Providence Denied

At the moment it is a lack of knowledge and ineptitude that illustrate our paragon. In an honest conversation we would hear words like betrayal, fraud and incompetence forming the explanations to our dilemmas ... To not to have real-world explanations here leaves gaps in our understanding of events when practical tools are needed. Ethics however, offers us a process for growth through the practice of a simple but intelligent philosophy. Thus "Reasonable and fair" is not a barren process but provides us a place where facts and reality; myths and magic can meet and the paradigm is balanced. I understand this because I witness events not as we wish them to be but the way they are. It is a potent view that awards A Potential Enterprise

Providence

      There are many stories about people with expertise who are sent into conflicting situations to “settle” them. We label these individuals; consultants or advisors and their tasks often resonate adventure and risk. I’m sent into those same places … and my job is to see if peace and conciliation is possible. And if it is not … then to limit the collateral that is exposed to those who follow. I come only with options that are ethical which narrows the model to its most basic themes compared to the other trackers more severe errands. As my quest is ethical, it benefits the promise of peace and reconciliation and rightly reflects so upon the campaign itself. However, principled intentions notwithstanding, the campaigns toll on this peacemaker is less inspired. 

      It's 2021 and I’ve been back in the U.S. for almost a year due to an obscure circumstance that required I leave my wife in South Africa and come home. You can blame it on politics or money but it made sense at this time to have me and what I do back on home soil ... and that from several spheres. I will never forget the tears flowing like water from her eyes knowing that we might never see each other again. Worse on the nineteen-hour flight over the Atlantic, in the cabins dim lights, knowing that at that very moment they were preparing to terminate her as the culprits repeatedly said they would when she was out of earshot (This was absolutely not the positioning of authorities there as I experienced only great hospitality from them and also the populace). Know that my wife was crucial through some of my largest campaigns and our times were often trying. I, with her support and assist, navigated through campaigns with the players on all sides sometimes deeply entrenched between culture, myth and modernity as they competed for such material spoils and power. Those arduous assignments were memorable occasions however as we benefited many events, lives and property to be sure.

      I would do a lot of campaigning for her when I got back to the U.S. ... and as we may never see each other again, I can report that she is alive and healthy in Cape Town, South Africa (And I am grateful to those responsible for her well-being).

      As so, it is a difficult place where I find myself now, two years later immersed in yet another campaign. The point is, I don’t know how much more effective my efforts can be; how much further they can go if individuals cannot be dissuaded from meaningless dialogue and its inspired behavior.

Consequences vs Results

      Have you ever done something really bad and knew that its consequences would come back to knock at your door? And when they did, they were so terrible that you said you’d do anything to escape them … anything?

      I’m not talking about the time you were a kid and broke something around the house or when you went to the store and found that you’d lost the change on the way home. I’m talking about something really bad …, like you set the neighbors house on fire or you caused a serious automobile accident and you were right then facing some really severe consequences. What would you do?

      Let's say a purge was advancing that would hold you and your group accountable for past deeds (not unike what the Catholic Church is experiencing) ... Could that fear loom large enough for you to inflict upon innocent people something like modern day slavery or human trafficking as a destraction or a coverup? Could that fear be great enough for you to lie and cheat and even start a conflict of consequence jeopardizing the future of your group, forever ... just to put off what is inevitable for only you or a few? I might add, to their credit, that there are some individuals and groups including the Catholic Church who are owning up to their misdeeds and facing the consequences.

      I referenced slavery and human trafficking above because it represents a very severe distraction. First know that there are several steps that lead to slavery. However that is so, know that the step following, ... its final step is genocide. I bring this to my brother’s and sister’s attention particularly because unbeknownst to many, it is at our doorstep. We may label slavery, “modern day slavery” that has elevated into "human trafficking" so we might as well label what follows “human trafficking” as “modern day genocide”. Some of us may even be familiar with several variations of the model which include the potential cultivation and marketing of human organs (I address these possibilities in my book Potent Enterprise), but modern human trafficking is here and I caution you.

      The events of thirty somewhat years have given me a lot to write about and I often refer to those years as an “my ethical adventure”. This adventure, birthed of my mission and an oath many years ago “premised” in part that observers would find my offerings significant and useful. However, they might only understand now what should have been made clear to them long ago and so I am unwavering before the distress and futility I witness; the suffering from the deceits of others and our own … hope's anticlimax and the lies pointing to a questionable future. I'm surprised at my own resolution having labored at this for thirty-nine years, seven of which were training and preparation, for what is looking to become an “endless endeavor” ... Then I think that perhaps optimisim is not a choice. Contributing to my resolve, are those who say one thing while the facts point elsewhere vexing (our) events as blundering and not having direction ... It is a framework we want to avoid. Our historical layers need to correspond ...

      Though I endure … I find that I have been robbed of the credit and honor tendered by my many endeavors where credit and honor are not small accomplishments and are my only resources left ... Consider that I have physically engaged violent terrorists … though I have been threatened and harmed more seriously by our “homegrown” ... I have learned to recognize the methods of blood merchants, the dynamics of their “factory setups”; "a turn" and how it is commonly done in our midst; the precepts to insurgency ... insurgency itself and the smell of gun oil under the culprits fingernails a mile away. Literally missing death in split moments (previously and once or twice with my wife!), I couldn't miss being tortured however ... in the inner-cities and other sanctums while breaking their codes. I’ve had to exhibit patience and mettle in desperate and overwhelming circumstances; fight with my wits, a depleted brawn; broken muscles, vessels, bone and skin … to keep my mind fair and objective to the goal (Imagine that this is all true and would make for an interesting adventure series).
      
      Fortunately in most cases, these events are regional and one of my requirements is that I keep it so. But unfortunately for my legacy and my fortune I realize similarities to my story in movies, books, advertising campaigns and other venues. The movie starring Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg entitled "The Departed" is strikingly similar in theme to my journey and represents only one venue (It is one of several - there are other action series that follow a similar thesis).
 
      However, although "The Departed" is adventure filled it is fiction and DiCaprio's, Billy Costigan as a deep cover operative succumbs to an untimely demise. His was a short adventure where mines is a true story ... looking at forty years and covering several continents and entities. I hope my fate isn't similar to a movie script ..., especially as I have depleted my own resources (three homes, land, two careers, two marriages and more) so that all credit and recognition for my real life situations benefit denial and deception … destroying a million successes and fortunes for the fortunes of a very few ... that flush shallow in one or two small fake claims. Thirty-nine years is a long time for my earnest, labor and risk intensive quest to suffer these misdeeds.
 
      Current events suggest that we've conquered our silence somewhat though the "Black Lives Matter" movement with its residue giving to other campaigns. But conquering our silence is not the equation whole and the result is incomplete. There is no common consensus (Angela Davis' phrase) to be expanded into a more inclusive (even a more worldly) model, telling us that there is much work to do. Democracy is high maintenance and dependent upon the public conscience. And a reflection of that conscience are the freedoms of religion, race, nationality, gender; basic human rights and much more. Democracy also depends on that particular thread running through it that ignites those freedoms and balances them in relation to nature and the universe. That thread is called ethics and it's guidance relies on facts along with our faith and our willingness to stand up for them. Further, ethics was/is the heart of this great republic ... rock solid and waiting as time, our awareness and conscience allow us to incorporate it more fully into our living. 

      Ethical principles are simple, innate, ancient and accessable and we are not the only ones privilaged to their report; think to Socrates and Kant; the explanations and revelations from our great books on faith; our constitutions; many of our leaders thoughout history who were men and women of honor and conscience; countless innovators and inventors and many more. It has come for us to join this genius and bring it to fruition. Believe with all you know ... with your best intuition and intellect that an ethical society is destined and that a method for it exists ... And that it will come or our history and centuries of struggle will have been for naught. 

      At the end of one of my earlier campaigns some young men who had found themselves on the wrong side of events were standing on the street near my house and called out as I was leaving; "It's ok ..., no one will believe you!" I hope those words will not chronicle mines and the efforts of others that seek to benefit so many ... Thirty years to the present, my best advice is - pay attention; pay me for forty years of work (I sold all of my properties every dollar of which went to finance the forty years of campaigns I was asked on ...), then roll up your sleeves. It's about ethics.

Leslie T. Lox, author and principal of The Potential Enterprise Company also on leslielox.com

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Providence Denied