Core Values and Principles
Richard Salbato 6-4-2009
I have often wondered why
people disagree with each other. Of
course, these disagreements become very personal when they are between friends,
family or on major issues of life and death.
It seems to me that if everyone thought correctly we would all think
alike and come to the same conclusions.
It is easier to be wrong than
right because none of us have all the facts to make good choices about
things. A core principle of science is
that two absolute apposing views on something cannot be both correct but they
can be both wrong.
I do a great deal of
investigation on the major issues of life and death and use all the history I
can read, the major trends in the world today, the success and failure of these
trends, and the future ramifications of these trends to individual people,
nations and the world. I try to be
right.
One thing that has surprised
me in my investigation is that everything anyone does in this world affects
everyone else one way or another. What
bothers me the most is the fast pace of changes in morals and the entire
disregard of values and principles of knowledge. To understand this I have concluded that
people have accepted the idea of democratic truths and morals. Of course, if you think about this properly
it is self evidently false. Right is
right, even if nobody does it. Wrong is
wrong, even if everyone is wrong about it.
Because I studied the Greek
fathers of Philosophy I always start with the core principles of observation,
reasoning and conclusions. I love the
study of societies and the best thinkers on this are the Greeks. I love religion and the best teachers on this
are the great Philosophers of truth. I
love the core virtues of morality and study the great teachers of morals
throughout history.
No matter if it is science, social
laws or religious truths we always start with core principles. Core principles and virtues always apply to
everything in its field of study. Core
principles in science are the principles we start with no matter what science
we are studying because they always apply and they are always the starting
point of study. (see
Science before Science by Rizzi)
I suppose most of my
disagreements with my friends come from my obsession with Core principles. I stop and think. This often aggravates people who are waiting
for a quick answer from me. I am
thinking before talking because I want to know the long term consequences of my
answer. I think, “Will my answer fit
properly into the principles of truth.”
Understanding the principles
of knowledge comes from Philosophy, which means “love of wisdom”. Wisdom is our ability to arrive at truth from
what we know. We cannot arrive at truth
if we do not believe in absolute truths.
Most of our knowledge today
is nothing more than beliefs and not truth because we have not investigated
what we think we know. Think about what
you know to be true, and how you have come to know this. It is because someone you trust told you so,
or because you investigated what he said?
Most people are too mentally lazy to investigate, and because of the
Internet, that is not too hard today.
Most people today have
learned from parents who believed modern psychology, who taught that we are
animals who react to reward and punishment.
But this has been proven to be wrong.
Most children who have been
really successful in life were taught differently. They were taught to love and enjoy what the
parents wanted them to do or learn.
Unlike animals, humans think. If
you help them like, even enjoy what you want from them, it will stay with them
for life. Have fun studying with
them. Have fun with your children when
cleaning the house or yard and they will not hate it later in life. Of course, society (family) needs rules of
conduct but it should be equal for all, and explained so that everyone loves
the rules.
We should always have
understood social morals because they are self-evident. Why then did God have to write them down in
stone? If I want my life, liberty, and
property protected from others, then I should respect and even protect the
life, liberty and property of others.
Isn’t this self evident? Why then
has this become the greatest problem in the world and getting worse every
year?
If I want people to listen to
my ideas, then I should be willing to listen to their ideas. If I want to talk, I should listen. Isn’t this self evident?
Why are there Catholics and
Protestants? Truth cannot contradict
truth? People have a right to different
ideas but not different truths. Ideas
are thoughts that have not been proven yet.
Different ideas can be worked out towards truth if we investigate
them. Isn’t this self evident?
Why are there Republicans and
Democrats? Do you know what Republicans
stand for today? I used to think they
stood for Constitutional Government, which means less Government but not sure
today. Democrats used to stand for more
government and unionized industry, but I am not sure they have not become
socialists now.
What’s a Capitalist?
Republicans say they are
Capitalists but that cannot be a true core principle because everyone who uses
money is a capitalist. Capitalism means
the use of money for exchange, and so even socialists and communists are
capitalists.
What I stand for is the rule
of law, absolute and equal rules of law, contract law and unbreakable
contracts. This is capitalism but a
special type of capitalism, a system that is fair for everyone and cannot be
changed by anyone.
The rules can change but not
retroactively. In other words the people
through their representatives can change the rules for the future, but not
anything that is still under the old law.
This is the method of the rule of law (written down) that made
What is Common Law?
How did this change? This goes back to the subject matter, which
is how to think. Testing ideas by
looking at their origin and the results of this idea, helps you judge if it is
good or bad. The gradual change from the
Constitution came out of English law.
In
So in
Sometime during the great
depression some court in the
Today if you go into a
Lawyer’s office you find hundreds of books of past court laws in
Written Contracts?
How is it that Government
Motors (GM) can violate the most secured contracts in the land (Secured Bonds)
and favor labor unions? The
ramifications of this will be that no one will ever trust any contract in the
future.
Do-gooders will say that the
government protected jobs. Is that true?
At the start of the downfall of GM it had 60,000 workers in the plants and
another 50,000 in the dealerships. Now
it will have 30,000 in the plants and 25,000 in the dealerships. It lost 55,000 jobs in a few months and those
left cost the tax payers $400,000 per job.
This is what I mean by thinking and using the principles of
investigation.
Look a little back in history
to when GM had 600,000 workers and ask how it lost 550,000 jobs even before
2006. You will find that it is
Unions.
Government Unions?
Let us understand how the
seventh largest economy in the world,
One town in
Think of this.
Catholic Law and Oaths?
What about the Catholic
Church in the last 70 years. Can we
apply the same principles to understanding this change? The Church is also based on Written Law and
added to this are Oaths. All our laws
are written down in Dogmas and Canon Laws.
When we first partake in any of the principles of the Church we take an
oath (a promise to God). We or our
parents take this oath at baptism, at first communion, at Marriage, and at
ordination. We do not have jails for
those who break these oaths, we have Hell.
I have no problem with the
traditionalist or liberals who have left the Church and no longer are members
of the Body of Christ. At least these
are honest people. I have a problem with
those who have violated the laws of the Church and the oaths they made to God
and still go to Mass every week pretending that they are still Catholics. Since being Catholic is having faith in a set
of absolute laws. Isn’t it self evident
that those who violate this oath are no longer Catholic?
Not all laws of science,
morals or religion are absolute. Some have circumstantial conditions. When the man asked how we get to heaven,
Christ answered: “Keep the commandments!”
When he asked what ones, we all thought Christ would say: “All of
them!” But He did not. He listed only four of them because these are
absolute without any conditions. All the
others have circumstances that we must judge as sinful or not. If we pick a fruit off a tree that we thought
was on public property, but it actually belonged to someone, this is stealing
but our intentions were not sinful.
God is jealous of His laws
because they are for our good, but when He judges, He judges the heart, the
intentions.
What do you know?
Remember that rules of life
apply to all people equally because everyone has the right to be treated the
way we want to be treated. Everything
has consequences, good or bad. We should
use our logical brain always. Someone
who does not want to know anything is someone who wants to be stupid. Stupid is becoming an epidemic.
In science,
I do not believe what cannot be proven.
For example, I do not believe that Carbon dioxide (chemical
formula: CO2) is harmful to the world or that it even causes
global warming. CO2 in fact
is good for us and the world. Without it
plants could not grow and produce Oxygen.
Global warming has increased in the world at the same rate since the
last ice age, 300 years ago, long before the discovery of Oil.
In religion,
I do not believe what cannot fit into wisdom.
We call it faith because we cannot see it, but that does not mean we
cannot prove it. Einstein proved everything he discovered through pure
logic. It is pure scientific logic that
proves God and His religion.
In social life,
I do not care what people think of me, only what God thinks of me. If I have a major conflict with people, I go
to God and silently listen to Him. I think long and hard on the conflict and if
I cannot find anything I did wrong and God does not condemn me, I forget
it. If God enlightens my understanding
of a wrong, I go and correct it.
In most cases, conflicts are
not about principles of truth, but on emotions or believing what someone said
that cannot be proven. Pride is always
the cause of conflicts, and pride blinds truth.
However, everyone has a right to
protect his or her dignity as a person, even if that causes conflict.
In politics,
I want the most individual freedom and rights I can get. I expect governments to protect my rights
from others and others from me. I expect
to know by law what I can do and what I cannot do. I want to know what my rights are and that
they are the same for everyone.
Monopolies in business, unions, or government take away individual
freedoms. Monopolies
takes away competition and competition breads greatness.
Success
Success is not winning or losing.
It is not who has the most toys. It is
not who makes the most money. It is not
who has the most power. It is art. Art is quality in whatsoever you do. It is doing the best that you can in what you
love to do.
Notes:
Parable on Socialism
In the panhandle of
The gun slinging cowboys of
the area banded together, thinking they could just kill all these boars. Hearing about this reward, a city slicker
from a near by city came into the town dressed in a fancy suit and tie. He said he came to collect the reward for
riding the mountains of the wild boars.
The cowboys laughed at him and made fun of him, because he had no gun
and no horse.
The city slicker did not pay
any attention to them. He rented a truck
and bought a load of corn. He went up
into the mountains and dumped the corn in a large open field in the center of
the problem. He went back to the town
and sat down drinking beer, listening to the cowboys make fun of him.
The next day he dropped off
another load of corn and went back to drinking beer. He kept doing this for two weeks, until the
wild boars no longer ran away from him or his truck. In time he just watched them come out eating
the corn and paying no attention to him at all.
The last time, he bought a few
roles of wire fencing and another load of corn.
He went up the mountain, dropped the load of corn, and waited for the
boars to come out eating the corn. He took
his time building a fence around them until all were caught in the fence.
Give
others the power to take care of you and you are no longer free.
Richard Salbato