Ambassador College - Envoy Yearbook (Big Sandy, TX)

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Governments The nation and the world are fraught with troubles — evils seemingly past human remedy. World leaders are alarmed! URVIVAL is now our No. 1 problem! ey: leaders of this world are certainly not without responsibility for the precarious position in which we find ourselves. Where has government gone wrong? We need government. The alternative would be anarchy. Some world leaders have said humanity’s only hopelies in a single world governmentwith only one military force. Yetin the same breath they admit the impossibility of man to produce it. But what can statesmen and politicians contribute to the solution of present escalating problems? Today, as of old, too many who run the governments of this world still promise grand solutions. They usually pose as public benefactors, while primarily fulfilling their own ambitions for power and personal glory. The governments of this world promise peace — but too often bring wars! Our politicians have grown up in a world addicted to the way of ‘‘get.’’ They are motivated by self-centeredness, vanity, envy, covetousness and hostility. Although some few heads of state sincerely seek peace and the betterment of their peoples, the majority are fully indoctrinated into a system which caters to self-gratification first. The political merry-go-round revolves on the motivation of people trying to get from government, with politicians pandering to the whims of the people in order to retain or get power! When will it stop? Can we reverse the process? The fundamental problem with govern- ment is that our politicians are not taught and do not practice the way of ‘‘give,’’ of outflowing love and concern for the well-being of others first. Business and industry offer an entirely new spectrum of achievement in modern civilization. Do the giant business conglom- erates and corporations offer any real hope to the world? After all, where would we be without money?

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W Business and Industry What amazing progress and development ! But where is it headed? And what has it taught us? HEN we look at today’s business, industry and commerce, we find the spectacle of modern develop- ment that excites enraptured admiration. The amazing development of the radio, the motion picture in full color, television, mammoth oil tankers, jet planes, spacecraft hurtling men around the Earth in 90 minutes, men traveling to the moon and back, unmanned spacecraft transmitting close-up pictures of planetary surfaces to Earth. Incredible Computers and almost every conceivable business machine, as well as modern mass industrial production and modern sales and distribution systems. All this would cause men of a short hundred years ago to gasp in awe! What amazing progress and development! Commerce and industry are a world within a world — a fast-moving, pulsating world of high-geared activity. Surely all these magic advancements could in no way have contributed to the evils that face our world today? Seemingly not. But if we look deeper we find in this facet of society the same evils that have caused humanity’s debacle. We find these vibrant, high-pressure fields of activity motivated by self-seeking competi- tion and greed. And too often, in selling and marketing products, the sales appeal has been to vanity and wrong desires, utilizing dishonesty, misrepresentation, deception, unfair dealing. The motivating incentive is to “‘get’’ — give less while charging more. Result? In spite of materialistic advances, there has been spiritual retrogression. Trouble, evils, suffering and anguish have engulfed this polluted planet. ‘Is honesty the best policy?’’ A magazine survey put this question to 103 top-level business executives. An over- whelming majority doubted whether a strictly honest policy would enable one to rise to the top in the business world. Said one, ‘‘People who don’t get dirty don’t make it.”’ “In 30 years,’ said another, ‘‘l’ve known of only three men who’ve reached executive positions cleanly, and | admit I’m not one of them.’’ “The higher an executive is in the management ladder,’ said a third, ‘“‘the more likely he is to do some dirty work.”’ Looking more deeply, past the material- istic advances in the business world, there has been selfish motivation, dishonesty, dog-eat-dog competition and disregard for the good of others. This facet of modern civilization has moved in the direction opposite from the foundational spiritual law of our Maker — that way of “‘give’’ and cooperation. The motives of the world of business — the way of ‘‘get,’’ covetousness and competition — has brought us to an apparent state of hopelessness and to the very edge of utter destruction. But what about organized labor?