Some Strange Paradoxes

Peo­ple tend to even­tu­ally do what they con­demn. Groups that brag about being inclu­sive are actu­ally exclu­sive. Think­ing you are open-minded is actu­ally a way of being close-minded. Lib­er­a­tors are actu­ally slave-makers of a dif­fer­ent form. “New” is actu­ally old with just another label or spin. Peo­ple brag about their fail­ures as if they were successes.

Jesus had a bet­ter ver­sion of para­dox­i­cal liv­ing. For him, to reign was to serve. The first will be last and the last will be first. The King of all is the ser­vant of all. Eter­nal life for the self is found in dying for oth­ers. Small things are great things. Gain­ing the whole world is not worth los­ing the soul. Spir­i­tual com­pe­tence is dis­cov­ered in con­fess­ing your faults. Mas­ter­ing life means embrac­ing and admit­ting your own incompetence.

Sys­tems and orga­ni­za­tions have their para­doxes as well. Numer­ous books have been writ­ten on them. Sys­tems sel­dom do what they were designed to do. There is a fine set of lines between denom­i­na­tions, sects, and cults. The terms may change but the dynam­ics stay the same. Sys­tems pro­duce sys­tem idiots. Edu­ca­tion becomes indoctrination. Terms like “diver­sity” become badges that des­ig­nate a type of exclu­sion defined by an even more exclu­sive elite — all done in the name of accept­ing the com­mon person.

Sys­tems can be trusted only when they are dis­trusted. Lead­ers are peo­ple just like our­selves that we imag­ine to be supe­rior. Para­dox­i­cally, they may be even less com­pe­tent. We cre­ate the gods that destroy us. Real­ity is not what it seems. Always look for the oppo­site of what you think you are see­ing and you will see the full truth.