We have secular prophets today who are far more inspired and inspiring than our self-appointed religious prophets on the big issues of the day, Version 1.0
I believe one of the most important purposes of the gospel is to show us how to have the perfect society on earth. We talk about Zion and the Millennium as examples of this perfect society. We read about the City of Enoch and other times when there was peace and happiness when the gospel was recognized and lived.
I believe many of the LDS church members should become experts in these matters of creating and governing Zion, the near-perfect society. Since the church leaders never speak of these matters in any serious way, or take any effective actions, and presumably would give all the wrong kinds of advice if they did speak on the subject, we are left to solve this problem by ourselves.
As far as I can tell, the men who called themselves the prophets of the LDS church in about 1896 stopped talking about how to improve society, and began carefully studying how to extract money from the masses using religious deception and priestcraft theology. They could have contributed greatly to the spirituality, freedom, and prosperity of the United States and the world, but instead they chose to focus all their efforts on their own personal prosperity. In other words, they started the exact processes which had led to the destruction of all previous dispensations of the gospel -- see Fourth Nephi where churches were raised up to get gain. Such non-idealistic money-seeking practices are a major and direct cause of the failure of our current dispensation. They could have prevented much of today's destruction, but chose not to do so because it might have hurt their personal income.
I happen to think that the gospel is what is missing from our society that has caused our society to disintegrate as far as it has. But this issue is of no concern to the current church leaders since they believe they have solved their own personal temporal salvation, and have no concern whatsoever for everyone else's temporal salvation. The Golden Rule does not apply in the corridors of religious power in Salt Lake City. Christ resisted the three temptations of Satan encouraging Christ to use his great powers to rule the earth for his own personal benefit, but our current church leaders have eagerly embraced those exact same temptations of Satan.
Other students of morality and history and economics have been concerned about the plight of everyone in the world, and have performed some extensive and enlightening studies. I plan to point out some of those great moral thinkers in this essay.
1. Thomas Sowell is a black economist who is perhaps the greatest among those thinkers who have unselfishly studied religious and moral and economic issues, seeking to benefit the world. At age 92 he is still actively engaged in writing books and giving speeches about his social and economic research. He was born June 30, 1930.
His essays are so carefully researched and written that they could be treated like Scripture for many purposes. Perhaps more than anyone I know of, his writings explain the many difficulties of government programs that claim to help the poor, and, in contrast, points out the many benefits of free-will personal charity in helping to actually raise up individuals. "The poor are always with us," and until we have helped them solve their problems, we can never have an ideal society. If they lack freedom and prosperity, they hurt the freedom and prosperity of everyone else.
It has been suggested that Thomas Sowell ought to be president of the United States. Of course, he has no interest in holding that position, which makes it even more likely that he would do a good job. I would put him as the leading living expert on how to alleviate the problems of the underclass, especially the black population, since he is black himself, and has spent his life studying this problem, while not indulging in the conceits of the self-appointed "anointed" as he calls them, who imagine that they are more wise and more just and more compassionate than anyone else in the world, while they contrive government force-based solutions which make worse every problem they address. They specialize in the "unintended consequences" which make their efforts counterproductive for the people they claim to be trying to help, while it also attacks the freedom and prosperity of everyone else.
2. Wilhelm RoepkeThomas Sowell on the Myths of Economic Inequality 53:33 length
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS5WYp5xmvI
Sowell's 1999 book, fulltext:
The Quest for Cosmic Justice, 214 pages
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rFj1pG ... sp=sharing
Having seen the 20th century convulsions in Europe, and been part of WWI, he has much to say about the nature of man and society.
3. Peter Thiel is a lawyer, entrepreneur, and thinker who sees our world as heading for a time of turmoil in the narrow straits between a global dictatorship and a technological Armageddon. This would be a nice time to have some real prophets to guide us through this treacherous course, but, of course, we have no such prophets. Such as we have are AWOL, guided by the aphorism "every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost."Who is Wilhelm Röpke? | by Shawn Ritenour length 11:38
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJh_jf5ysP4
Roepke, The Moral Foundations of Civil Society, 239 pages
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iFp2cD ... sp=sharing
4. Ray Dalio is a hedge fund manager who has written a book entitled Principles for Dealing With The Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed And Fail, published in 2021, 577 pages. His book documents the rise and fall of leading countries in the world over the last 500 years, including the Dutch, the British, the United States, and the apparent rise of China as the likely next world hegemon. He tracks 18 determinants of national influence and power in the world, as nations rise and fall. He sees little hope that the United States can break out of the usual pattern of rise and decline. In my view, a very strong religious push might change many of these 18 determinants, and break the seeming unending cycle, so that goodness and prosperity can use to prevail, but it must indeed be a very powerful push.Video discussion:
Peter Thiel, Leader of the Rebel Alliance,” on Uncommon Knowledge length 48:02
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWXFdEyOKc4&t=166s
See discussion starting at 37:31 in video on the narrow straits of public policy.
Transcript of video, 12 pages:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1P0zpwk ... sp=sharing
5. Peter Zeihan is a geopolitical strategist, who, among many other things, has written a book entitled The End Of The World Is Just The Beginning: Mapping The Collapse Of Globalization, 498 pages. He puts the peak of the efficiency of the current world economic order, and the resultant prosperity, as occurring in 2019, with all subsequent years likely to show a great worldwide economic and social contraction and a disconnecting process and system breakdowns.Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order by Ray Dalio length 43:42
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xguam0TKMw8
6. Robert Putnam is a professor of public policy who wrote the 2020 book The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again, 265 pages, along with other books, which show the changes in the thinking and behavior of the US population over the past 125 years related to such things political polarization and willingness to work together for the common good. He puts the peak of the "I-we-I" cycle of effective public agreement and cooperation as occurring in the 1960s, with the lows in this long cycle occurring in about 1900 and again in about 2023 A.D.Peter Zeihan: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization length 1:04:46
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSpT0yEtFBY
He is willing to give religion a role in the many changes of the upswing and then the downswing, although not nearly to the extent I believe it deserves. At least his co-author Shaylyn Romney Garrett seems to recognize that an improvement in Christian morality precedes an improvement in societal trust and cooperation. The book shows that the United States went through a very bad time about 120 years ago when political polarization and personal isolation was as bad as it is now, and holds out the possibility and the hope that the solutions to the problems then could become solutions to the problems now. I personally think that with religiosity dropping it such a fast pace, that hope will not be realized without a strong input from the now silent prophets.
I personally believe that his book The Upswing is most useful in demonstrating what the LDS church was supposed to do for society during the last 125 years, but then totally failed to accomplish it because of the leaders' self-centeredness and selfishness. Those church leaders actually took active measures to prevent church members from leading out in constantly improving our society, since any such actions would likely diminish their generous financial incomes.
7. Francis Fukuyama, Trust: The Social Virtues and The Creation of Prosperity, June 18, 1996, 480 pages.Virtual Talks | Robert Putnam with Shaylyn Romney Garrett, The Upswing length 57:30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOI2KbdI-ig
"Insisting that we cannot divorce economic life from cultural life, he contends that in an era when social capital may be as important as physical capital, only those societies with a high degree of social trust will be able to create the flexible, large-scale business organizations that are needed to compete in the new global economy."
One aspect of a prosperous Zion society would be establishing the trust based on mutual beliefs which would foster prosperity.
8. Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, November 19, 1996, 368 pagesFrancis Fukuyama on TRUST - The John Adams Institute length 1:49:54
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E69G8o3PNsk
"Samuel Huntington explains how clashes between civilizations are the greatest threat to world peace but also how an international order based on civilizations is the best safeguard against war... Huntington offers a strategy for the West to preserve its unique culture and emphasizes the need for people everywhere to learn to coexist in a complex, multipolar, muliticivilizational world."
The LDS church has proceeded on the theory that instead of promoting freedom worldwide, as it ought to, it will be completely subservient to all civil governments, no matter how much they interfere with individual freedom. Even murderous communism is perfectly acceptable as long as it will allow church members to send tithing money to Salt Lake City.
9. Ezra Taft Benson, apostle and LDS Church President. He spoke out about the evils of government dependency leading to communism, but, as far as I know, never directly challenged the LDS church on its own Marxist and priestcraft teachings, and serious doctrinal deviations from New Testament Christianity, especially including its adding of Old Testament-style mandatory tithing to a charity-based New Testament church, essentially destroying the New Testament definition of charity which is critical for individual salvation through good works.Samuel P. Huntington - The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order length 27:09
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JbEV0qH7IM
=========================================The Constitution—A Heavenly Banner | Ezra Taft Benson length 39:57
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lf33BNgt--s&t=1799s
Other solution materials:
https://futuremormonism.blogspot.com/