Anchorage, Alaska. It was the Biden Administration’s first official diplomatic forum. The US delegation, led by the incoming Secretary of State Antony Blinken, reiterated the United States concerns about unfair trade practices. The head of the Chinese delegation surprised everyone with a 16-minute lecture informing the U.S. that they were no longer the moral authority or the standard for the world. China was, in fact, a better society by example and they would no longer submit themselves to U.S. criticism. He cited racial tensions and an economic system that left people behind in poverty as examples of our failed experiment as a nation.
It is not just that China’s newfound arrogance is the ultimate hypocrisy. It is that they even think such a claim could be true. China has no Bill of Rights, no freedom of speech, and no freedom of assembly. Religion is outlawed. Worshiping God under certain circumstances can be a criminal offense. Every action of a citizen is monitored. Freedom of choice for every decision is minimal. Yet this is the future that they openly represent is better for the world’s societies.
Some individuals believe they have no choices, that the choices they make are forced upon them. Some people believe they have choices they don’t have, that the past is no compass for the future.
Both are wrong.
One may find oneself in difficult circumstances through no fault of their own. There is always a choice to further one’s character. There is always a choice to refrain from bad habits. There is always a choice to enhance one’s God-given talents.
One may find oneself so blessed with natural gifts that they believe they have choices that others do not possess. Discipline, commitment, and perseverance are not considered essential because things are so easy.
In either case, believing in a God who created the world for a purpose that is inclusive of all individuals will render a choice based upon the collective recognition of eternal principles of morality.
Believing in a universe with no purpose can render a choice that has no measure. For, in a meaningless universe, there is no right or wrong, only consequences. In such a worldview, everyone is suspect of self-interest. Confrontation is heightened in intensity because of fear of such intent.
The only solution for peaceful coexistence and conflict resolution is a worldview of a creation that has an equal purpose inclusive of all souls.
China’s totalitarian system of total, absolute submission to government objective flies in the face of the beauty of diversity. Freedom and free will of choice are as essential and sustaining to human life as the air we breathe. Regardless of your worldview on the purpose of the universe, the China doctrine for humanity is not a natural default position.
A recent Gallop survey indicates for the first time in the history of the United States, less than 50% of the population states they are a member of an organized religion or attends church. As a society, if America loses confidence in its founding doctrines that all rights come from God and are unalienable, we will fall into the philosophical morass of purposeless morality.
A nation reflects the aggregate choices its citizens make. Sovereign character is determined by one of two worldviews: is there ordained purpose to life or is there no ordained purpose to life?
In the critical choice analysis of every day life, the choice is yours.
My name is Marc Nuttle and this is what I believe.
What do you believe?