Think and Do

Memory, including karmic memory, is part of thinking. Many of our thoughts come from karmic knowledge. We need to know the sources of our thoughts.

Many “smart” men have ideas, but where do they come from? Will they work? What are the consequences of their thoughts? Having ideas without carefully weighing the consequences can result in great tragedy.

Plato in The Republic wanted philosopher kings to rule. He believed thinkers should be at the top. But he separated thinkers from doers. Thinking without doing is not completely participating in life, just as doing without thinking. All doing must be thoughtful or it will be mindless doing. Thinking without doing is avoiding the experiences that provide a basis for sound thinking.

All need to be striving to think and wisely do. Wise thought should be the guide for our doing.

America is in a tragic situation. America was founded by thinker-doers, but is being “ruled” currently by elites who pretend they can think, but in reality cannot think honestly because they have never been honest doers. Their “thinking” is arrogant because they have not struggled in the trenches on honestly doing or thinking.

The Founders were educated, but also served in war and worked on farms. They were very familiar with doing. Our society is flirting with self-extinction because we are incrementally creating an elitist government that has contempt for doing. There is an overabundance of lawyers and technocrats in government who, although they may be very smart in their fields, have little wisdom when it comes to managing a large and complex society.

Many celebrated the end of the Cold War. It was no time for celebration. Many acted like the battle was over, when it had only just begun. The Soviet Republics were freed, but they had no experience with democratic principles. What they most needed was understanding of the meaning of Democratic government. But the USA was at the same time losing its grasp of those very democratic principles. We were already on the road to becoming like they had been..

Too many in our country are trying to “just do” without thinking. A few are willing to do all the “thinking” without ever participating in the struggles of everyday doing. We will become just like the countries we fought during the Cold War if we will not recall the wise ideas that were the basis of our birth

Reagan fought to remember his wisdom and was attacked for it. We should be fighting that fight with the same intensity he did. If we allow ourselves to be cordoned off as thoughtless doers who claim it isn’t our job to think or elitist “thinkers” disconnected from the world of doing our society will not survive.