Thoughts on Occupy Wall Street

After three years as an undergraduate student, I feel like I’m emerging from a hole in the ground when it comes to current events.  I’ve been making a habit of cruising through news channels semi-regularly since I started graduate school for the purpose of just staying informed as to the goings-on in the world.  Of course, one of the big news stories for more than a month now has been the Occupy Wall Street movement, which has spawned numerous offshoots that reach not only across the United States but the world.

So, some observations of mine from the movement and the associated news articles:

Their concerns are legitimate

Yes, corporate greed is out of control.  Yes, the United States are rightfully angered by the fact that corporations, judged “too big to fail” by the political powers that be, are bailed out using taxpayer money while taxpayers receive no bailouts from the government to help pay off the bills heaped on us by the very corporations that are being bailed out.  Very few people will argue with that; most everyone knows that the current arrangement is not sustainable in any fashion.

Their primary goal is to be heard

They aren’t politically motivated; this is not a group that wants to become a new, larger and more successful version of the Tea Party (though both groups have similar concerns).  They aren’t trying to appeal to any particular demographic; it is a movement that is reaching out to people from every economic position, every race, color, political ideology, religion and local place.  Their goal is not to push a new bill through Congress; their goal is to be heard by a political and social elite that has been doing its best to ignore them.

Despite the good, there is a danger that should be acknowledged

Remember what happened in London this last summer?  A perfectly legitimate protest against a police shooting of an innocent man mushroomed into several weeks’ worth of unrest and looting, a situation that had the London police force stretched beyond its capacity to effectively address.  Could that happen in the United States?  Well, the better question is “would any of us have imagined it happening in London.”  For most of us, the answer is “no,” yet it happened.

Unfortunately, when a civil restlessness leads to rioting – even for legitimate causes – there are opportunists who will seize the opportunity to their own advantage, which could lead to a similar situation.  The other problem I see is that, like the Occupy Wall Street movement, such an uprising could spread quickly.

Now obviously, it is only a possibility that Occupy Wall Street will take such a dark turn.  Only time will tell how this will all play out.

SfC

What Does It Mean: “The Faithful Mind?”

I happened to be thinking yesterday, “what does it mean to have a faithful mind?”  When someone reads this blog, I’m sure this question has come out before.

Well, first of all, my original intention behind “faithful” was simply to indicate my desire to stay faithful to my religious beliefs, which is entirely true and valid; I put a very high value on my faith and consider it the most important part of me.

However, I do think “faithful” in the context of my life has a double-meaning: I also consider faithfulness to be a prized character trait.  If you know me, you know that when I make a commitment, a decision, or any such thing, I will very stubbornly carry out all the duties and responsibilities to that decision, no matter the personal cost to myself.  I take commitments very seriously; the most personally painful thing that can ever happen to me is when I learn that I have failed to be faithful to a relationship with a family member or friend, a commitment that I failed to follow through on, and so forth.

As for why I choose “mind” over heart in my title of “The Faithful Mind.”  I did consider “The Faithful Heart” because  it just sounds better.  However, I chose “mind.”  I have since learned that this is perhaps a better thing; according to the Bible and modern psychological research, what goes through our mind eventually affects our heart.  Do you have strong feelings for a person?  Are you angry with someone?  Do you struggle with fear or loneliness?  The more you allow those thoughts to pulse through your mind, the more they will bleed into your heart and become who you are.  A person’s heart is really a reflection of what thoughts they have allowed to dominate their mind…or which thoughts they have  chosen to dominate their mind with.

And that is really the remarkable thing.  We all know that we as human beings are capable of great things: we’ve built guns, castles, cathedrals, skyscrapers and ships that take us into space.  However, if there is a lie encapsulated in today’s post-modern technologist society, it’s that by advancing technologically, we can change the human condition.  We can in fact make the human soul better with technology.  If that were true, then wars, criminal violence, and selfishness should be on the decline today, right?  Especially in the developed and developing world, we should see crime and vice on the decline.  However, what we see is the opposite.

Now, I would personally coach that if you really want to change the human condition within yourself, you would do well to consider faith.  Christianity has much to offer in the way of life-changing, human condition-changing truth.  However, the Bible does also coach that what you allow into your mind is who you become.  Again, this is remarkable because this may be one of the only ways in which we humans can directly impact who and what we become.  It isn’t an easy road; changing the way you think is not like flipping a switch.  It is more like turning the rudder on a ship: you won’t always perceive the course change immediately…and it is far more normal that you won’t recognize how your change in thinking changed your behavior and your heart for some time.  Even so, this is a positive way to impact who you become and where your life goes.

Just some random thoughts on a Saturday morning.

thefaithfulmind