Asked and Unasked

In the process of continuing education, the serious citizen should perceive something future.  It is large because more is included than it is for the person looking downward (daily survival), rather than to the horizon (future life).  Humanly speaking the horizon ends at death, but extends in generations.  Even in this there is mystery.  One may perceive solutions for the future but fumble them.  We believe education pushes back the veils, but attitudes fight/support the goals.  Every individual needs to include future life context.  Presuppositions are atmospheres, which is to say water – in which the solids float in life.  There is an aroma that comes from the gas – when it leads us to truth and a stink when it turns to falsehood.   So we test as we go along to be somewhat sure of ourselves and the ultimate claim to the horizon.  In our pride we determine that we are the judges of good and ill.  It becomes mystery to be searched. We fumble along.

After Darwin’s theory of evolution in nature became attractive to the physical scientists, the sociologists began to apply the concepts to society, and the direction of society to the horizon.  The views gained wide support early in the twentieth century, but appeared to have holes in the theory about the time I was born in 1923.  Doubts hit when the worst of all wars up to the time period was fought – 1914-18.  Many held on believing the war was the last gasp of the old yielding to the improved life perception.  But that was challenged in a world depression, and a second war of nations.  Today the politicians, the theorists, even the common person fumbles with views and methodologies to find a way for survival in an increasingly complicated social conduct.  In his review of Emanuel Derman’s book, Models Behaving Badly, Burton Malkiel quotes: . . . . in physics you’re playing against God, and He doesn’t change His laws very often.  In finance, you’re playing against God’s creatures.  And God’s creatures use their ephemeral opinions to value assets.  Moreover, most financial models fail to reflect the complex reality of the World around them.  (WSJ. 12/14/2011, Pg. A-19) Derman proceeds, as the reviewer points out, to show how persons rely on faulty models, and then run from evaluation from what they have done.  The point is made that ethics are somehow lost, and practitioners escape the consequences.  It is striking that Derman rose to Scripture for an idealism needed by the businesses (in this instance banks are noted) to achieve the proper goals of service to mankind.

Even before I had read the Derman review in its entirety, I thought of Joseph in Egypt, and Jacob resorting to Egypt for relief.  I was warmed then to see Derman’s biblical reference to it.  We carry that forward to find meaning from 4,000 years ago.  The story is well known.  Joseph, sold into Egypt as a slave, had variant experiences, from imprisonment to prime minister, becoming second only to Pharaoh.  He, a commoner, counseled the king: that during fertile years a fifth of the crop be used for storage to meet a period when farms would be made barren from drought.  The principle was simply that good stewardship and knowledge of the cycles of existence were uneven, that mankind had the intellectual sense that adjustments could be made through planned stewardship – for the good of the people.  It worked.  Jacob, just a few hundred miles away was threatened by the lack of food for his family.  He sent sons to Egypt to buy grain, and ultimately moved there in the recognition of his long lost son, Joseph, the savior of the family.  The story might be extended to book length with all the subplots related to it, but that is not our purpose here.  Our purpose is to challenge the Derman point that God may not be interested, or advance solutions.  Pharaoh accepted the Joseph solution, and believed it was from God.  The pattern seems modern where it is tried.  I spoke for a series in a lovely small town in Alberta, Canada.  The facilities were excellent, better than those I had seen in other countries for many small town situations.  I asked about the matter and was told: Oh, that is because of the Heritage Fund in our Province.  Our government puts away some of the income, when all is well, and helps to meet needs as they arise.  Joseph and Pharaoh, would be pleased with that planning, but God’s help would be noted in it.  Further to God’s laws referred to by Derman, there may be interruption, for urgency or delay, but not wrong.  God relates to us – in all.