Summary
Our leaders, political and otherwise, are encouraging us to fight each other for their benefit. We at Revolution 2.0™ must lead the way out of this mess.
In Christmas of 1914, 5 months after the start of the brutal and senseless WWI, a strange and most wonderful event was orchestrated by the troops. At the first light of dawn that Christmas Day, German soldiers emerged from their trenches and approached the Allied lines across No-Man’s land, calling out “Merry Christmas”. At first, the Allied soldiers feared it was a trick, but seeing the Germans were unarmed, they climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the enemy soldiers. The men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings and sang carols and songs. There was even a documented case of soldiers from the warring sides playing a good-natured game of soccer.
A Christmas miracle? Absolutely. Might this miracle have spread if allowed? You bet. Well, what did happen? Central Powers leaders (Germany and her allies) and Allied leaders, including the US, Britain and France, punished the officers and non-commissioned officers who were there. The next day, they started shooting at each other again. The war, which many had expected to have been over by that Christmas, escalated, eventually killing 17 million; 7 million military, and 10 million civilians.
For the next 10 minutes, we will unpack what what this real-life miracle means to us today, and how we can learn powerful and necessary lessons from it.
Transcript
Our leaders, political and otherwise, are encouraging us to fight each other for their benefit. We at Revolution 2.0™ must lead the way out of this mess.
In Christmas of 1914, 5 months after the start of the brutal and senseless WWI, a strange and most wonderful event was orchestrated by the troops. At the first light of dawn that Christmas Day, German soldiers emerged from their trenches and approached the Allied lines across No-Man’s land, calling out “Merry Christmas”. At first, the Allied soldiers feared it was a trick, but seeing the Germans were unarmed, they climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the enemy soldiers. The men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings and sang carols and songs. There was even a documented case of soldiers from the warring sides playing a good-natured game of soccer.
A Christmas miracle? Absolutely. Might this miracle have spread if allowed? You bet. Well, what did happen? Central Powers leaders (Germany and her allies) and Allied leaders, including the US, Britain and France, punished the officers and non-commissioned officers who were there. The next day, they started shooting at each other again. The war, which many had expected to have been over by Christmas, escalated, eventually killing 17 million; 7 million military, and 10 million civilians.
For the next 10 minutes, we will unpack what what this real-life miracle means to us today, and how we can learn powerful and necessary lessons from it.
The best way to describe the start of WWI is that it broke out like a bar fight, and would up as a brawl that involved–and decimated–the entire town. A Serbian terrorist assassinated the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. Soon after, a world war erupted. A senseless, devastating war, with nothing more driving the different factions than nonsense like, “My team will murder your team.” and “We’re in the right, and you are in the wrong.”
Today’s key point: The leaders of the two warring sides in our government, call them the Central Powers and the Allies, and you can pick which is which, are invested in continuing the war between between us for their benefit; they want to stay in command, with their party gaining power. We citizens, the soldiers, non-commissioned and commissioned officers, if you will, are being forced into this escalating war to our peril. Unnecessary wars are always like that: The Generals love them, get promoted and stay in command; the lower ranks and civilians all lose. We at Revolution 2.0™ must lead the way out.
Here’s how: Don’t buy into this war, the fight–the continuing barrage of accusations, insults and barbed chiches–from both sides. “Build the wall!” and “Trump is a racist.” are war cries, not logical arguments. Does anyone remember the phrase, “twenty second sound bite” used to criticize short statements that were intended to be captured for radio or TV? The criticism was aimed at the brevity of the statements, which were masquerading as complete arguments. I long for the days of the twenty second sound bite; compared to today’s three word cliche, they sounded like real discourse.
And real discourse isn’t hard. The first thing we need to do is to define what we mean by winning a discussion. Is it to make yourself right, and the other person wrong? Or it is to find a good, workable solutions to the issues at hand? Careful now, you get to pick only one. You can be right, or you can change the world. After that, it’s all downhill. Find the common goals–and there are always common goals. Look for the facts (courts call facts like these evidence) that pertain to those goals, and use non agenda-based logic applied to those facts to find a path to achieving the goals. This is an easy to understand process, and hard to accomplish. Much of life is exactly like this: Simple. Hard. And more than worth it.
There was a more recent well known Christmastime battle in Bastogne, Belgium in 1944 during WWII. Unlike War One, War Two started with clear threats to the world. Germany attacked Poland with cear ambitions to first dominate Europe and go from there. Japan attacked the US, with equally clear ambitions to dominate the Northern Pacific, and large swaths of the Far East and Southeast Asia. The American 101st Airborne fought a necessary, pitched battle against the Nazis in Bastogne, a real and truly evil enemy.
We don’t need to see each other as enemies in order to feel that we have something to fight for (with apologies to George Orwell). We have more than enough common enemies in poverty, poor educations, a changing economy that is leaving so many behind, identity-based suspicions and hatred, and climate change for starters. Additionally, we have opportunities we can rally around together, including solving both the immigration and healthcare messes. Hint, both solutions are, you guessed it, simple to understand, hard to execute, and more than worth it.
All of this ties to the core, driving principles at Revolution 2.0, which are:
- Personal Responsibility; take it, teach it and,
- Be Your Brother’s Keeper. The answer to the biblical question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” is a ringing, unequivocal “Yes.” There is no other answer.
If we apply those two core principles simultaneously, never only one or the other, we will always be on the right path. Depending upon what we face, one principle or the other may appropriately be given more emphasis, but they are always acted upon together.
The Founders were declared traitors by the British Crown, and their lives were forfeit if caught. We risk very little by stepping up and participating. In fact, we risk our futures if we don’t. I am inviting you, recruiting you, to join Revolution 2.0™ today. Join with me in using what we know how to do–what we know we must do–to everyone’s advantage. Let’s practice thinking well of others as we seek common goals, research the facts that apply to those goals, and use non agenda-based reasoning to achieve those goals together. Practice personal responsibility and be your brother’s keeper.
Let’s continue to build on the revolutionary vision that we inherited. Read the blog, listen to the podcast, subscribe, act. Here’s what I mean my “acting.”
- Read the blogs and/or listen to the podcasts.
- Comment in the blogs. Let others know that you are thinking.
- Subscribe and recommend that others subscribe as well.
- Attach links from blogs into your social media feeds. Share your thoughts about the link.
- From time-to-time, attach links to blogs in emails that mention related subjects. Or just send the links to family and friends.
Revolution 1.0 in 1776 was built by people talking to other people, agreeing and disagreeing, but always finding ways to stay united and going forward. Revolution 2.0 will be built the same way.
And visit the store. Fun stuff, including hats, mugs and t-shirts. Recommend other items that you’d like to see.
Join me. Let’s grow this together.
Links and References
You Can Be Right, Or You Can Change The World. (Blog Only)
Contact
As we get ready to wrap up, please do reach out with comments or questions about this podcast or anything that comes to mind. You can email me at will@revolution2-0.org, or connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. And you can subscribe to the podcast on your favorite device through Apple Podcasts, Google, or Stitcher.
Now it is time for our usual parting thought. It is not enough to be informed. It is not enough to be a well informed voter. We need to act. And if we, you and I, don’t do something, then the others who are doing something, will continue to run the show.
Remember: Knowledge by itself is like running a winning race, then stopping just before the finish line.
Will Luden, writing to you from my home office at 7,200’ in Colorado Springs.
The core, driving principles at Revolution 2.0, are:
1. Personal Responsibility. Take it, teach it.
2. Be Your Brother’s Keeper. Taking care of our brothers and sisters.
If we apply those two core principles simultaneously, we will inevitably be on the right path.
- Ending Gun Violence: Punish The Criminals (EP. 405) - July 15, 2022
- How To Get Good Government: The Formula (EP. 404) - July 1, 2022
- The Candy Bomber Lives: Is It You? (EP. 403) - June 24, 2022
4 Responses
Yes!! It worked before and it can work again as we seek and support common goals.
Indeed; Revolution 1.0 in 1776 worked, and Revolution 2.0™ will also work!
Governments love to divide & conquer. The United States government is really good at doing this today, as we continue to see a wider political divide in society. Thanks for the common sense look into this situation.
Thanks, Charley. Now to take common sense and add passion and action to it. Like Revolution 2.0™.