Yes, that is a Zim reference.
Looking at the world around us it is easy to get very pessimistic. The current "political debates" as to who should be our next president is one of the biggest farces ever perpetrated upon the human populace, yet many of us take it so seriously. The general citizenry are worse than sleeping zombies when it comes to a capability to recognize a principle of human action, let alone formulate a basis for their personal beliefs.
This week the Mises Institute is holding their summer Mises University, which I highly recommend that everyone participate in. Here is a group of individuals that understand true principles, cause and effect. They are rooted in true liberty and freedom. Many lectures that will teach correct principles. Yet when it comes to changing the current debacle that we call our society to promote the theory and ideas that are understood, it seems that many are stumped. There is no sweeping plan to right the wrongs, end the injustices, stamp out the villains, and institute freedom and donuts forever for all! We talk, and we discuss, and we talk some more, and then read books and write papers, and then... No political platform!? Nothing more exciting than "Let's get educated."!?
How else are you going to do it? You cannot force people to want liberty. What an oxymoronic concept. People cannot live it without understanding the principles behind liberty. Freedom takes an awful lot of mental exertion. So how do you get freedom in an increasingly despotic world? Bear testimony and education. There is no other way. Most people don't want this. They don't want real discussions; they want demagogues to inflate their egos. They don't want to take the effort to wake up; groggy acceptance of slavery is pretty easy. They like to whine and complain about how bad things are and tell you how they think it will get worse, but if asked what "better" is, most have no idea, or only a vague, ephemeral, fuzzy, guess at some half cognizant dream of "back when". We could start blogs and request discussion to help each other, but any cursory glance at the participation statistics here show that to be a miserable failure.
Any ideas?
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Quote from Hugh Nibley: Temple and Cosmos pg 323-4
You'll never prove the gospel. You'll never prove the Book of Mormon or the Bible or anything else. Remember, people have been working on the Bible now for hundreds of years, and do people believe it? When is a thing proven in science or anywhere else? When you have had enough experience, enough personal impressions to convince you that it's so. That might not convince another scientist at all. Equally eminent men may have the same evidence in front of them, and when is it proven to one? When he believes it's so. When is the gospel proven to you or anyone else? At the point at which you personally are convinced. That isn't necessarily the point at which somebody else is convinced. You can't force your testimony onto somebody else - it's nontransferable. You can't get a testimony from anybody else. That is the marvelous thing about it. Remember the first rule the Lord gave the Nephites when he came to them? "There shall be no disputations among you, as there have hitherto been" (3 Nephi 11:28). There shall be no more disputations among you about any points of doctrine or anything else. There shall be no more of this among you. I will not stand for it, he says. It is not of my gospel where there is any contention or any disputation at all. It is of the devil and not of me (3 Nephi 11:29-30). How can you discuss things if you don't dispute? He goes on to tell them: You know by your own individual testimony. The Holy Ghost speaks to you, and you know, and that's it. Now there's nothing to fight about, is there? If he doesn't speak to you, I might feel that's too bad for you, but I can't bang you over the head and say, "You're so stupid, you can't see it!" That isn't where I got my conviction at all. My conviction is the result of building up of personal impressions, of storing up experiences and ideas through the years on a particular point, to a point where I am convinced. You haven't had that experience at all. You don't have that background; you have a different one. If I had yours, I wouldn't believe it, or I'd believe something else. That's why we have to have the Holy Ghost and have to listen to the promptings of the Spirit. Otherwise we're not going to agree on anything.
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