{"id":4252,"date":"2012-09-10T08:03:56","date_gmt":"2012-09-10T15:03:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/?p=4252"},"modified":"2012-09-10T08:03:56","modified_gmt":"2012-09-10T15:03:56","slug":"kings-and-fools-switched-it-aint-right-but-it-happens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/2012\/09\/10\/kings-and-fools-switched-it-aint-right-but-it-happens\/","title":{"rendered":"Kings and Fools Switched\u2014It Ain’t Right, but it Happens"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/h6>\n

Here’s a wrong I’ve seen: Fools ascending to high positions and the wise relegated to low ones.<\/strong>*<\/p>\n

Have we seen this or what? My bringing it up has nothing to do with this being an election year.\u00a0We have our share of problems, but a lot of the world has it a lot worse. And has for a long time.<\/p>\n

I picked up today’s newspaper and came across a story of rising violence in Venezuela scaring the police. According to the story, murders have more than tripled since Hugo Chavez took office, making Venezuela the most violent country in South America. One observer states that \u201cChavez promotes the idea that violence forms part of the class struggle against the rich and the landowners, and so it’s not so bad.\u201d Besides that, hiring more police is “a right-wing policy,” so he won’t.<\/p>\n

Of course, it’s nothing so noble as “class struggle,” more like\u00a0gang members\u00a0trafficking\u00a0drugs and killing police to rise in status and send a message that they control the territory. The death toll for police in Caracas is up 45 percent since last year.<\/p>\n

Bringing it home, the police interviewed were family men, with higher goals, only hoping they’ll make it to\u00a0retirement\u00a0alive. During the story’s writing, however, another didn’t.<\/p>\n

Okay, so there’s just one example of how a leader affects the state and well-being of the people. There’s more, much more.<\/p>\n

An Internet search of the ten worst leaders of state today is revealing, not that they’re there, but how little we hear, particularly of the people suffering under them, and what anyone can do about it. (Chavez is not on the list, by the way.)<\/p>\n

It’s easier to consider the worst such powermongers who have gone before, for whom we really have no responsibility. The trend is not hopeful, with the worst wreaking their havoc just in our last century.**<\/p>\n

But the Ecclesiastes writer made his comment multiple centuries ago, along with his famous quote, \u201cThere’s nothing new under the sun.\u201d<\/p>\n

It sounds simple but another verse says, Happy are you, O land, who live under a wise king.<\/strong>***<\/p>\n

So the leader, so the course of the ship. And peace on board.<\/p>\n

It matters.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

__________________<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 \u00a0 Ecclesiastes 10: 5, 6 (my paraphrase)
\n** \u00a0 Stalin, Hitler, Mao, each responsible for over 20 million deaths.
\n*** Ecclesiastes 10:17 (my paraphrase)<\/p>\n

Next: Wisdom for the Asking.<\/em> Coming Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy are you, O land, who live under a wise king. Were that were always so. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4252"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4252"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4336,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4252\/revisions\/4336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}