What is Intention?
We humans seem to have always loved the fantasy where ideas easily became reality and everything worked out immediately. This morning the fogs and mists that watered a Garden of Eden also known as the eastern side of the City of Milwaukee, made such optimists’ thoughts possible. Smiling joggers, hikers, dog walkers, bikers and writers on their way to their favorite coffee shop in the tree canopied sun rise, certainly thought so. Various bird species held competing symphonies of excellent quality. Lake Michigan sang softly nearby to add to the upbeat Nirvana.
A regular guy lived and worked near a relatively large university in this Valhalla. Like the neighborhood, the school was close to Lake Michigan. He had been doing this job for over a decade now. His was a humble but thankful occupation. Life and the job that helped pay for it had its’ ups and downs but what a place for dreamers. This Regular Guy was nothing if he wasn’t a dreamer so he could easily pick out the many college students hurrying around him that were infected with the same malady. One day, the Regular Guy stopped and leaned on his extended garbage gripper stick. He used it every morning to remove the harvest of schmutz that collected over the last twenty-four hours. He dropped any picked up litter in a recycled plastic bag that he carried with him to eventually deposit in a dumpster. The Regular Guy thought of the many college students around him. Many of them had good intentions. The problem was that intentions were horrible guidelines for reality.
For example, there was a student living in one of the Regular Guy’s buildings. Clearly the kid wanted to help the bunnies and squirrels freezing outside. Therefore, the Regular Guy found gerbil food pellets scattered in one of his flower beds last winter. “Interesting” the Regular Guy thought back then as he raked up the edibles. Obviously, not only bunnies and squirrels would eat it. That early spring the Regular Guy found a badly placed bird feeder which could feed birds but rats, chipmunks and squirrels could easily raid it as well. Today the Regular Guy found grapes scattered over his lawn while less savory diners such as mice, ants and cockroaches now were invited to investigate the premises for possible habitation.
Good intentions usually were a start to accomplish good outcomes. However, if intentions was all that we lived on without guidance from actual feet on the ground, people have historically, regularly become suckers to any available huckster. Side note: a highly emotional presentation was never equal to facts on the ground. As this blog will soon establish, the histrionics usually were simply a part of a seduction to the presenter’s great gain. To bring urgency to this statement, every genocidal tyrant promised or promises a Nirvana. “Don’t cry for me Argentina” Madonna beautifully sang in the movie “Evita.” It accurately reflected the euphoria in Argentina during the Peronista height in popularity while the actual history of the Argentinian Peronists produced unmarked graves in the glorious South American outback. Bodies were being exhumed even as the movie was being filmed. Without a doubt the original Argentinian intentions were good. The Milwaukee Regular Guy read the “Follow me to Nirvana” that the bunny feeding kid’s car bumper sticker said. Again, the problem with the statement was reality. Any such political Valhalla invitation throughout history has always had “Arbeit Macht Frei/ Work sets you Free,” written over that Nirvana’s entry gates.
So then, was this reading simply wasted time into cynicism? NEVER! Starry eyed effort is a necessity for the very persistence of humanity. People with a drive for good screamed from the pages of the Bible, from the findings of archeology, from the scrolls of history, and even the computer screens now, to achieve what even a short time before was imaged as impossible. Former United States President Ronald Reagan’s “Mr. Gorbachov, tear down this wall” speech very much helped free the Regular Guy’s direct relatives from what they imagined as servanthood for their lifetimes and any future generations. The Regular Guy’s research on the matter was at the detailed level of cousins speaking to him as they looked into each other’s eyes while standing in a bread line in the former East Germany. This while East Germany promised a worker’s paradise to all. It above all, taught the Regular Guy to spend a lifetime working for the rule of law as set by ordered democracy rather than following the emotional claims of promisers. “The Siren and the Light” blog in this website is a good study on how to get “grounded” and not becoming a promiser’s fodder.
Misguided intentions versus ones based on facts on the ground were most evident throughout history. A fantastic example of grounded intentions was former British parliamentarian Wilbur Wiberforce’s leading in the illegalization of slavery in the entire, then worldwide, British colonies by using the powers of democracy and the extensive British policing powers of the time, to enact the law. On the other hand, an example of “ungrounded” intentions would be the early Russian Bolsheviks as they chanted “Peace, Land and Bread” even as soon afterward they militarily attacked nearly every national neighbor and intentionally instituted one of the largest man made famines in the annuals of humanity. The American, Martin Luther King Jr. is an interesting example of grounded intentions transferring into ungrounded ones. Unfortunately, King strayed from his original standard, going into promise making histrionics instead. Certainly with the best of intentions, King did what he saw was right. However, per the attached article, he began to undo the very goals he had been earlier achieving.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2013/08/poignant-anniversary-thomas-sowell/#pq=PKnYWG
An important thing to remember is that the promise making politician that we most “like” might be the one that got us into the most trouble. As we live life we all must deeply consider this.
The foundational basis of grounded intentions whatever the issue may be, is insisting that all efforts be based on a rule of law guideline. In Kainotomía, a soon to be issued novel on this website, national rule of law is defined as follows.
A powerful enforcement of a well written constitution or other governmental operating guidelines putting legislatures and governmental executives under definite and not removable power limits. This constitution shall clearly define irremovable freedoms of assembly, press, religion, travel, and the general pursuit of happiness for every citizen.
Everyone is under all of the same applicable laws, no exception, no loop holes and no excuses however popular.
Truly multiparty, independent, voter fraud destroying, un-manipulated elections.
A judiciary that specifically is prohibited from creating law but can only comment on and clarify laws. If the judiciary faces an issue where there are no legislative instructions, this issue must be remanded back to any overseeing legislature.
An independent press however current technology defines it, which inherently moves towards fact publishing not pamphleteering with any published opinions clearly highlighted as such.
All governmental bureaucracies, the military and the police are irretrievably civilian led and controlled through elected leadership only with no “dark” nodes operating anywhere, even in times of declared war or national crises. Only civilian leadership may redact or otherwise constrain information for temporary, national defense only, issues.
Specific, significant and constraining punishment on all individuals provably even attempting to violate the above, no matter who they are, no exceptions.
The 1960s rock group The Animals sang that “I’m just a boy whose intentions are good. Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood.” The song was haunting but could not be an excuse. In the end, if we do not face ourselves and think, we may be advocating for our own genocide.
