The Antidote to Hopelessness and Despair

The Antidote to Hopelessness and Despair

What do Margaret Thatcher, Herman Cain, and the movie, The Book of Eli, have in common?

Stay with me and let me explain.

In the movie, The Book of Eli, Eli (Denzel Washington) is a lone black man in a white man’s post-apocalyptic world.  Though he cannot see those around him, he is not blind to the truth.   He walks throughout the land on a journey to deliver the one antidote to the hopelessness and despair that infects the people, turning them into brainwashed zombies in the service of Carnegie (Gary Oldman).  The antidote, The Book of Eli, is the lone surviving Bible known to man.  Committing it to memory by reading it every day, Eli is able to walk by faith, not by sight, for he knows the power of its message.  If you’re looking for a great bible study using this concept, click here.

            The Book of Eli came to mind as I thought of two leaders, both of whom stood up against those who threatened them because of their message.  And, both were firsts in their own rights as leaders of a conservative, limited government message.

Margaret Thatcher

            The first is Margaret Thatcher.  Known as the “Iron Lady,” she was the first (and so far only) female British Prime Minister.  I had the privilege of meeting her when, as a student studying in England in 1978, I went to visit Parliament in London.  I attended University in Grantham, Lincolnshire, which was in her district.  At the time, she had not yet been elected Prime Minister.
 

When she ran for the office, just about every labor union in England was on strike.  Determined, and some said, strident, she set out to revolutionize the economy.  She declared that the idea of nationalization, deficit spending, central control, and too much regulation had to end.  She cut government spending, subsidies to business, and slashed government red tape.
 

She once said:

Although 364 economists wrote to the Times and said, "This is outrageous; you'll put us into a deep depression from a recession," 364 were wrong, and the half dozen who supported us were right.


And those who urge us to relax the squeeze, to spend yet more money indiscriminately in the belief that we'll help the unemployed and the small businessman, are not being kind or compassionate or caring. I have only one thing to say: U-turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning.

            Thatcher had to deal with a bunch of brainwashed zombies in her country that bought into the lie that they were powerless to help themselves.  They had  bought the lie that only government could solve their problems.  They were blind to the truth.  And when presented with the truth, like the power hungry who could “see” in the movie The Book of Eli, they could not grasp the truth.

Here is a link to a video clip about the struggles she faced as she faced from the PBS documentary, The Commanding Heights

http://www.pbs.org/perl/media.cgir?t=w&f=commandingheights/mini_p01_15_220.wmv&extn=.asx

Herman Cain 
         

The second is Herman Cain.  If elected president, he will be the first AMERICAN Black president – Barack Obama, because his father was from Kenya, was the first African-American President.

In recent days, Herman Cain has stood up to both Lawrence O’Donnell and the Occupy Wall Street crowd.  He’s not been afraid to question who is funding them, and what the motives of those people behind the scenes are.  And, he’s talked about what is needed with regard to getting out of the problems Americans face.  It’s the same antidote Margaret Thatcher proclaimed.  To see a clip of Cain’s comments on this, see 

            


In the movie, The Book of Eli, Eli needed to remain steadfast, because he carried a message of hope that would free the brainwashed zombies of a post-apocalyptic America from the hopelessness and despair that enslaved them.  Margaret Thatcher became known as “The Iron Lady” because she stood steadfast against the attacks of the trade unions to deliver the antidote to hopelessness and despair that gripped England in the early 1980s.


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            Herman Cain carries the same message of hope to the brainwashed zombies of our nation that Thatcher carried to hers.  His is a message of rolling up one’s sleeves and getting to work.  But he can’t do it by himself.




            There are still men and women in this nation who are not brainwashed zombies.  We, The People, need to help spread the antidote to the hopelessness and despair the “Occupy Wall Street” people are complaining about.  They need the antidote Mr. Cain has prescribed to restore faith, family and the American work ethic.

Now is the time to make your voice heard, and let Mr. Cain know you’ve “got his back.” 


 

 David Lantz is the author of Think Like Jesus, Lead Like Moses: Leadership Lessons from the Wilderness Crucible.  To learn more about him, go to his website at www.wisejargon.com