Complacency: The Freedom Killer (Part 3)

"The greatest obstacle to those who hope to reform American education is complacency."

---Diane Ravitch

Complacency has the ability to lull us into thinking that everything is OK. It provides a sense of false security. A security which, if unchecked, has the potential to rob us of our very foundation as a country.

In our effort to understand this vicious and quiet disease that is plaguing America, we have learned that not only does it teach us ignorance as Citizens, but that we also can potentially lose our ability to fight back.

In this final segment, we are going to discuss how the loss of our ability to fight back and our ignorance leads to us losing our Rights.

There is another quote that I've been meaning to share:

"You need to have a redesign because familiarity breeds a kind of complacency."

---Timothy White

In the "Civil Rights" Movement, we all became accustomed to hearing about Civil Rights. Some, even to the point of rolling their eyes. We all became "familiar" with the concept. Now, we are complacent to the idea of reformation in the area of Civil Rights.

The familiarity is where the ignorance comes from. In our familiarity, we stop caring enough to pay attention. While we are not paying attention, we quietly and slowly lose our ability to fight back. Laws are passed and judgements are made in Court that slowly and silently remove our ability to say "No!"

The intent of the article is to bring to attention the dangers of allowing ourselves to become complacent with anything in our lives, let alone becoming complacent with our Civil Rights.

Do your research, study up on what's going on around you. Become active. It's the only way for things to turn around. I cannot remember where I heard it before, but it's been said that "The only way for Evil to win is for enough good people to do nothing."

Don't be one of those that stood by and did nothing only to kick yourself later in life for failure to act. Complacency is (in my opinion) the leading cause of the failure in our Legislative Branch to create new and better laws. We see many many laws being passed that waste money, create hardships for citizens, and set precedence for future equally absurd laws.

Are you willing to continue to let this happen? Are you willing to stand up for no one else but yourself? Does the direction of the country worry you? Do you feel that things are being handled the way you think they should? Do you realise that a phone call to your local Senator makes a HUGE difference?

Complacency creates danger in all of our lives.

"Why the "Natural Way" is wrong"

"How to have Confidence and Power in Dealing with People" by Les Giblin
Page 105, under the title of "Why the "Natural Way" is wrong"

"The natural thing to do when we run up against a contrary idea or opinion is to argue. It may be only a question of which baseball team is best- or it may be a question debated by statesmen in the United Nations. Unfortunately, the natural thing is still to attempt to argue down our opponent.

Someone has said that golf is difficult because the golf swing is unnatural. It goes against every natural impulse of how to swing a club. We must learn a scientific, but unnatural swing.

The same thing might be said for the art of persuasion. It is natural to regard someone who opposes our ideas as an opponent to be overcome in one way or another. Yet, what we really want to do is convince the other fellow, induce him to change his mind rather than to conquer him or beat him down.

When someone opposes our ideas, it is natural for us to take it as a threat and a slap to our own ego. And so it is natural to hit back at his own ego, to become emotional and hostile, to shout, threaten, shame, ridicule, and try to ram our ideas down his throat by intimidation or force. We exaggerate every one of our own so-called reasons or clams, and make light of every one of our opponent's points.

But this natural way does not win. Because the only way you can ever really win an argument is to get the other fellow to change his mind."

I post this in an attempt to get people to realise that the only way you will ever win the argument you may be having with an opponent, is to find a way to get them to change their mind about where they stand. Bashing and defaming will not work.

I hope that we can all take this to heart.