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Please read the blog entry "The Priority System" from Wed. June 13th, 2018 to prepare for participating in this discussion.

Find all of the blog entries here: Fantasy-Words Blog

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For your convenience this is a copy of the blog entry "The Priority System"

In my previous entries I have talked about the difference between good intentions and good results and I have pointed out the absolute necessity to take responsibility for alleged good intentions and alleged good deeds. If this does not happen good intentions turn into the paving stones on the road to hell. With this entry, which is bound to lead to a lot of knee-jerk reactions from the want-to-be do-gooders, I will further postulate that in order to actually improve the world, just like in raising children, one needs to lead by example. However, it sets a bad example if you put yourself above other cultures and peoples and aim to turn yourself into the “great saviour” of the world. We, the great Western Nations in Europe and North America will save these poor, underprivileged nations in Africa and the Middle East. Aside from this being a very racist approach toward aid, it is also one that cannot but fail in the end, regardless of how many starving children get saved. Aid must come from the inside out. Like with anything else you must learn to walk before you start running so to speak. To actually change the world you must set your priorities and you must work your way outward from the 1st priority.
What is the 1st priority?
The 1st priority is you! Is this selfish? To some extent it is. But the closest person on earth to you is you. If you want to help others do-good and change the world, your first priority has to be to ensure that you yourself are doing well and want for nothing. Once you accomplished this you can start helping others, and more importantly you will be in a position from whence you can take full responsibility for the aid you provide.
After your own position on earth is secure, you can start thinking of making the lives of others worth living, as much as you enjoy yourself. But do not get ahead of yourself; no, also the 2nd priority is not helping children from people you don’t even know! After food and shelter to ensure basic survival, what is the one thing every living human craves? It is companionship. No one wants to be alone. In fact it has been proven that people without a loving partner tend to die sooner than those in happy relationships.
So what has to be your 2nd priority?
Your 2nd priority is your spouse, the one person in life whom you would gladly give your own life for. Therefore after you yourself do well and want for nothing, the next step is to ensure that your spouse does as well and also wants for nothing.
As you work outward through the priorities, know your limits. You cannot take responsibility of you are operating beyond your own means. So while, children in Africa may suffer from a bad fate, unless you are so successful with the 1st priority that you are a multi-millionaire, you will not be in any position to change the world for them by getting your own “feel-good-moment” when you pay your monthly € 5.-. This is wasted money! If any of it even gets to where it is supposed to go it will not change anything, let alone make the world a better place. At best it gives parents there a false sense of security that their children will (always-) be taken care of by someone else.
Work through the priorities and go as far as you can without compromising on any of the previous priorities. Perhaps then as a group you can take the next step? Together with your spouse you can take care of your children; Together with your children you can take care of your family. Together with your family you can take care of your extended family etc.

1. You yourself
2. Your spouse
3. Your children
4. Your immediate family (parents, siblings, grandparents)
5. Your spouse’s immediate family
6. Your extended family (aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins etc.)
7. Your spouse’s extended family
8. Your neighbourhood (help your neighbors, help the beggar on the street corner, collect/spend for community projects, and make your neighborhood a worthwhile place to live!)
9. Your township, district or city; if you are doing so well that you can start helping people you don’t even know, help people in your own city before you help people in the neighboring city!
10. Your province or state (more precisely less fortunate people in your province or state)
11. Your country
12. Neighboring countries (to have good relations and secure local peace)
13. Other allied countries
14. Other friendly countries (countries with good relations to yours even if not allied)
15. Other neutral countries (countries who are neither good friends nor hostile toward your country)
16. Hostile countries (try and improve relations while you offer aid)

Goody-two-shoes will now complain that these priorities are selfish and racist and won’t change the world. Is it really selfish to look after your own good first? Is it selfish if you make sure that you do not need to rely on tax money so that you can get welfare for your own survival? Look after yourself 1st! It is selfish only if you do not factor in the need for someone else to pay for you if you don’t! Is it racist? Did I anywhere say that your spouse had to be of the same ethnicity as you are? Did I say your neighborhood or the population of your country had to be limited to a specific ethnic type? If you think these priorities are racist you are the one with a problem, not I.
These priorities are neither selfish, nor racist! What they are is common sense.
If you ensure your own wellbeing, you free your spouse from taking care of you. If you ensure the wellbeing of your own children you free your family from having to take care of them. If your and your spouse’s extended families are all being taken care of, the welfare office won’t have to! If your own neighborhood is being taken care of and does not have beggars or street kids, the state won’t have to spend money to take care of them. If your whole state or province is doing well the federal government won’t have to spend billions fixing your neighborhood!
If you want to change the world live by example, show that you can take care of yourself, no one else is needed, turn your family into a “model” self-sufficient family; turn your neighborhood into paradise etc.
Only once every one learns to do this, will the world change to the better in the long run. Do not create dependencies, by taking responsibility for the children of complete strangers at the other end of the world, before you haven’t made sure that your own surroundings do not have any people in need! Create paradise around you, before you try and bring it to someone else. And if you do carry it further, make sure you keep remembering your own means and your own limits and take responsibility for the alleged good you want to do! It is not up to you to save the world.