What an excellent example for Capitalists to use to try to prove some point against socialism: The infamous Monopoly game! Read this meme and then think about it for a minute. Digest the contents of this and try not to regurgitate. Now…
Ever wonder how Monopoly got its name? Because the objective was to buy up all properties, brutally running everyone else out of business, which meant out of their livelihoods, too, so no competition was left… It was literally the game to establish monopoly, i.e. winner literally takes all, leaving everyone else with nothing. Now that’s Unbridled Capitalism in a nutshell! (Of course, it is just a game … and one I’ve always personally enjoyed!)
But there more to this meme that strikes me as humorous. For example: In the game as it is, every player gets exactly $200 when passing Go, no more, no less. That’s equality of income, my friends. And anyone who lands on Income Tax must pay 10% or $200. Anyone who lands on Luxury Tax must pay $75, whether they have luxuries or not! LOL Anyone landing on Go To Jail must go to jail, and anyone landing on Free Parking … well, they get free parking! Imagine that: parking that’s free, income equality, justice for everyone across the board, equitability in taxation, not to mention equal distribution of wealth at the onset of the game… Wow! Even the game of Monopoly has built-in socialistic elements! Who’d have thought???
Perpetuating Another Myth: Government Funding of Abortion
I am and always have been pro-life; however, I have always tried to be careful in the information I share on this oh-so controversial topic … and I’ve encouraged others to please do the same, but I kind of got in trouble the other day when I replied to a misinformation meme that said, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the government funded adoptions instead of abortions?” I simply pointed out to my fellow pro-lifer that the government does not fund abortions per the 1977 Hyde Amendment. Planned Parenthood receives approximately $500 million per year as of 2016, none of which may be used for abortion procedures. It’s very important to keep our fact straight! He was not very happy with me.
So God Told Nehemiah to Rebuild the Wall
Evidently, somewhere along the way in the debate over Trump’s proposed Wall along the Mexican border, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi must have asked, “What would Jesus do?” I personally don’t remember her asking this, but many evangelicals started circulating a meme claiming that God told the Old Testament character, Nehemiah, to reconstruct the Wall around ancient Jerusalem; therefore, Jesus would presumably tell us to build our President’s “big, beautiful” Wall! The meme ends by saying to Pelosi something like, “So stop asking what Jesus would do and just read the Bible”
Huh? God told Nehemiah to rebuild the Wall around Jerusalem sometime in the fifth century B. C. (or BCE, if you prefer), so Jesus of Nazareth would instruct the 21st century United States to build a wall of protection along the Mexican border. Right? Yeah, right! This is so convoluted it’s not even funny, but folks shooting this meme around are actually quite serious, and will even add the fact that there is (supposedly) a wall around heaven, or the New Jerusalem, as it’s described in the apocalyptic Book of Revelation, perhaps the most symbolic and esoteric book in the Bible.
Of course, Nehemiah was also a eunuch, so maybe we should think about something similar for our POTUS???
Ah, but the lengths some will go to in order to prove a point… Ridiculous but often times funny, really! More later, and till then blessings to one and all!
noblethemes 
I’m not sure if this reply will go through or not – something wrong with my connection, I guess. But, my friend, let me say that I feel that your writing on this and some other issues is really not but an expression of angst. Can it be that you have no clue how Planned Parenthood circumvents any law related to abortion? Can it be that you are simply unaware of the crimes committed by certain abortion providers arrested and charged recently?
Do you really think that the impetus for builiding a wall comes – to the minds of most who support the wall – from biblical injunctions from Nehemiah? Are you not aware even now of the number of countries in the world which have employed walls to varying degrees to protect the sovereignty of their nations’ boundaries?
As to the meme – well, I don’t confess to be on the bandwagon of the latest cultural word games, but I take the meme at surface level as it was coined/intended by no hero of mine Richard Dawkins, from his book The Selfish Gene, though he himself has no problem with it appropriated for cultural use.
But beyond all of this, I feel that you have had your heart in the right place in trying to help another human being as you have described from your experiences at the group home etc… But, I wonder if the entire effort may not have been well planned. I can’t imagine anyone with the issues that you say they grapple with going to an environment where it is permissible to simply sit and smoke 2 packs per day and wonder around talking to themselves. I am sure that weekly sessions should have been had where these issues were discussed – even in a private vein.
I am reminded of a place in a small city – we’ll call it Brother X’s – where lost and homeless souls often wind up with no where else to go. They are provided a room and some food etc… but they are required to rise in the morning, take care of their vicissitudes and then leave from early a.m. until late afternoon. They are provided food and shelter (a room they can call their own) – that is it. The cigarettes etc… are not in any way healthy and contribute to a continuance of a very bad situation. Man cannot serve two masters. One cannot think two thoughts at once. In the case of your friend total health and directed activity would seem best.
Glad that you, on the other hand, seem to have moved slowly beyond that which had hindered you, though, again, I feel that some of what you write merely serves as cover for some type of angst. Your views are fine – far be it from me to suggest that most views within 2 standard deviations or so are not legitimate, but there is more coming across in what you write. Complete the journey and don’t bog down in some slough of willful misrecognition. You, in my mind, have opened up enough about what you consider to be your failings. The past is a bucket of ashes they say. Keep moving forward.
Perhaps as a poet you will appreciate this perspective. It is something I wrote and let a friend read years back. It describes a situation we all fall into. Recognize and break free.
The Keeper guards his animal well
Encaging its soul in a strictured cell
Which gives no ease to restless frustration.
By stifled movement and frenetic pacing
Its territory is marked – every inch of that ground is known!
And the creature to whom no love is shown
Can only cringe when first the whip cracks,
Then roar, and paw, as if to strike back
At one so cruel in deed.
At one like him whose only need
Is applause for tricks performed
By a poor caged beast whose soul is torn.
Love others and truly care. But as the Desiderata says “You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and stars you have a right to be here. And whether it is clear to you or not, the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God….Whatever your labors and aspirations in the noisy confustion of life, keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.” And regarding those wicked capitalists you seem to love to hate, recall too what is written in the same document “Exercise caution in your business affairs for the world is full of trickery, but let this not blind you to what virtue there is, for many persons strive for high ideals and everywhere life is full of herosim.”
God bless you and I hope that you and your friend grow stronger daily – as I hope that I do and all those I wish well.
Oh my … thank you very much, my dear friend. You have provided me much, indeed, to think about and have done so so eloquently. In fact, you have provided a necessary corrective to my extremities, and for this I thank you. God bless you!
I just hope that one of your “extremeties” is not your middle finger! Probably well deserved if it is. But anyway I just wanted to add that I reading your latest book on being human and I think that you have a done a great job. I just wonder how you came up with your source material …. so much to choose from. Well, anyway, take care and I hope to read about a best-selling book one day!
Ah, thank you. Actually, I would love for you to offer a critical analysis of my book when you finish. I have not been wholly pleased with it, and I would like some insight from an intelligent reader, which is certainly you, my friend. Anyway, God bless!