I.Q.

Sometimes I think that we get dumber as our numbers grow -  that collective I.Q. is inversely proportional to the number of people in the group.  It has been said that we behave more intelligently, and morally, as individuals.  Congress springs to mind as an example of an ethically challenged, ignorant group.  

But I shouldn’t be so offhand in the matter.  Who elects members of Congress?  Whose values do these members of Congress reflect? I’ll repeat the remark made by Winston Churchill that people get the government they deserve.  

Isn’t government whatever structure that people tolerate, or are forced to tolerate, to order their communities?  Democracy is, in theory, a form of collective government and it isn’t working anymore in America, partly, I believe, because we’re ignorant, we’re deceived, and we’re unmotivated.  When voters send the message that they don’t care enough to be rational and informed in their actions, this is what we get.  Nobody is minding the store. 

Helpless?  Perhaps.  Hopeless?  Never, for spiritual people (on a good day!)  

I think that the solution is basics, that is, a focus on our own spiritual growth.  What intelligence anyone has, what money, whatever influence we can exert is really just control.  Instead, we must hear the common thread of Jesus’ message.  It’s a challenge to our worldly, controlling thinking and an invitation to enter into God’s World in a radical way that opposes “conventional wisdom.”