Joseph & The Power of One

 by Joe Siano

Some fifty years back the Midwestern country-rock band, Mason Profit, released their most successful recording, Two Hangmen recounts the familiar lament of how truth tellers must be silenced.

This time-honored tradition stretches back to Socrates drinking hemlock in 399 BC and Joseph, son of Jacob four hundred years before that.

As I rode into Tombstone on my horse, his name was Mack

I saw what I'll relate to you, going on behind my back

It seems the folks were up-in-arms, a man now had to die

For believing things that didn't fit, the laws they'd set aside

The man, his name was "I'm a Freak". the best that could see

He was the executioner, a hangman just like me

I guess that he'd seen loopholes from working with his rope

He'd hung the wrong man many times, so now he turned to hope

He talked to all the people from his scaffold in the square

He told them of the things he found, but they didn't seem to care

He said the laws were obsolete, a change they should demand

But the people only walked away, he couldn't understand

The marshal's name was "Uncle Sam", he said he'd right this wrong

He'd make the hangman shut his mouth, if it took him all day long

He finally arrested Freak, and then he sent for me

To hang a fellow hangman, from a fellow hangman’s tree

It didn't take them long to try him in their court of law

He was guilty then of "Thinking", a crime much worse than all

They sentenced him to die, so his seed of thought can't spread

And infect the little children, that's what the law had said

So the hangin' day came 'round, and he walked up to the noose

I pulled the lever, but before he fell I cut him loose

They called it a conspiracy, and that I had to die

So to close our mouths and kill our minds, they hung us side-by-side

And now we're two hangmen, hangin' from a tree

That don't bother me, at all

Two hangmen, hangin' from a tree

That don't bother me, at all

Joseph was a dreamer, whose pronouncements stirred hatred and resentment against him among his brothers.  Joseph’s brothers tried to kill him by throwing down a well.  At the last moment, they latched on an opportunity to make a buck while disposing of him by selling him to slave traders bound for Egypt. 

Joseph’s insights propelled him from slave and prisoner to the heights of wealth and power in Egypt.  His foresight saved the kingdom from famine. Best of all, Joseph’s brothers stood chastened before him when, in his mercy and forgiveness, he rescued them and their families from starvation.

So many prophets never live to see such vindication.  Many face the gallows or the firing squad.  However, when a martyr dies, his or her legacy often blossoms. 

Thus, the high priests of cancel culture may spare the body but seek to destroy reputations and assonate character.   This is a short list of the thinkers, entrepreneurs, explorers, risk takers and artists to which we owe the most bountiful and just civilization this world has ever known.

There is no perfect man among them.  Yet the saints of wokism have condemned them and their contributions to liberty, prosperity and enlightened thought to the dustbin of history because they are part of the sinister "White Male Patriarchy".

I stand with these gentlemen – warts, sins and all.  I challenge the Marxist left to compile a list that has contributed a tiny fraction that these guys have to the cause of human progress and freedom.

They can’t because Progressivism has nothing to do with progress.  Their agenda is entirely one of grievance, blame and destruction.  They have no clue as to how to sustain, yet alone improve upon, the material, political and moral edifice that is Western civilization.  

Unlike Joseph the Dreamer, the spirit of forgiveness is not upon them. They refuse to acknowledge the contributions of these benefactors and wish only to condemn them in the court of mass opinion for transgressions of  ever-changing Marxist political correctness.

The heroes of modern Western Culture exemplify the power of one individual, like Joseph, to make a positive difference for millions of others. 

Ask yourself, can I forgive the transgressions of other imperfect humans who may have somehow offended me while otherwise doing great good?  How can I, in my own unique way, make the world a freer, more peaceful and prosperous place?

Think of St Theresa and the Little Way.  Start with your home, your family, your workplace, your community.  With love and positivity, use the power of one to make a difference.

Related Articles:

Bloodless Sacrifice

The Scarecrow, The Tin Man and Socialism

 

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"Half the people are stoned and the other half are waiting for the next election.
Half the people are drowned and the other half are swimming in the wrong direction." 
- Paul Simon