Dr. Ben Carson 2016?
I happened to be re-reading “Philosophy: Who needs it” last Thursday, and had just finished “The Metaphysical Versus the Man-Made”. Remember that essay on the serenity prayer?
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.”
While Rand makes it perfectly clear that she disagrees with Reinhold Heibuhr’s ideas in every fundamental way, she finds a certain value in the prayer and uses it to introduce the topic of her essay on distinguishing between the metaphysical and the man-made and how to treat each.
So, later in the day (or maybe it was Friday), I hear that this fellow Dr. Ben Carson (who, up until then, I’d never even heard of) is considering a presidential run. Well, that set off a fast and furious google/youtube catch up session, and I’m now in part 2 of Ben Carson’s “One Nation”, and I watched “A Breath of Fresh Air” Sunday.
I found myself (as usual), trying to overlook (and translate) the bits about “If it’s God’s plan for me to run, then I will”, and praying for wisdom (do I want a president who might pray for answers to real problems and use divine revelation to choose the way he leads?).
In keeping with my tradition of “thinking out loud” Gulch posts, I really like this guy. He seems to exude a serenity that is the antithesis of what Rand describes as the men who “spend their lives in futile rebellion against the things they cannot change, in passive resignation to the things they can, and - never attempting to learn the difference - in chronic guilt and self-doubt on both counts”.
So I whipped out my personal decoding toolbox, because this is too important to ignore... a distinguished, “non-politician” actually talking about “serving” in a public office... definitely too important to ignore.
Here is my cheat sheet for translating religious language to rational language:
1. Prayer = meditation = settling extraneous thoughts to allow one’s entire attention to be focused on the topic at hand without making the error of allowing extraneous thoughts interfere with the process of assessing the topic.
2. God = the “spirit” of man = the “essence” of man = the “nature” of man = that part of every man which is common with every other man (that he is a rational animal, if you will).
3. God’s will = (in accordance with the previous translation) that which truly rational men must conclude is in their best interest.
This is no science, to be sure, but it works for me when assessing earnest men on either side. If Mr. Carson says that he is praying for wisdom with respect to running, I’m willing to interpret that to mean that he is settling his mind in order to bring his full attention to bear on the situation he would be placing himself into. Every indication is that he is capable of objectively discerning between the metaphysical and the man-made... how can any good medical doctor not? If Mr. Carson says that he will run if it is God’s will that he run, I’m willing to interpret that to mean that he thinks it is in his best interest as well as the best interest of other rational men for him to run.
I’m wondering how other members of the Gulch feel about him as a presidential candidate.
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.”
While Rand makes it perfectly clear that she disagrees with Reinhold Heibuhr’s ideas in every fundamental way, she finds a certain value in the prayer and uses it to introduce the topic of her essay on distinguishing between the metaphysical and the man-made and how to treat each.
So, later in the day (or maybe it was Friday), I hear that this fellow Dr. Ben Carson (who, up until then, I’d never even heard of) is considering a presidential run. Well, that set off a fast and furious google/youtube catch up session, and I’m now in part 2 of Ben Carson’s “One Nation”, and I watched “A Breath of Fresh Air” Sunday.
I found myself (as usual), trying to overlook (and translate) the bits about “If it’s God’s plan for me to run, then I will”, and praying for wisdom (do I want a president who might pray for answers to real problems and use divine revelation to choose the way he leads?).
In keeping with my tradition of “thinking out loud” Gulch posts, I really like this guy. He seems to exude a serenity that is the antithesis of what Rand describes as the men who “spend their lives in futile rebellion against the things they cannot change, in passive resignation to the things they can, and - never attempting to learn the difference - in chronic guilt and self-doubt on both counts”.
So I whipped out my personal decoding toolbox, because this is too important to ignore... a distinguished, “non-politician” actually talking about “serving” in a public office... definitely too important to ignore.
Here is my cheat sheet for translating religious language to rational language:
1. Prayer = meditation = settling extraneous thoughts to allow one’s entire attention to be focused on the topic at hand without making the error of allowing extraneous thoughts interfere with the process of assessing the topic.
2. God = the “spirit” of man = the “essence” of man = the “nature” of man = that part of every man which is common with every other man (that he is a rational animal, if you will).
3. God’s will = (in accordance with the previous translation) that which truly rational men must conclude is in their best interest.
This is no science, to be sure, but it works for me when assessing earnest men on either side. If Mr. Carson says that he is praying for wisdom with respect to running, I’m willing to interpret that to mean that he is settling his mind in order to bring his full attention to bear on the situation he would be placing himself into. Every indication is that he is capable of objectively discerning between the metaphysical and the man-made... how can any good medical doctor not? If Mr. Carson says that he will run if it is God’s will that he run, I’m willing to interpret that to mean that he thinks it is in his best interest as well as the best interest of other rational men for him to run.
I’m wondering how other members of the Gulch feel about him as a presidential candidate.
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I want someone who believes that the entire matter of [my health, my dogs health, my car repair] is in their hands, not waiting for cosmic intervention. (If it turns out that there IS a God/gods and they choose to cosmically intervene to the positive, that is well and good, but it is a bonus to the human 'doing his best'.)
Jan
Jan
Jan
So beware that we do not fall into someone else's well-worn verbal rut.
Jan
Now that you point it out though, it would be ironic if, after such uproar against existing politicians, the choice ended up being between Jeb and Hillary.
Is Dr. Carson enough of a change - and does he truly have the strength, integrity, and courage - to break us away from the two-name one-party system we have now? Or is he just another party platform performer to get votes and power? We've been playing the mono-party dynasty game way too long. How long before the cycle is broken? Is he the one to do it?
Two - and be warned ahead of time, some will find offense I dared to ask this - Is Dr. Carson the most qualified candidate for the job, or is he the most qualified candidate of color? Before you start the "You racist" flame war... I know a lot of libs (from when I was on that side of the fence) who voted for him because he was not the best candidate (with his inexperience, I would fathom one of the worst) but because he was a young, handsome, black man. Every time someone had a genuine issue with his beliefs, policies, history, and most importantly, lack of qualifications, people would support him by saying these issues were "racist".
I'll finish this off by saying this. I like the man, and while he is *far* better than what we have now, I think we could do better. He didn't impress me that much when he ran last time, and nothing about him has fundamentally changed.
And for God's sake... what we need is someone who can bring back our country... A return to being America, not a continuation of the monoparty power structure. Who has the guts, integrity, stamina, and courage to turn what we have on its ear, and return us to greatness?
THAT is who should be running.
"Ok, America, it is time to batten down the hatches. We must all weather the storm voluntarily and with full understanding that these things must be done to prevent the errors of our past from sinking the ship."
Who will utter those words? I think it has to be the president. What president could make it stick? My answer is: only an honest one.
He is against me having a tank and a bazooka.
Fine, I do not want any of those, but Carson thinks semiautomatic weapons should be banned in heavily populated area.
He needs to define semiautomatic. I think he is thinking AR-15 when a pistol with a clip is also a semiautomatic. Then I surfed to another site that I really like. He's against gun registration!
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/...
Now, that reasoning isn't why we're Christians, but regardless, it exists to support our brains' willingness to accept our faith. God didn't design us to blindly accept words without any reason to accept them. There's evidence to back it up. Christ didn't plop down on Earth and say "here I am, I'm God, worship me" without showing evidence to back up his claim of divinity. Same thing with the authenticity of the Bible itself.
Nevermind that it came from the driveway of the local mob boss, and he's looking for it. Driving it would be unwise.
It would be hard to find a worse president then Barry; and black folks deserve a better representative for president, but deserve has little to do with it.
Though we appreciate Jeb's take on things, what does it say if the best candidate to lead the nation at this time has to come from a certain family or genes?
At this point I disagree that he's for big government, and I think perhaps his stance on arms might have been misconstrued. Now that he's announced lets see where it takes him. In any case just remember that Hillary would be a really bad choice for this country of ours.
I would like to see a strong candidate with a business background-an entrepreneur who understands economics-I am partial to governors because you can look at their record-a mini-nation and see their accomplishments under pressure. They don' have to have a tremendous understanding of foreign policy, but they have to be able to pull together a team of people who do have that knowledge. Carson is a brain surgeon. He is an expert at that.
I would also argue that we need a hard right turn both fiscally and socially because they are connected. :)
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