Politics solve nothing......

It’s been a while since I have written anything, but I figured I’d reflect on something that I’ve been discerning my whole life, do politics truly solve problems? Or do they only create more divisions? As a person who has been registered as an independent my entire life, before my religious awakening, and before I really ever paid attention to the world around, I always questioned do politics really solve anything? My blunt answer is no, and from my personal experienced I’d like to share my perspective of how you and I individually are the solutions we seek, not political behavior of any sort which will eventually compromise who you are morally speaking due to the need of votes to make an agenda happen. No matter what side of the aisle you’re on, it’s always a deal with the devil, which is compromise. On a social level this is a great thing, but on a moral level we should never compromise what is right and good truth.

To begin as I often do, I like to reference my past work history. After managing 33 stores and successfully turning 31 of these struggling businesses around, I often saw a pattern. People were unwilling to be honest about the failures and short comings that led to the business failing. Often I would experience friction with my superiors, because they would often turn a blind eye to a problem until it came to a tipping point. One such moment was a model manager that said all the right things because he had a military, but was later found to have embezzled at least $40,000 dollars from 1 store in one year. Shortly after that, they asked the not so politically correct New Yorker to go in and fix the store that had fallen into trouble.

There were plenty of times in my past that I could’ve been more uplifting in my critiques, but without my faith then, I didn’t really understand treating others as I wished to be treated, consistently. I just picked and choose when it was convenient as our world often does today, while stepping on people that got in my way. This is often the trouble with our politics however, if they align with our agenda we sign them up into the political machine and make them echo all the catch phrases without much thought. Very quickly we stop listening to each other as we hear the same old tiresome stuff echoed. This is what led me to a radical change these past 6 months from Advent to Lent, Christmas to Easter.

After becoming so bored to the point that everything in our current world is politicized, I decided to stop consuming all my political podcasts during the Advent season (season to prepare for the Christmas season). It was liberating, despite the knowledge I enjoy learning from them. Then I decided to raise the bar during Lent (the preparation season for Easter). I refused to click on any news website, whether it was sports or general news, with the exceptions of momentous moments which only happened maybe 3 times. I simply let go and let God deal with things, only focusing on the people that were immediately in front of me.

I have learned this is not only a great way to build a business, but simply to live life. In no way am I promoting nihilism. This is the greatest fallacy of our time, a lack of true moral conviction. What I am saying is lead by example, stop trying to change others, change yourself, and if you are truly doing something that is of light and good, it will attract others and cast away darkness. I’m not afraid to discuss the toughest of topics from an orthodox Catholic perspective, or from an American entrepreneurial perspective that takes issue with American greed, but loves his country and appreciates capitalism. However I have come to the conclusion I can never put my hopes in any politician, it’s the greatest false hope, since politics reflect the culture. You can only trust God and the abilities he’s given you. The saints have taught this to me very clearly in each of their lives, how they overcame obstacles through their faith to better the world around them, and eventually inspire the whole Church.

In close this brings me to the highlight of what inspired this article. Two local burger kings closed in my area. It’s the epitome of having their priorities in the wrong place as a whole. While their corporate offices do not control these locations, I noticed after research that not only did these 2 locations close in my area, but they are shutting down 27 of them total in this specific restaurant group. Since moving to my town of Herndon the Burger King there has never had a properly functioning sign, the wind must’ve blown it out and it’s been sitting in the kids play area ever since. The one time I went to their drive through as well it wasn’t a memorable experience and I hadn’t returned since.

I say this because instead of focusing on their operations, just like humans fail to focus on their individual lives, the company as a whole decided to focus on politics and make that their brand. In the end this was just another hole in an already sinking ship. The politics they tried to play should’ve appeased the local audience in these towns since they sympathize with that ideology but in reality people don’t really care about these things when they purchase products, they simply want to experience good people, good product and good service. Burger Kings everywhere have been failing at for multiple years. I loved their burger, never their service. It’s why Chic fil a despite all the negative press they get at times continues to have lines around the corner, they simple focus on running a business the right way and the results show as they continue to adapt and evolve.

This is a microcosm of our society, branding divisions in the name of click bait, donations or whatever. There’s good in the world, please don’t let me sound too pessimistic, this is simply a critique on a never ending human problem. It’s why many in Jesus' time didn’t understand God was physically in their midst, because they were looking for a political messiah to institute a worldly kingdom, they missed the heavenly presence in front of them. It’s why we struggle still today for thy will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, we keep following mans divisive ways, instead of Jesus’ unifying ways which were instituted on the night of the Last Supper, aka the Eucharist. It’s the great prayer of Thanksgiving and unity that bond’s God’s people together by putting our puts our egos to the side and come together as One Holy Apostolic Church (Family) as Jesus prays for in John 17. I am living proof of this and simply try to reflect this through coffee offering the many traditions I respect, while getting to understand each other throw thanksgiving of a good cup of coffee.

My dead car being towed by a forklift. This is the result of bad advice from a mechanic. If I trusted the manufacture (the creator) this would’ve never happened since I had 140k miles and no issues. However when I went against what I normally do, which helps my car to run to perfection, I found myself essentially broke down and having to start over. This can be a metaphor of life, we sin and do wrong we’ll eventually break down. The key is get right back up and learn from your mistakes and start over.