What is success - I posited on Quora - "Achieving a particular goal without hurting anyone/anything. Combine that for all goals and I would feel truly blessed. As a warmonger, however, SOME things I do contribute to the war on people and places near and far. My goal then becomes to reduce my ‘war footprint’ to as small as possible. I strive toward that by paying as little taxes as possible and not advocating, indeed counter advocating, for earthly government whenever I act or speak. St Francis taught to preach constantly using words when necessary. Gandhi taught to be the change and HDT to be a majority of one, all similar messages and all in the first person."
After 2 days, however, 93 (72 in the first 28 minutes) people had viewed my answer but only ONE had upvoted this. This defines my belief system, leaving out the Martin Luther and Daniel Read parts, (and other Protestant Hymns, Sacred Harp numbers) of course. I'm complicated, as you are, but simple.

Albert Schweitzer's words

Albert Schweitzer’s words stand in contrast to cultures engaging in abortion, euthanasia, organ harvesting and honor-killings. He stated: “Ethics is nothing other than Reverence for Life. Reverence for Life affords me my fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, assisting and enhancing life, and to destroy, to harm or to hinder life is evil.”
Dr. Albert Schweitzer wrote in “Indian Thought and Its Development” (1935): “The laying down of the commandment to not kill and to not damage is one of the greatest events in the spiritual history of mankind.”
Dr. Albert Schweitzer wrote in his autobiography “Out of My Life and Thought: An Autobiography” (1931): “The world-view based on reverence for life is, through the religious character of its ethic of active love and through its fervor, essentially akin to that of Christianity. … What Christianity needs is to be filled with the spirit of Jesus Christ, to become living, intense, a religion of love which it was meant to be. Since I myself am deeply devoted to Christianity, I seek to serve it with fidelity and truth. I hope that the thought which has resulted in this simple, ethical-religious idea – reverence for life – may help to bring Christianity and thought closer to each other.”

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/01/this-is-the-universal-concept-of-the-ethical/#I66OiGxhX5SDfSez.99

Minding one's own business

"God" does not write books or invent religions. God DOES create the world and it's creatures. God instills in each (animal) an animal nature which in mankind is diverse and more complex than most. It includes the ability/propensity to act in ways that other individuals find perverse and horrifying. I personally am upset by all humans that cannot/will not mind their own business. That includes more than muslims but certainly most of them (think the parasite/rent-seeking class). I try to live by a mantra suggested to me by Jonathan Edwards in his creative effort Sunshine which tells me "You can't even run your own life, I'll be damned if you'll run mine.". I am a Quaker minister that leads by example, being a Majority Of ONE as suggested by Thoreau and a Change I Wish To See Made as by Ghandi. These "wisdoms", as I attach value to, are so widespread in oral and written history as to be seen in every culture including, I suppose, in the morass of busybodiness that comprises islam-filth. I have stated, though I will not try to prove, that I could find some truth in Mein Kamph. Too degrading is why. By keeping it simple, I know what to hate (like all political effort to control others as well as coercion/force) and avoid having my efforts directed by those that are demonizing a particular group "over there", the favorite tactic of would-be "leaders" for all time.

I, for one, and I hope that I am far from alone in this, have no "leaders" that are not ideas. People, like me, have clay feet. I am not a candidate for sainthood although I am a 'saint'. Ideas, though, good and bad, are rather simple things that can be examined, discerned for correctness and adopted or rejected, followed faithfully or imperfectly by individuals. People alone will stand before God at Judgment for the deeds they have done far more than the words that have spewed. If words have helped, they are deeds. If words have hurt, they are deeds. Take care, as Ida Stone of Worcester, had done in her 96 and 7/10s years to comfort the afflicted, to sooth the sorrowful, to love the needy.

Are today's events any worse than previous ones?

   I feel like the level of depravity HAS hit new lows and I study history - a lot. Slavery has never ended, part of the current depravity with women and children sold by US states' CPS on a daily basis and wage slavery almost universal and tax slavery a lot closer. The holocaust is the same genocide practiced on selective "suspect" races/groups since governments were invented. While people focusing on the period of African slavery in historical references are probably focused on African slaves sold to the west, they may not be aware of the majority of the trade that went to the north and east - and then disappeared as a result of Arab torture and slaughter. If people of black African descent feel inclined to join the religion of those that more or less invented the slave trade and carried out that genocide, it's because they have not apprised themselves of history. Oh, the 'religion of peace' was not selective in kidnapping and torturing except that it had to be vulnerable people less inclined to warfare and more inclined to trade. The English (turn head and spit) were a lot like that with respect to Irish, Orientals and native people wherever they found them (the Doctrine of Discovery, which they didn't invent but adopted enthusiastically, eased their conscience adequately). But, oh, the advances in art, science and "culture" we have been gifted by them. Why, we Irish were the proving ground for the greatest land survey/land theft in history at that point with Cromwell's Down Survey. A lot of surplus Irish Catholics were created by that, more than the western black African slave trade by far.

ANOTHER (with a fellow Quaker, mostly) that might be ongoing. We'll see

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  Jim: Are the police, prosecutors and judges TRYING to make us see them as evil? Do they think they are really invincible behind a wall of corrupt political alliances? Do they think none of us are watching? Do they really think a young female protester purposely attacked a male policeman and did so much harm to him that she deserved a seven-year sentence? Come on! And is she really so dangerous or lacking in roots that she had to be whisked off to Riker's Island rather than offered bail?
  

  Are there any police (or prosecutors or judges) who are sincere and idealistic about serving the public, or are all of them corrupted by their positions? If there are any, why do they not condemn this obvious miscarriage of justice? How many similar injustices have been carried out against people of color and poor people without our even hearing about them? Is this just business as usual?
  I think we need police and courts that really protect people. How do we get there?
  http://youtu.be/BKxir_u2T_0

  
  Jim: The police, prosecutors and retired judges who testified at the death penalty abolition hearings last month, regardless of which side of the issue they were on, all seemed to have a noble view of what their roles had been. They saw themselves as decent...See More

  15 hours ago · Like
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  John Redman If you support legislation to effect "solution" to problems you perceive, then YOU are part of the problem, Jim. Government IS a terrorist and There is no good fruit from a poisoned tree. INternalize that and come out fighting - nonviolently, NOT with structured violence (legislation).

  1 hr · Like
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  Jim:  Here is a blog by one policeman who is asking the right questions:
  https://improvingpolice.wordpress.com/.../making-choices.../
  "For the most part, police are not legally obligated to act morally, but it behooves them ...See More
  

  
  

  Making Choices: The Moral Aspects of Policing

  improvingpolice.wordpress.com
  

  Being moral is to make good choices between right and wrong or good and bad acti... See More

  1 hr · Like · 1
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  Jim: In this case, in New York, all the legislation is on the books and theoretically understandable, but the way the police and courts are applying it is clearly immoral. Can the police and courts act morally? Yes. By acting immorally, are they making it harder for other police and courts to win public trust in the future? Of course! By acting morally, could they "win hearts and minds"? Yes.

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  John Redman No, Jim, immoral acts cannot be handled morally except to ignore them. Lie down with dogs and get up with fleas.

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  Geof: It seems like the poisoned fruit is borne by those who don't care for or participate in the government we have. What is the alternative?

  58 mins · Like
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  The view that all government is terrorist in nature and that human beings acting within its framework are, for that reason, always acting immorally is not one I accept. If I accept that law serves a useful function in the hands of good people, I need t...See More

  58 mins · Edited · Like
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  John Redman Self rule, Geoff, self rule like you do MOST of the time.

  57 mins · Like
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  Geof: That means I can put a nuclear waste dump next to your house.

  56 mins · Like
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  John Redman Denial is not just a river in Egypt, Jim. You wollow in self destruction.

  56 mins · Like
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  John Redman And I can move. With no government, there are no corporations. With no corporations there is no ,limited liability, yes?

  55 mins · Like
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  Geof: Why can't we just have community. I live in the land of the myth of the self made rugged individualist, and it's just that, a myth. We quit massacring each other a long time ago. We need some rule of law, at least at the grassroots level.

  52 mins · Like · 1
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  John Redman You recently saw how effective government regulation of nuclear waste dumps plays out, a massive release of plutonium and americanum in New Mexico salt mine. Sure, TRUST the organization that Izzy Stone warned you about (george Carlin, too) if you want but that is an abdication of responsibility.

  52 mins · Edited · Like
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  John Redman When they can get you to asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers. Lenin called them (sheeple) "Useful fools". Are you willing to fit that description? I'm not. I believe in creative nonviolence, not MORE violence (structured violence) to effect change TOWARD individual freedom. Democide - the number 1 cause of early death.

  48 mins · Like
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  John Redman "We quit massacring each other a long time ago". When was that, 2 seconds ago? Is Kelly Thomas ancient history? The Alabama teen who just had his throat sliced to death yesterday? You are believing a myth, alright, The MOST DANGEROUS SUPERSTITION (by Larken Rose - I'll loan you, Jim, my copy if there is not one I do.nated in the library)

  44 mins · Like
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  John Redman "Why can't we just have community."? Do you mean FORCED or willing? If FORCED, welcome to The Gulag, an ideal not shared by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, but maybe you disagree.

  41 mins · Like
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  John Redman Maybe THIS slaughter didn't just happen, either: http://thefreethoughtproject.com/video-surfaces-unarmed.../
  

  
  

  Video Surfaces of Unarmed Man Being Shot in the Back and Killed By Long Beach Police

  thefreethoughtproject.com
  

  April 29, 2014 Long Beach police were pursuing a man fleeing from a Target Store... See More

  29 mins · Like · Remove Preview
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  John Redman No, Geoff, Jim, the massarcre is ongoing and stretched out by daily drone strikes, runoffs in the Mo River from Hanford, the effluent from Fuckishima, the thugscum cops and the hidden deaths from government regulation (that YOU would like to ignore). Democide is widespread and is begging for YOUR genuine opposition - nonviolently. Even shopping in corporately owned stores is an act of violence. Paying taxes is a screaming opposition to the teachings of God. Drivers licenses and registration is obedience to tyranny and defying God at every level. Cowardice is NOT a Godly virtue.

  21 mins · Like
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  Jim:.The recent police murders in New Mexico and California are not massacres because they are not cruel MASS killings. Nowadays, we Americans seem to approve of massacres only overseas, by military personnel and spy agencies. That police should have impunity for this kind of thing is immoral in the extreme. There were probably millions of interactions between police and citizens this year, and I suspect that most of them were both legal and moral, serving a legitimate purpose. This police impunity and cruelty is a rare exception, and it is best dealt with by good laws well applied.

  20 mins · Like

 Jim: It is true the corporate malfeasance is massive. I think it's much more dangerous to most of us than government malfeasance. How do we constrain corporations to behave morally? I'd say we need good laws well enforced.

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  John Redman Oh, good, Jim, GOOD. Weasel words. "There were probably millions of interactions between police and citizens this year, and I suspect that most of them were both legal and moral, serving a legitimate purpose." That is a lie, jim. NONE are moral if cops use force. NONE NONE NONE. It is FAR from "an exception"It is the RULE. You lie to yourself then repeat the lie abroad. George Carlin had your number illustrated in a post I shared yesterday.

  15 mins · Like
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  John Redman DO AWAY with incorporation. Limited Liability, a creation of government called Corporitism-Fascism, is pure sin. Don't JUST blame corporations. Doing so means "Don't look behind the curtain".

  13 mins · Like
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  John Redman "because they are not cruel MASS killings.". I cannot belive that you just wrote this. Consider the aggregate. Count in the people that froze to death this past winter from government interferance in the marketplace, the ones that starved to death because zoning boards (and COPS) closed down church soup kitchens. Look at the totality and tell me It's not MASS killing.

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  John Redman Everything that the state does serves a STATE purpose and moral people will NOT believe otherwise. The state uses force and coercion to effect its purposes and NOTHING else. THAT makes it IMMORAL and nothing else can be constructed from that (except lies). "Well enforced" is an oxymoron. If you want moral outcomes, use strictly moral means which means NONVIOLENCE (NOT an outcome that FCNL favors, the degenerates), Satan, when tempting Jesus, used the SAME arguments. And YOU want to adopt them? Why, for expediency? Doesn't PEACE seem right to you?