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- The Military Question: Strategic Defense -
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Therefore, he'd rather die than face immortality. Seems like a contradiction, but that's exactly what most people are like. Most people say, "I've got to get pleasure in my lifetime. I've got to git what I'm goin' git, in my lifetime. You know how I git when I don't git it." aughter]
They think about little things. They don't think of themselves as having any real significance for coming generations, or for past generations.
I mean, we have people who suffered. Take the case of slavery in the United States. We had people who suffered slavery. It was not an economic problem, for people of African descent. This was a denial of the right to be human, to be treated as human. We {owe} them something. Now, we can't give them anything; they're dead. But we owe them something. We owe them justice. We owe them, the assurance that their {descendants}, because of this struggle, their {descendants} will now have that justice assured to them. pplause]
The problem with politicians, like with the incumbent number 43, is simple. He's concerned about the next election. He doesn't have to worry about the next election; I'll take care of that. pplause, laughter]
What he should be concerned about, is the fact that he's going to die. Now, he says he's a Christian, probably a fundamentalist. Well, fundamentally, he's not on the right track there. aughter] Because, according to everything we know about morality and the nature of man, our interest in life is to treat it as the parable in the Testament says. Life is a talent, it's given to us. We're going to lose it anyway. We're all going to die. You have a talent. The important thing is, how do you spend it?
What's the result of spending it? That's the sense of immortality. If you have a sense that what you're doing is spending your talent, your life, to make as important a contribution to the future of humanity as you can make, and to justification of the past, you don't have any problems! Since you're going to die anyway, what can they take away from you? A President of the United States in a time of crisis, must {have that sense of immortality}. They must have confidence in what they're doing. It's going to shine, in the memory of coming generations. Very few people in this society have developed to the point that they have that kind of sense of honor.
When they're up against injustice, they will say, "What do I have to do to get out of this?" They don't say, "It's wrong, or right." An honest man, who has a sense of immortality, will say, either you're right or you're wrong. He says, "Well, we've got the power, you better deal with us, or we're going to crush you." "Well, crush me, as you did Jeanne d'Arc, and other heroes. Crush me, but I will not betray what I am. I will not contaminate my sense of immortality." And when the citizens have that sense of determination, it can't be crushed. They'll win in the long run.
The function of leaders is to adopt that sense of responsibility: "I make no deals." pplause] If it's right, you get it, but I don't make any deals.
So, that's our problem.
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