Common Sayings Reevaluated

1. Christians say, “I asked Jesus into my heart,” “I was born again,” or “I was saved,” or else we probably were not.
2. Christians don’t say hello, we “greet one another with a hug and a holy kiss.”
3. When Christians say goodbye, we declare, “Have a Jesus-filled day!”
4. To a complete stranger, a “good Christian” won’t hesitate to announce, “Jesus loves you, and so do I!”
5. Whether affectionately or with pity, you may never be sure, Christians often say, “Bless your heart,” which is always pronounced with thick southern sweetness. Go ahead and say it again. You know you want to: “Bless your heart.”
6. For grins or groans, now throw this in: “God works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform.” (But, you know, that’s not in the Bible, right?)
7. When the pastor preaches a powerful message and the choir’s songs are especially pleasing to the ear, Christians exclaim at the close of the service, “We had church!”
8. Wait just a minute. We don’t say, “The pastor preached a powerful message.” No, Christians say, “The pastor was Holy Ghost-filled and the Word of the Lord was anointed.”
9. Christians don’t have good days, we “get the victory!” And a great day is a “mountaintop experience.” Can someone say “Amen?”
10. Christians don’t have bad days, either! No, we’re “under attack from the devil, as Satan roams like a roaring lion to destroy us.”
11. Christians don’t ever say, “Have a good day!” We say, “Have a blessed day.”
12. Christians don’t have parties, we have “fellowship” and dinner parties are “pot blessings.”
13. Christian[s] don’t get depressed; we have “a spirit of heaviness.”
14. An enthusiastic Christian is “on fire for God!”
15. Christians don’t have discussions, we “share.”
16. Similarly, Christians don’t gossip, we “share prayer requests.”
17. Christians don’t tell stories, we “give a testimony” or a “praise report.”
18. When a Christian does not know how to respond to someone who is hurting, we utter, “Well, I’ll be praying for you.” After that comes, “God is in control.” Next, we say, “All things work together for good.” Should I keep ‘em coming? “If God closes a door, he’ll open a window,” and another favorite: “God allows everything for a purpose.”
19. Christians don’t make decisions, we are “led by the Spirit.”
20. Christians RSVP with phrases such as, “I’ll be there if it’s God’s will,” or “Lord willing and the creek don’t rise.”
21. When a Christian makes a mistake, we say, “I’m forgiven, not perfect.”
22. Christians know that a really terrible lie is “belched from the pit of hell.”
23. Christians don’t insult or say rude things to a brother or sister in the Lord. No, we “speak the truth in love.” However, if someone should mistakenly feel judged or rebuked, we say, “Hey, I’m just keepin’ it real.”
24. If a Christian meets someone who is stressed or anxious, we know they simply need to “let go and let God.”
25. Last but not least, Christians don’t die, we “go home to the be with the Lord.”		1. Objectivists say, “I asked the love of my life into my heart,” “I was born to be selfish and happy,” or “I was drowning in altruism,” or else we probably were not.
2. Objectivists don’t say hello, we “greet one another with a bow of the head with respect for each other’s individuality.”
3. When Objectivists say goodbye, we declare, “Have an ego-filled day!”
4. To a complete stranger, a “good Objectivist” won’t hesitate to announce, “Your reason loves you, and so do I!”
5. Whether affectionately or with pity, you may never be sure, Objectivists often say, “A is A,” which is always pronounced with thick southern sweetness. Go ahead and say it again. You know you want to: “A is A.”
6. For grins or groans, now throw this in: “You work in mysterious ways when you are not thinking rationally.” (But, you know, that’s not in Atlas Shrugged, right?)
7. When the Ayn Rand Institute podcaster preaches a powerful message and our internal choir’s songs are especially pleasing to the ear, Objectivists exclaim at the close of the episode, “We had logic!”
8. Wait just a minute. We don’t say, “The ARI podcaster preached a powerful message.” No, Objectivists say, “The podcaster was Reason-filled and the Word of the Self was anointed.”
9. Objectivists don’t have good days, we “feel a sense of life!” And a great day is a “benevolent universe experience.” Can someone say “Amen” like Peikoff?
10. Objectivists don’t have bad days, either! No, we’re “under attack from the whim-worshippers, as tribalists roam like a roaring lion to destroy us.”
11. Objectivists don’t ever say, “Have a good day!” We say, “Have a virtuous day.”
12. Objectivists don’t have parties, we have “OCON” and dinner parties are “pots of gold.”
13. Objectivists don’t get depressed; we have “a spirit of moral judgment.”
14. An enthusiastic Objectivist is “on fire for heroes!”
15. Objectivists don’t have discussions, we “debate.”
16. Similarly, Objectivists don’t gossip, we “share our honest opinions.”
17. Objectivists don’t tell stories, we “give a philosophical argument” or “praise Rand’s work.”
18. When an Objectivist does not know how to respond to someone who is hurting, we utter, “Well, I’ll be thinking of you.” After that comes, “You are in control.” Next, we say, “All things can be handled if you adapt.” Should I keep ‘em coming? “If an opportunity closes its door, a new one will open,” and another favorite: “Don’t leave your life to chance.”
19. Objectivists make decisions, we are “led by objective knowledge.”
20. Objectivists RSVP with phrases such as, “I’ll be there if it brings value to my life,” or “If I’m willing and the second-handers don’t rise.”
21. When an Objectivist makes a mistake, we say, “I’m perfect, just not omniscient, sorry.”
22. Objectivists know that a really terrible lie is “belched from the pit of delusion.”
23. Objectivists don’t insult or say rude things to a brother or sister in the community. No, we “speak the truth in love and the good.” However, if someone should mistakenly feel judged or rebuked, we say, “Hey, I’m just keepin’ it rational.”
24. If an Objectivist meets someone who is stressed or anxious, we know they simply need to “make a plan and execute.”
25. Last but not least, Objectivists don’t die, “it’s the world that will end.” [But, also, DON’T DIE—thank you, Bryan Johnson.]

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Links: https://www.learnreligions.com/cliches-christians-say-700635; http://www.aynrandlexicon.com; https://medium.com/future-literacy/one-meal-23-hr-fast-100-nutrition-18187a2f5b

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Views Expressed Disclaimer: The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent the postings, strategies, or opinions of American Wordsmith, LLC. Please also know that while I consider myself an Objectivist and my work is inspired by Objectivism, it is not nor should it be considered Objectivist since I am not the creator of the philosophy. For more information about Ayn Rand’s philosophy visit: aynrand.org.

On the Current Cultural Decay

Today’s cultural climate is full of desensitized and inefficacious people who assume that things just “happen” to them. People who are inefficacious disgust me. I have always sympathized with the truly great Men who take action. I love Men who fight against those who try to stop their innovation. They have efficacy and, therefore, my undying respect.

I can still remember, having been raised Protestant, seeing men, specifically, in church kneeling and I cringed, even as a child. I thought, “How lowly and weak they look!” Fast-forward to college and another late night reading session for tomorrow’s class where I have the works of Milton’s Paradise Lost and Marlowe’s version of Faust in my hands, further empathizing with the devil and the snake and Man who desires knowledge.

My sense of life became clearer to me when I felt this ferocity rise within at Man who is refused the ability to know and refused to feel proud of knowing. After all, our tool of survival is our mind, our reason! Why must Christianity squash the very thing that makes us capable of living? I find it pure evil.

Perhaps this moment of fierce rebellion in my soul, sitting in my college’s library, is why I always seem to come back to motifs of snakes and birds, heaven and hell, God and Satan, and Adam and Eve in my work. I cannot help but rage against those who tell me not to know when I have spent all my life trying to know everything! I’ve always said that if I could have a chip inserted into my brain with all human knowledge known today, then I would.

My fear is that we can go backwards as a society. Literary fiction and other art dies in a bad or sick culture. Today, all literary fiction is tribalistic and not about morality at all. The Left has thrown morality away since they believe it is incurably tied to religion, while the Right has kept to their small Christian publishing presses to put out more of the same religious morality texts. But where, oh where!, are the secular moralists who are capable of shining through the rubbish? Where are the writers and readers who want to learn how to be better and happier living their ever-longer lives on earth?!

Why are publishers saying no to any books that are not liberal or tribalistic in nature? Why is there outrage over “literary fiction” books even existing anymore? Because our culture is dying.

I can blame liberal ideology and religious ideology to a certain extent, but beyond that I am unsure. All I know is that the worst thing an individual can do is desensitize themselves to life. And, yet, drugs, drinking, hedonism in general, even rushing from one loud event to the next or traveling all over the world without one moment to rest are causing a group of desensitized people to roam around the earth and teach their children the same. When the music dies down and the party leaves, people can no longer stand being with their own thoughts and so they repeat the numbing process over and over again in one endless cycle.

I remember when I was presenting my literary thesis to my professors in undergrad. When I finished, one commented about how they thought it was a theatrical performance because of the way I read it and openly mocked me when I said that the meaning of life was about happiness. My professors were a product, in the most extreme way, of a culture that is dying, if not already dead. They were cynical, could not take their own subject seriously, and believe that “Truth” is outside of reality. My rebellious heart raged that day, and I will never forget it. Yet, again, here is the Left telling me that I cannot know anything, just as much as the religious Right does.

Well, I refuse to believe that I cannot know how to be happy or that it is not a worthy goal. And I would rather feel too much anxiety about every little thing in my life than nothing at all. I would rather feel deep gratitude for what appear to most as “boring” or “inane” things; I would rather feel endless sorrow for a loss in my life than to drown them in drink; I would rather behave as innocently as a child, than as cynically as a manic-depressive professor. Life becomes more bearable when you know madness does not arise “out of the blue” but is built up by hundreds of little acts of transgression over time that you and the others around you never cared to notice. Being in a desensitized state is a killer to human beings; don’t let it get you next.

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Views Expressed Disclaimer: The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent the postings, strategies, or opinions of American Wordsmith, LLC. Please also know that while I consider myself an Objectivist and my work is inspired by Objectivism, it is not nor should it be considered Objectivist since I am not the creator of the philosophy. For more information about Ayn Rand’s philosophy visit: aynrand.org.