re: Headlines say North Korea warned about graphic horrors

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I understand this line of thinking and usually agree with it. Unfortunately we simply don't have the resources to right every wrong in the world. We just couldn't ever do it. I understand that. But there comes a time where the situation is so dire and so disturbing that I think we have a moral responsibility to act. I'm not saying I should be the one who decides where that line is, but personally i think we've reached that point with North Korea.

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I have been blessed with the opportunity to witness some of the most egregious examples of just how bad humans can be to one another. It has probably made me more compassionate and more charitable than I thought I could be as a young man.

I think in my younger days, naivety made me more callous than I care to admit. As I grew older and more experienced, I came to realize that compassion has to be harnessed, or it can be an extremely destructive force even with the best of intentions. I also now realize that compassion is the vehicle for exploitation, and that charity comes at a price to both the buyer and the seller. It is a deal in which both parties lose a little in the transaction. I am very charitable, but also very selective. Of course all of this is about personal compassion and charity, which I think is really that only kind that has true value.

When we ask government to be perform these roles, it does so clumsily at best, and with sinister intent at worst. We can never forget that it always does so at the expense of others, and lacks the voluntary component that gives compassion and charity their value.

I have worked with numerous organizations both government and non-government who have the stated goal of improving dire circumstances and removing oppression, economic and otherwise from other populations. They have all been dismal failures in my experience. On the surface it is easy to think they could only be a success, but at the point of the transaction, the truth is always too obvious. Government it just too clumsy to balance the deals and we always end up swinging the see-saw the other way. It has almost been like a law of nature in my experience. I want to believe that it is possible, but I cannot recall a single experiment that has proven the concept. Thus, I must go with what I know to be true: There will always be extreme poverty, extreme helplessness, extreme violence, extreme power. I have chosen to be selective with those who I wish to affect and influence with my compassion, because their application has to be surgical to be effective. I choose based on the ROI, and I choose return that effects me in the most positive way. In that sense, I am as selfish as everyone else, but at the end of the day, my results could only be viewed as universally positive. Government just isn't capable of achieving such predictable results. This is why I cringe when I see other people's desire to use government in this way, It is the wrong tool for the job.

Anyhoo, I just thought I would add that thought for ya.

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Why should we be more ashamed than the Chinese, Japanese and South Koreans

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Ever heard of the six way walks before?