The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating Apostolic Movements

A book by: Alan Hirsch (c) 2006, Ebook published 2016

Something to chew on as we venture off into this newly elected cabinet and executive branch of office. It is best to remember as we move forward that our Democratic way of life is part of a repeating cycle. Things happen, we change things, things happen again, we change them some more, eventually no real changes ever occur unless the underlying sentiment changes. Im sure the discussion of healthcare is currently at the forefront of most peoples minds. A similar discussion happened not too long ago around 2008/2009 with our former President Obama. Now we have a new guy in office under an opposing party, but the arguments are still the same. No one really has the insight to know what system works best for the United States. Rather than put a testbed in place and give it a proper expiration date with stipulations, we choose to put a concrete change in place with no real expectations other than it will be different. I am not going to rant about politics but I thought I would share this small snippet that talks directly to the revolving door we call Democracy (or Democrazy as my fingers would like to type.. multiple times without me batting an eye at the spelling). Our mindset is what truly holds us up when implementing change. Not only in Washington DC but in everything we do. “Change your mind and you will change your life” paraphrased from Tony Robbins. This is something I revisit in my daily meanderings as I feel most of us should, at least from time to time. Enjoy, and let me know what you think in the comment section below.

Robert Persig says:

“To speak of certain government and establishment institutions as “the
system” is to speak correctly, since these organizations are founded upon the
same structural conceptual relationships as a motorcycle. They are sustained
by structural relationships even when they have lost all other meaning and
purpose. People arrive at a factory and perform a totally meaningless task
from eight to five without question because the structure demands that it be
that way. There's no villain, no “mean guy” who wants them to live
meaningless lives, it's just that the structure, the system demands it and no
one is willing to take on the formidable task of changing the structure just
because it is meaningless.

But to tear down a factory or to revolt against a government or to avoid
repair of a motorcycle because it is a system is to attack effects rather than
causes; and as long as the attack is upon effects only, no change is possible.
The true system, the real system, is our present construction of systematic
thought itself, rationality itself, and if a factory is torn down but the
rationality which produced it is left standing, then that rationality will simply
produce another factory. If a revolution destroys a systematic government,
but the systematic patterns of thought that produced that government are
left intact, then those patterns will repeat themselves in the succeeding
government. There's so much talk about the system. And so little
understanding. That's all the motorcycle is, a system of concepts worked out in steel.”

To speak on the “system” or to say that system works or doesn’t work is completely irrelevant. We must understand that our system is really an underlying concept that we have perpetuated across many centuries. In engineering terms, we have the same core engine, we just build a better looking front end interface for the customer. A perfect example of this would be the transition from Friendster or MySpace to the now frontrunner Facebook. The underlying engine being social media interactions. There are many mechanisms out there with the same underlying principle and we just change the front end experience. Yes we tweak it and add features over time but the same underlying principle remains the same. Incrementally we make it better over time on the outside and we also have small breakthroughs. The real changes never happen overnight or even over a couple years and certainly not by one person or group of people. Change is the result of an entire population embracing new ideals. I hope moving forward you will consider this as you think about the future of our world and how bad or good it could be.