This is a paragraph I read in a book I’m reading right now called “Desert Wife,” By Hilda Faunce.….a detailed true story by a woman traveling and living in the West with her husband….an amazing overview of the Navajo, and other Arizonan Indians…and what living and trading among them was like in the 1930’s.
“The house, Mr. Taylor told us, had been built by an Indian school man for a store. He had failed as a storekeeper, as all such men do, because of the unbreakable custom among the Navajos that, as long as a man has anything, he feeds his relatives.” (punctuation mine)
Reading this really made me think of what a perfect description this is of why socialism doesn’t work. These loving Navajo people lived by codes that broke them….they could not succeed because the code was to give to the relatives. Nobody finds that wrong (my grandfather had 3 stores in Troy, NY during Depression days and WW2 and helped his relatives), but to the extent one can’t remain in business, which hurts not only the poor but those who could afford to buy and now can’t, that doesn’t work.
Reading that paragraph really resonated……… Kind people, Leftwingers think they’re kind…but they’ll destroy, lose out, hurt everyone in their wake.
Like the Navajo store owners 😦 Who knew we’re going back to times that didn’t work!!!???
Answer: Conservatives know.
THOUGHTS?
geeez2014
GeeeZ .... 
“These loving Navajo people” were some of the most vicious humans on earth and took particular pleasure in torturing their victims.
Having said that, providing for others was a form of self survival. When food was short on their end, there were others willing to keep themselves from starving.
Works for small homogeneous communities. Not so much on the big scale.
Maybe by the 1930’s, after the missionaries got done with them, they were more on the civilized side.
The glorification of the Native Americans troubles me.. Yes, when the “white man” came along, we didn’t treat them so well. But then again, when we fall, no doubt we will receive a similar fate as do all usually in a failed State.
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I’m inclined to agree with Bunkerville on the issue of romanticizing the American Indian. Their lifestyle was (and in many instances, still is) decadent and cruel. Their only saving grace is that they treated themselves no differently than others. I believe this is a cultural truth. Now, when you consider the atrocities committed by the Russians on their people during the period of their Red October, you wonder how civilized people can behave so badly. The answer, of course, is that civilized people can’t behave so badly. In modern America today, we can observe the same behaviors toward others by the political left. They are cruel, hateful people, uncivilized, decadent, and deviant — and because they are who and what they are, and because they are convinced that their path is the correct one, they will never “get it.”
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The way things are going in Eastern Europe right now, socialism may be the least of our problems. I’m thinking about building a bomb shelter in my backyard so that I can at least die in a deep hole of my own choosing.
Great idea to elect Joe Biden, America. You may have just signed the death warrant of your children and grandchildren.
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BUNKERVILLE and MUSTANG! I am reflecting in my post the feelings of the author who lived amongst the Navajo and watched closely and felt mostly positive about those Indians surrounding their store in the desert on their day-to-day basis….she also includes these people were shrewd and did not honor cheating in their trading but weren’t beyond doing what was best FOR THEMSELVES!!! ….or violence.
.And I DO find that a redeeming quality; to give to others…. And I do believe it’s an excellent way to show what Leftwingers HERE seem to think is such a good idea, but which has not only worked here today, but has NEVER WORKED, this ‘socialism’ of giving to the point of emptying one’s own coffers!
This isn’t about ignoring the nightmare that happened across the plains to settlers and soldiers coming West….of course not!
SAM…sorry, I was only addressing this, not as the Number One Problem in the world today, but a fascinating glimpse revealing the truths about socialism on even a small scale like at an Indian trading store……..an excellent example one might not have considered.
WE ARE SUFFERING TODAY IN AMERICA, however, FOR MANY REASONS, ONE INCLUDING THE MINDSET OF THE LEFT…..IN THE ‘KINDNESS’ THEY BELIEVE MANDATORY, WHEN THE ‘KINDNESS’ OF ALLOWING ILLEGALS IN IS DESTROYING US, THE ‘KINDNESS’ OF GIVING ARMS TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES IS DEPLETING OURS, WHEN THE ‘KINDNESS’ OF GIVING DRUGS AND BOOZE TO HOMELESS BUMS IS HURTING HARD WORKING CITIZENS OF THE CITIES DOING THIS, ETC ETC ETC.
I THINK MY ANALOGY WORKS; I KNOW IT DOES. THOSE FOOLISH NAVAJOS LOST THEIR LIVINGS FOR GIVING FREE……..FOR NOT PUTTING THEIR WELL BEING FIRST AND THEN HELPING IN WAYS THEY CAN, NOT WAYS THAT DESTROYED THEM.
THAT’S MY POST.
XXX
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“Enclosed in my own four walls, I found myself as an immigrant imprisoned in a foreign country;… I saw my family as strange aliens whose foreign customs, rites, and very language defied comprehension;… though I did not want it, they forced me to participate in their bizarre rituals;… I could not resist.”
-Franz Kafka, “The Metamorphosis”
A Czech Jew who wrote in German. I wonder how many conservative Americans are now waking up and finding themselves “immigrants” imprisoned in a foreign ‘woke’ country… trapped in a death spiral of digital serfdom, like the Navajo?
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JOE…EXCELLENT comparison. YES, and I know your question is rhetorical because we ALL know conservative Americans are waking up…. My own naturalized mother used to say “This is not the great country I came to anymore…” She ADORED America and it broke my heart when she said that.
The Navajo and other tribes had to have felt that! and felt the bullets of what they looked at as ‘invaders’ and the lack of buffalo meat, fur, hides, etc., which they practically based their whole lives on for thousands of years… They were certainly trapped in a death spiral
BUT, again…..my point here isn’t about Navajos but about how anyone can lose even their own businesses for overdoing,or badly doing business….
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Joe….I need to somehow put your blog on my Blog Roll to the right but I don’t remember…can you share it here again, please?
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@Z – Here it is:
https://politicaltealeaves.blogspot.com/
Thanks for the link!
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My less political, much more philosophy oriented blog is here:
https://farmersletters.blogspot.com/
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Done! I put them both under your name because , otherwise, people wouldn’t know……
you’re welcome!
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I think I got them right, Joe??
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Yes! Thanks again, Z!
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Good catch. Although this “works” within a small group like a family to the extent that “working” means voluntarily helping people you choose to help. Not a bad thing. But to do so to the impoverishment of your own family and enterprise is unwise and self-destructive. Killing the goose that lays the golden egg. Your point. I realize their custom was a powerful force, but socialism takes it by the force of law not choice.
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BAYSIDER…as I read that paragraph, it hit me BIG time….Sadly, leftwingers think it works on a large scale…ridiculous….And yes, they do it to OUR impoverishment even as illegals are regaled in nice hotels, free food, cell phones, medical care, schooling……..and we pay. And pay. And we’re in SUCH huge debt. 😦
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After taking a lifesaving course for swimmers, and learning how to save someone that will climb on you to keep from drowning, I realized most all people will react with self-preservation in mind. Zooming it out to the scale of society, it’s still the same. Regardless of the event, or the government, the ultimate goal is self-preservation. When you allow your sovereign rights to be eliminated by the supposed good of the group, such as Communism, and Socialism, you’re self-preservation is only as important as what the group allows, and your right to exist may disappear by the whims of a few.
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It reminds me of this: If the few lifeboats available while the Titanic was sinking tried to save everyone, they’d have all died, so what good would that have done?
Yes. Help people to the extent you can whenever you can without hurting yourself.
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JESS: The Navajo attitude seems to MEAN well, but yes, their store owners seem to put their self preservation second.
Now, that’s a Christian thing, let’s face it… And Jewish, for that matter! We do for others what we would hope they’d do for us…we do for others to help them. But, helping them in the case of this Navajo store caused the store owners to lose their business and livelihoods and the ability to purchase there by others who could afford it…Nuts, isn’t it?
MAL: I think that lifeboat analogy is a very good one. Thanks!
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@ Jess: What you said about self=preservation rang a bell. I recall when I was about 16 or 17 being at the beach with a church group when my buddy and I saw one of our girls crying and panicking, hugging on to a piling full of barnacles that were scratching her arms, chest and legs, hanging on for dear life. We both tried to calm her down and convince her to let go and put an arm around our necks so when she finally did, she almost sank all three of us! We rode the waves in, under the pier, between all the pilings and finally made it to shore. We all were submerged most of the time, too! AAAAARG!
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Love is generous.
Christianity teaches love.
Sacrificial love.
Compassion, charity.
But not enabling sin, like “sloth”.
Or drunkenness or drug use that causes poverty.
Christianity calls for judgment, not matter what some other say it says about that.
If you know a relative has a self-destructive behavior, love lets them starve til they wake up.
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@ Bunk: the early Americans in the NE got ready allies with some of the Indian tribes. These were the “weaker” groups that the Iroquois confederates preyed on and they were happy to get what looked like a bigger stick on their side. Same ‘ol story as all of history, the strong horse picking on weaker ones.
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ED…..I, too, don’t believe in the “never judge” thing so many claim comes with faith….Sometimes I think the word “Discernment” is a true and effective alternate word for judging…We MUST be discerning. And yes, as you wrote, “compassion, charity” are a good thing… until they aren’t anymore~!!! Sometimes they just don’t work!
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I will discern who I give my money to, unless it’s money taken by the government to give to someone else without my approval.
It’s called judgment.
“Thou shalt not judge” is rightly translated “condemn”.
You probably know that. I state it for those who don’t.
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Z: I apologize. I misinterpreted what you said and thought we were not in agreement on that term. You, of course, not probably, know that. 🙂
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ED….. I don’t know where JUDGMENT even came up! I’m too pooped right now to read thru my post and all the comments to see ….I’m sorry.
You’re not being sarcastic, are you? What did you misinterpret?
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Not sarcastic.
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Remember when the providers of “Christian Charities” used discernment and separated the “deserving poor” (widows/ orphans) from the “underserving poor” (alcoholics/ drug addicts)?
Time to bring it back. Marvin Olasky, “The Tragedy of American Compassion”
https://www.truecharity.us/book-highlights-the-tragedy-of-american-compassion/
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