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God, give me grace to accept with serenity
- the things that cannot be changed,
- Courage to change the things
- which should be changed,
- and the Wisdom to distinguish
- the one from the other.
(And I cite this even though I am a hardcore atheist.)
I realize that many people out there may not like some of the conclusions I draw on my blog, because they are quite pessimistic – at least, to people with certain hopes and expectations. This includes many people in the HBD world. And to that, I say that you just need to get over it. Only by coming to terms with what you cannot do can you possibly begin to ponder what you can do. If the realities of human nature render your hope on how to make a better world impossible, merely wishing it were not so is not going to help your cause. But instead, better results can be attained to by working with what we learn about human nature. This is one of the hopes of my blog, and I think, one of the hopes of most people who research this topic. This is why I believe that the wisdom in the Serenity Prayer is incredibly powerful. It would be helpful for people who want to help society to keep these words in mind, be they secular or spiritual; liberal, moderate, or conservative.
(Prayer referenced from Wikipedia. Photo by me)
Edit: Embed has been disabled on the Youtube vid. I suggest opening it in a new window to hear the track.
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Amen to that!
do you have kids?
Dammit Chris, I was going to say that : )
I think this prayer vindicates some form of conservatism, although reformed to include an active and rational pursuit of reform opportunities. That’s my kind of conservatism. Too bad there is no one like that to vote for.
It does validate something closer to classic conservative thought based on the “tragic vision” of humanity that it does liberal utopianism. However, it invalidates certain radical forms of “right-wing social engineering” to borrow the phrase from one Mr. Gingrich. Much conservative thought is based on their own faulty vision of human nature(s), of which they may need to let go.
Maybe there’s someone… 😉
No! Not the serenity prayer!
…merely wishing it were not so is not going to help your cause…
But lying that it be so is a great help.
Yes, that’s what’s missing in the ‘HBD world’ as you say; /what to do/ about it. To just complain as though there were a parent figure who will hear and change things is childish, and to stay stuck. I wish that about half of HBD posts were about ways to cope / counter / take advantage – action oriented, instead of just noting and noting and sarcasm.