We present the self-defeating conundrum of a race that is at odds with Human[e] control.
With self-control.
We are so at odds with our Humanity, that we flee willingly into more and more inhuman[e] forms of control, thinking these “a solution”.
More law-control. More policy-control. More robot-control.
Mistakenly thinking this will “free” us and “save” us.
Our Human[e]ity brings imperfection, folly, and mistake. But it also brings things no inhuman[e] control-system can.
Love. Compassion. Consideration. Creativity. Trust. Mercy.
We are so enamored with external inhuman control (vs internal Human self-control), we race and atrophy daily into a more and more inhuman[e] species . . .
. . . and think ourselves wise for it.
© 2026 – SoulSequel
21 responses to “The Human[e] Factor”
Since there is a diversity of morals out there in the world, it feels more secure to have laws and consequences that apply to all people. Example: It would be that anyone would like to take a car, anytime they like. I may be able to control my own self from stealing cars, but the rest of the population could and would steal my car and everyone’s car. I am happy that there are laws against car theft and there are consequences for car theft. In the same way, I appreciate all of the laws that society has had to install. It gives society an order. Law and Order. A lawless people would run amok and life would have few securities if you had to live it always on alert, with danger at all hours of the day.
@ladybarbara
I understand and accept the (current?) need for external controls.
Just not the addiction to them as an easy excuse for letting our own personal or collective (social) self-control to continue to atrophy.
Even while multiplying those external controls and thinking it either wise, or inevitable to fall more and more under their control — and less and less in control of ourselves.
@griz Still, we each have a choice to obey the laws, or disobey, get caught and pay the consequences. Just because there are laws does not mean that we can be unthinking and pretending to be without choice.
@ladybarbara
Agreed.
But pull together all of the threads I introduced in this post.
External control is necessary when internal control proves insufficient. In the presence of Freedom we need to have some limiters on our lower animal behaviors.
But we’ve ground society into a rut of dependency on these outside limiters, in lieu of exercising and developing personal internal control. In lieu of growing up. Development isn’t just arrested, it’s backsliding.
The limits that were meant to bolster freedom, become controlling addictions.
Rather than train people up into fully realized adults prepared to ponder wise decisions and accept the consequences of their actions as a function of growth, we rely on laws and policies (or lack thereof) to do our moral thinking for us — keeping us as a society of infants, making decisions based only on what feels best in the moment.
And this makes us more and more in need of more and more controls and limiters. (Which we then balk at as an effrontery to our feedom)
Even unto allowing a phone robot to limit our access to a real human!
It’s far easier to heard the dumb animals, than give them a chance to exercise their moral smarts.
The trend is moving in the wrong way, to somewhere we will not like. So how do we get it moving in the right way?
@griz Love —- When you love other people you treat them right and you have respect for them and their property. You respect their life and safety, as well. If everyone loved all humanity around them there would not need to be so many laws.
On the other end of the spectrum, I have been to San Quentin State Prison’s Death Row and interviewed the upper numbered cells on the rows from #50 to #110 — where the “Worst of the Worst” is housed. One thing I noticed about the worst of them is a lack of thinking of others as human beings. They refer to others as “It”. Their victims were only “things” and referred to as”It” — ie: “It screamed and I had to shut it up!” There is a lack of compassion in the personality and no regard for any other person. That is the level where there is complete lawlessness.
“It floats!!!”
@ladybarbara
This worst of the worst mindset you describe sounds similar to how most solitary animals act. Herd animals, and those that mate for life take this up a notch.
And humans are capable of taking it up even farther. Everyone is born with this ability. Proper nurturing brings it out.
And effective restoration can redeem even “the hardened”.
But I shake my head at the effort and expense taken to house the end product, compared to effective efforts made to keep things from going this far.
Society’s “soft and lazy” approach doesn’t seem to be working. Neither do slick applications of legalese (letter-of-the-law worship) that remove accountability for those who can afford it.
So is this something that “someone else” needs to be protested into fixing; or elected to fix from the top down? Or do we all need to engage the system that is in need of fixing from the bottom up?
@griz Perhaps from the bottom up, but I won’t look for it in my lifetime. People being people. I think of the childhoods of Larry Bittaker, or Richard Ramirez with poor but loving parents and raised in what would be an average Los Angeles home. Or Douglas Clark raised as a typical Navy Brat and educated in Europe (Geneva) , even finished his education in Culver Military Academy, then the US Air force, and a world traveler. He couldn’t have had a more loving and cultured setting to grow up in. Yet, there they sat on Death Row — Larry Pliers Bittaker, who tortured women to death slowly with pliers, while he recorded their screams. Richard Ramirez the “Night Stalker” raping and killing. Douglas Clark “The Sunset Killer”. Well, with Douglas, there is so much doubt about his guilt that the Judges are not signing his execution papers and he sits on Death Row for 37 years. Even their parents were confused and wondering what they did wrong. Richard died of a diet of fried chicken, pizza, buttered popcorn, and Capichino coffee five days a week. His liver and heart failed him. What switch tripped and created killers out of kids with normal to entitled childhoods?
@ladybarbara
Proper upbringing is part of it. But so too is personal choice. Children raised in Godly families tend to have more choices then those raised without such influence. (Recognising the huge difference between a Godly upbringing and just a religious upbringing).
Another key factor in the equation is the nature of sin as described in the Bible. Ungodly choices that one seems to get away with embolden more and more forays into ungodly behavior. And then overtime a pattern is set (a rut) that one becomes trapped in, careening more and more out of control.
The parents of such convicts you mention do need to do some serious soul-searching. But if they are at peace before God, knowing that the upbringing they provided was Godly, they should then recognize it as a function of adult choice and the ensnaring nature of sin.
A person with the best and brightest upbringing can still choose to walk a path unto Darkness. And a child born into a darker situation than either of us could imagine can still choose to walk a path unto Light.
(And I would assert that they would have Supernatural assist in this, for that is the nature of The Light)
I have lived in lawless times, where brutality, cruelty, chaos and violence was common place. When the rule of mankind was meted out by tyrants and barbarians. Mans inhumanity to man occurred on a daily basis…but ever present, was the desire of men to be free. That desire is the fire that stirs mens souls.
Not much has changed in 258000 plus years; the flame still burns though sometimes only as an ember, yet it remains.
Man was not born to be a slave, he was born to be free, and his freedom is a God given birthright. But with freedom comes responsibility, to family and community. Therefor when men join together to form a community, a society is born and common beliefs and customs dictate the necessity for laws to be enacted, practiced, and enforced for the security and prosperity of that society. A society must have Justice and Order if it is to survive in a violent and brutal world, but it must be The Rule of Law and NOT the rule of men that binds together a social order. Laws must be firm and apply equally for all high and low otherwise there is no justice.
@immortal_pirate
With so many people indicted or convicted of crime, can we rightfully say modern times are any more lawful?
This is less a post about law and justice as about a society that has actively discouraged self control (maturity) in its citizens.
I think this ties into the very startling realization than most people seem to mistakenly believe freedom is something very juvenile: either the absence of accountability, or a dissociative isolationism from the greater whole.
The mindset of, ” I’ll take my rights and freedoms over here in the corner and play with them myself” — and squawking if anyone tries to take your toys.
And the society granting those rights and freedoms becomes like a car nobody bothers to refuel or do routine maintenance on.
And when it stops working they get out to protest that someone should do something about this terrible situation!
@griz Life would be so much nicer if people practiced and adhered to self control, but I could shit in one hand and wish in the other and see which hand fills up first…lol
@immortal_pirate
With God’s assist I’ve been able to move one of the more immovable objects in creation just with my mind.
My own stubborn ass!
And I don’t rule out the possibility of telekinesis. Though I question the merits of shit-o-kinesis; and wonder how much mind-sanitizer one would need afterwards!
Those learning to reach for something higher need to stay in the game and encourage today’s children to exceed them in this noble endeavor.
This thread has seemed to focus on the need for law, versus, what I think is the broader point. We are relying on external influences to shape what should be something that flows from the inside out.
Today it’s a law, tomorrow it’s a wall. Mental controls progressing to physical. What’s next, the genocide “solution” as evidenced time and again when an idiot leader has a whim for a final solution?
Weak minded leads to easily manipulated. Your word atrophy is accurate. It used to be the “job” of religion to encourage thoughtful consideration from inside and Jesus, when talking about the then commandments, made it clear that it is not about obeying the law, but internally not needing them.
@spitfire3dc
That is exactly the focus of this thread.
If we administered our freedom wisely the need for laws and enforcement would be greatly reduced. Internal control would lessen the need for external control.
But we as a society I have grown very lazy on our internal control, begging for more and more external controls. (And then the cry to make them “nicer”; because everyone has some excuse or another for not being in proper control of themselves — GMAB!)
We become reliant and addicted to laws to do our moral thinking for us, believing this is okay normal wise or just inevitable.
And from this cancerous mindset, comes our willing acceptance of other forms of inhuman control over us: things like policies in phone robots that become our masters rather than our servants.
Which then brings us back to crying that our freedoms are under attack! A perfect circle is formed which then tightens like a noose around us.
And all because we as a society have discouraged self control of the individual.
@griz I kinda think it is inevitable.
we are slowly becoming a much managed species in much the same way, people from Third World Countries rely on First World to belly up to the bar and contribute support.
What has happened to them will happen more broadly based on your supposition that reliance become problematic.
Look at Africa, Thousands of years old culturally, but very little progress in self sufficiency…and with one of the greatest civilization (Egypt) to ever exist falling with the continent itself. South Africa would probably still be in the stone age if not for a culture stepping in that was steeped in developing progressively. Unfortunately Apartheid as a problem in itself. Nothing to add there, but it does speak loudly in other countries where the European influence wasn’t present.
I think even over here, the lack of struggle to survive in the literal sense in overcoming the elements is influencing us to take on a laissez-faire attitude on practically everything.
Can you image a kid today pulling out a paper map and trying to figure out a route to get to point B? Plug the addy into GPS and be managed by a system to get you there. No brainpower required and just wait til self driving cars are the norm. Picture this. 4 people sitting in a car driving them to a restaurant. All of them texting others not along for the ride. Get to restaurant…its just more of the same. Saw the restaurant scenario last night at a table next to us…but maybe they were actually texting each other because they forgot how to talk??
@spitfire3dc
We see the problem and recognize it is inevitable . . . but few realize what makes it inevitable.
It is the age-old struggle between flesh (feelings, instincts, the lower animal nature), and the spirit (our higher nature, made in God’s image).
And if our primary Reliance is first and foremost upon the ultimate epitome of that highest nature (God), all other forms of reliance dependency and addiction, must submit: whether they are of physical substance or of mindset.
“You shall have no other gods before me”
We fancy ourselves wise and advanced. Yet cultures tens of thousands of years our Junior came up with this profound wisdom for keeping life on track.
Or was it God; speaking a wisdom true through the Ages to a primitive culture — and making sure it was written down and preserved?
If God is “first” in our lives, nothing else can Master us or runaway with us: save we allow it.
Anything else as “first” will in time Master us, deceived us, enslave us, control us, and run away with us.
Welcome to the modern world, built in the image of just us.
On a side note, it would be really nice to get together with you again, perhaps over the Christmas break. I miss texting across the table at you!
@griz I’ll look forward to connecting, Things should settle in here for the winter. Heading to cabin today to (mostly) shut ‘er down til the Spring.
Ever wonder why it’s called a race?
… first one to omnipotence wins.
Most if not all of you don’t even…
… me neither.
@luftballooneyegouge
Wrong race, wrong prize.
All-Powerful without wisdom and love = The Destroyer.
@griz
Wisdom and Love ARE Power!
@luftballooneyegouge
Yet power can exist without wisdom and love.