#ICYMI New Year’s resolutions that don’t plan for failure will fail

I originally wrote this piece on January 8, 2019 about forgetting to make New Year’s resolutions. Here it is with minor changes and updates for before the commencement of 2020!

Here’s the key point: if your resolution doesn’t have failure built into the plan then you will probably fail to keep the resolution.

Some people make New Year’s resolutions and others don’t. Some forget their New Year’s resolutions before February comes. Some realize two weeks into January that they forgot to make any resolutions and feel they missed an opportunity.

The Anti-Dominion Mandate

[This was originally posted at Townhall Finance.]

Star Parker recently wrote that “Marriage and Family Reduce Crime.” According to Parker,

There’s a general assumption in public policy discourse that economic policy and social policy are separate universes.
When economic policy is the topic, we think about taxes, government spending, business, jobs, etc. When social policy is the topic, we think about marriage, family, children, abortion, etc.
But, in reality, the line between economic policy and social policy is ambiguous, if it exists at all.

She cites a study that suggests that pregnancy is an amazingly effective intervention reducing the parents’ propensity for criminal behavior.

Other studies have shown similar correlations. And some have pushed back against such studies. A couple of years ago, The Federalist published an essay, “Why It’s Cruel and Stupid to Politicize Marriage and Hard Work as ‘Racism.’”

Homestead Yourself

[Originally posted at TownHall Finance.]

Some Libertarians like to talk about how each person is a “self-owner” and then derive political (or anti-political) conclusions.

I don’t agree with that method of deriving political ethics, but the model of self-ownership can be useful. Consider another piece of Libertarian theory: homesteading. The idea is that a territory becomes your personal property once you “mix your labor” with it. When you have transformed a field by working it, then anyone who tries to take over that field is a robber violating your rights.

New Podcast: Who Is Proverbs Written For?

Spoiler: Everyone, but especially to young men.

Uri Brito recently interviewed me for the Kuyperian Commentary podcast.

Here it is:

Be a Wise and Unified Ruler of Your Self, Your Life

When a land transgresses, it has many rulers,
but with a man of understanding and knowledge,
its stability will long continue.

via Passage: Proverbs 28:2 (ESV Bible Online).

As I’ve mentioned before (most recently, I think, here), Proverbs is written to a prince–a young man who is going to inherit a kingdom. But Proverbs obviously is written to everyone. It seems that, in an important sense, we are all kings called to rule over responsibilities, most basically over our selves.

With that in mind, Proverbs 28:2 applies not only to a land but to a person.

Stray Thoughts on Hezekiah & Solomon

My forthcoming book is not a commentary on Proverbs so it doesn’t address all the questions I have about the book. It addresses nine major lessons that Solomon says we should learn.

But there is a lot more to explore about Proverbs.

The Illusion of the Pyramid Society

The “pyramid society” is a well known concept–the architectural analogy for the totalitarian state managing all of society and making it function better than it ever could without such a controlling political authority. The few at the top guide the rest beneath them.

But the power of the image relies on a hidden reversal of reality. The pyramid is supposed to represent a stable society in which the top directs the rest.

Do Socialist and Capitalist Students Behave Differently?

Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man; he who loves wine and oil will not be rich.
Proverbs 21:17 (ESV)

Before Facebook and Twitter, you had to go to a public venue to get in ideological fights to affirm your moral superiority over others. At my Christian college, in the 80s, we had arguments on a bulletin board—literally. It was located in the campus center basement and we tacked notes onto it to express opinions and start fights.

Psalm 2 Tells All Us Kings to Be Wise

Awhile back I mentioned some connections between Psalms and Proverbs. One of them was that Psalm 1 and 2, in addition to being an introduction to the whole Psalter, also works as an introduction to Proverbs.

If you read Psalm 1 and Proverbs, it is obvious what I mean. The two ways of Psalm 1 are described repeatedly in Proverbs. While Psalm 1 doesn’t mention folly versus wisdom, Proverbs includes plenty of contrasts between the righteous and the wicked.

A Better Theme Verse for Proverbs

A book of the Bible doesn’t have to have a verse or verses that announce the theme. But, if Proverbs has one, usually people appeal to at least the first two verses in this passage in chapter 3:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
Be not wise in your own eyes;
fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.
It will be healing to your flesh
and refreshment to your bones.
Proverbs 3:5–8; ESV