Coming in to dock, those on nearby boats almost always head out to help grab your lines and be of assistance. A small part of this is self-interest. They want to make sure you don’t run into their boats. But mostly,
it is part of a culture that knows how a sudden gust of wind, miscalculation or poorly thrown line can turn a seamless docking into a panic situation. We’ve all been there and have all appreciated the help provided by others. There’s a brotherhood based on shared experiences.
The fewer experiences that are shared by citizens of a country, the more we view each other as competitors rather than brothers. How do countries solve that problem without resorting to a socialist view that forces people into whatever the government chooses for them rather than using their own free will?
That the government upholds such freedoms as a woman’s choice at the same time it commandeers the funds to facilitate her choice shows a hypocrisy that only says, “You are free to choose as long as it is this choice, of which we happily make easier for you at the expense of one that shall has absolutely no interest nor choice in it.”
Though made in the image of God, we have been reduced to the image of dog, who, in a recent Ancient Jewish Wisdom episode, you brought up Adam’s naming meaning ‘all heart”. However, perhaps a more appropriate name might have been “no brain”. This might have guarded against such a successfully conducted lobotomy experiment upon the collective using the method proving to be the most reliable pleas such as “Follow your heart” or “Have a heart” (although little bitty beating ones are just as of little consideration).
We solve that problem by remembering in Whose image we have been made, just and righteous as God. God is just in that he gives us choice, yes. He “makes” no one go to hell, for example, but we are all free to go if we so choose that path even after He gives us the heads up about that road. And if we do choose to go that way, how can we then blame Him as though were the one with no brain? Have you noticed how dogs will skip happily into highway traffic?
I’m not saying that wisdom is heartless, but rewarding brainless actions only results in the usual Pavlovian response that only says, “Yes, splendid, my pretties, you and your little dogs too, the more the merrier, more of you, yes, run into the road!”
Oh, Auntie Em, I’m frightened!
It shouldn’t be hard to understand that when you reward behavior you increase that behavior.