I am cold right now. I have my hoodie and my superhat on. My wife made the superhat, but she steals my hoodie all the time. Most of the time, I end up wearing a black fleece jacket which looks more like a sweater that I picked up from Walmart for 10 bucks.
I have been reading up a bit on the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and all the conspiracy theories and the rest swirling around. In my search, I came across this classic episode of Coast to Coast AM that is an interview between Art Bell and Malachi Martin:
My wife and I love Coast to Coast AM. It has a creep factor that can only come from talk radio listened to late at night. This episode is one of the creepiest I have ever listened to because it deals with the topic of exorcism. If you want the full effect, listen to it in a dark room at night. Scary stuff.
The issue of work has also been on my mind lately. Colossians 3:23 says, "Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men." People have a moral duty to do good work even if the people they are working for are immoral. Work should be a sanctified activity. I like this article because it sums up what should be our attitude towards work.
I don't know if I am a good worker or not. I have never worked for anyone who ever said I was any good. If I actually listened to those people, I would be so demoralized that I would quit on the spot. The only thing that will ever satisfy a boss is working for nothing. All workers are hated because they are paid. So, I discount the opinions of all bosses and managers on this basis. I do my best for the sake of morality not because of what some boss wants from me. I've seen people who have done outstanding work get abused by the ungrateful people over them. It is what it is.
You have to do your work as unto the Lord because to do otherwise is to become discouraged. You find yourself in a workplace surrounded by slackers seeking to render the least amount they can per hour, and you can't say anything because they toil for people seeking to pay the least amount they can per hour. It's like a bartender watering down the whiskey for the guy who is going to pay him in counterfeit money. You're not really sure who is right and who is wrong in that exchange.
I want to say that if you fight the good fight that you will receive your just reward in this life, but I know better. I have seen slackers promoted while good people have been terminated. This is true of every place I have worked, and it is true for many other people who tell me similar stories. If you dwell on it for long, it will make you angry. Since you can't do anything about it, this anger only turns into depression.
Doing your work as unto the Lord takes you out of that situation and puts you someplace else. Morality must be unilateral. You have to be good even if no one else is good. You can tell yourself that you will be a shining example for others, but the reality is that people will simply slander you. I can usually tell the good people in an operation by the level of hatred they provoke in the evildoers. My old boss who was the only good guy I have ever had as a boss was universally loved by his workers and universally despised by his peers and upper management. I suspect that their consciences were troubling them which is why they hated him so much. The darkness abhors the light.
Being a good worker will not win you praise from your boss or respect from your peers. In fact, it will probably get you the opposite. The only people who praise a good worker are the ones who are good workers themselves. The result is a division between the producers who get things done and the parasites who are along for a ride at the expense of others. It has always been this way, and it will always be this way until the end of the world.
I believe that most people in both management and among the labor pool are evil. The wicked outnumber the good, and the wicked always look out for each other. This state of things extends to the larger society as well. There is more evil than good in the world.
Being a good worker will not win you praise from your boss or respect from your peers. In fact, it will probably get you the opposite. The only people who praise a good worker are the ones who are good workers themselves. The result is a division between the producers who get things done and the parasites who are along for a ride at the expense of others. It has always been this way, and it will always be this way until the end of the world.
I believe that most people in both management and among the labor pool are evil. The wicked outnumber the good, and the wicked always look out for each other. This state of things extends to the larger society as well. There is more evil than good in the world.
The temptation in these things is to try and seize power or foment a revolution to change things. But this is utopian thinking. Utopian thinking is always present when people talk about making changes to the "system." There is always some call for a change in laws, rules, and policies as if any society or organization was like a stew that would finally taste good if we could just find the right combination of ingredients. But the problem is that the stew is made from the raw sewage of human nature. No amount of salt or sauce will ever remedy that problem.
The only thing that can make any society or organization better is the presence of good people, and people only become good by the grace of God. This is what it means to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. This is why you should be a good worker in a company filled with bad workers and Machiavellian managers. Good people despair only because they imagine these evil people as being happy. But they are not happy. There is no happiness in evil.
Evil eats itself. If you were to remove the remnant of good workers from a bad company, that place would collapse as parasites attempt to feed off one another. The parasites know this which is why they will hate the good people, but they are desperate to keep them. They can't bring themselves to admire the good because this would also make it necessary to emulate the good. But they can't do without the good because they need the good to keep things going. The result is a great deal of sniveling on the part of the evil.
I watched all of this with my old boss. They hated him, but they needed him. He was always fair and good to them, and they were always bad to him. Eventually, he found employment elsewhere, and the cycle began again. No matter where he went, they had to screw him. It was just their nature.
I know this nature too well, so I can't hide my disdain for it. The difference between my old boss and me is that I don't ever put a smile on it. I dispense with playing nice because that is a lie. I will do good work to the best of my ability. But I'm not going to pretend that other people are good when they are not. I can't give honor to a sniveler or a slacker.
My focus on the job these days is just on the work. I ignore the rest because I can't change it. I have learned from my wife that the best you can do is to be a good example. This means going in and working. Be the change you wish to see in others. By doing so, you give encouragement to the good and chastisement to the wicked. Nothing preaches louder than a silent example.
The only thing that can make any society or organization better is the presence of good people, and people only become good by the grace of God. This is what it means to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. This is why you should be a good worker in a company filled with bad workers and Machiavellian managers. Good people despair only because they imagine these evil people as being happy. But they are not happy. There is no happiness in evil.
Evil eats itself. If you were to remove the remnant of good workers from a bad company, that place would collapse as parasites attempt to feed off one another. The parasites know this which is why they will hate the good people, but they are desperate to keep them. They can't bring themselves to admire the good because this would also make it necessary to emulate the good. But they can't do without the good because they need the good to keep things going. The result is a great deal of sniveling on the part of the evil.
I watched all of this with my old boss. They hated him, but they needed him. He was always fair and good to them, and they were always bad to him. Eventually, he found employment elsewhere, and the cycle began again. No matter where he went, they had to screw him. It was just their nature.
I know this nature too well, so I can't hide my disdain for it. The difference between my old boss and me is that I don't ever put a smile on it. I dispense with playing nice because that is a lie. I will do good work to the best of my ability. But I'm not going to pretend that other people are good when they are not. I can't give honor to a sniveler or a slacker.
My focus on the job these days is just on the work. I ignore the rest because I can't change it. I have learned from my wife that the best you can do is to be a good example. This means going in and working. Be the change you wish to see in others. By doing so, you give encouragement to the good and chastisement to the wicked. Nothing preaches louder than a silent example.
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