Carl Wells Books

In 1787, at the close of the Constitutional Convention, a Philadelphia lady named Mrs. Powel asked Benjamin Franklin the following question: “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” Without hesitation, Franklin replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

Well, we didn’t keep it. The republic has been dead a long time. The final nail in the coffin may have been 1861, when the North refused to let the South secede. Since 1861 we have been an empire. In recent decades we have become an increasingly irresponsible empire run by an arrogant oligarchy. We are essentially bossed around by a conscienceless “elite” pretending that we are all part of a democracy always bowing to the will of the people. We have shrugged and gone along with this charade.

What are we to do? We didn’t keep our republic. Can we get it back? Should we want to get it back?

Here are eight things we could do.

1/The first option is just to do nothing–to keep on as we are now, passively accepting what comes at us. This unquestionably is the most popular option which most people will choose. It has its advantages. One doesn’t need to think and act; one can find a way to work within the system and can enjoy life. The problem is that very likely this option leads ultimately to disaster for us and for our family, neighbors, friends, and enemies. But hey, maybe disaster is not going to happen. Maybe it will all pan out in the end, as the panmillennialists believe, and doing nothing was a good choice.

2/Begin to work within the current political parties. One honorable person added to the mix is a very large addition. Working as an independent is also an option. Speaking the truth and failing to get elected is a tremendous step in the right direction. Some people have a gift for thinking on their feet and dealing with people. If they are also highly principled, such people are worth their weight in gold. Do you know someone in your church who might be a good political candidate? Encourage him to consider getting involved in politics.

3/Strengthen your family and your church. Develop high Christian ideals. Again, one person is a very large number. One family is an even larger number. Civil government in any form cannot work with an immoral populace. There are no short cuts. We have to become a godly people. Not all of us have to become godly, but enough of us need to do so in order that we become salt and light and we provide leadership. A Christian population which pays God one-quarter of His tithe (overall, we as American Christians give 2.5% instead of 10%; see the stats from the Christian group emptytomb), and votes itself abundance from the pockets of its neighbors, will never develop a wise limited civil government. Never. The disaster which has befallen the U.S. is 100% the fault of the Bible-believing church.

4/Read the Bible many times. Try to determine what it teaches about civil government, and what it teaches about personal responsibility. If we are not thinking the thoughts of God after Him, we will make as big a botch of civil government as everybody else. Many people who are Christians advocate policies that are evil. There is a biblical ethic which must guide us. Seek the truth in the Bible. Does this mean I think theocracy is a viable option? In fact, every nation without exception already is a theocracy. Every nation enforces the laws of its god. Point 7 below should relieve your fears on this point: non-Christians and anti-Christians need not be forced to live in a Christian theocracy. But we need to stop lying to ourselves that theocracy can be avoided. Theocracy is, the same as the sun in sky is. The U.S. is a theocracy right now–liberal humanist man is its god.

5/Consider what the Bible teaches in terms of eschatology–how history will play out to the end of time. Most American Christians are either amillennialists or dispensationalists. Both are psychologically devastating to Christians. Both encourage us to believe that the kingdom of God cannot really be advanced on earth, in time and history. Both amillennialism and dispensationalism I believe to be drivel. But what do I know? Maybe I’m a few bricks shy of a load. Think for yourself. Read your Bible. As you do so, read with the notion that maybe, just maybe, the Bible teaches that when God’s people are covenantally obedient to Him from the heart, good things begin to happen on the earth in time and history. I readily grant it can become very hard to be optimistic when so many things are going badly. But maybe they are going badly for good reasons, and we could change how things went if we changed the way we acted. Okay, it’s just a theory.

6/Read history. This is not only fun, it also helps us to learn about how the world is put together. Put down that TV set (it’s too heavy anyway) and pick up a good book. Pick up even a mediocre book. For part of your reading, read history.

7/Consider that breaking up the U.S. into several or many parts might be good for all of us, including those with whom we are in complete disagreement. Read The Breakdown of Nations by Leopold Kohr. He makes a good case that nations can be too big. When they become too big they become dangerous. He sees smallness as the plan of God. The U.S. became too big. We are no longer the modest self-respecting small republic which minded its own business. We feel obligated to preach to, and to bully, every other nation on the earth. If we broke into many smaller units, there could be places where Christians ran things, and places where Christianity was outlawed. Fantastic! Let God decide which places He wanted to bless. I make this recommendation with no great confidence that we Christians are ready to run our own lives in our own civil governments. I don’t think we are ready intellectually, theologically, spiritually, or morally. We would probably mess up greatly. But maybe we would learn. Or not. In any case, a small nation can do less harm than a giant nation. Consider the option of secession, or the breakup of the nation, as something maybe good for all.

8/The last option I will list is to give up, and to commit suicide. My personal favorite form of suicide will be slowly to eat and drink myself to death. This often seems like a viable option.

We did not keep our republic. We are bankrupt, financially. We were bankrupt morally, first. Fine. If we’ve learned a lesson, we are doing well. We don’t have to just do nothing. Even if what we do has little or no effect for good, isn’t it better to try than simply passively to accept what is shoved down our throats? Isn’t it better to go down six-shooters blazing than to let evil people destroy us, our family, our neighbors, our friends, and our enemies?

Mr. Franklin, you warned us. We refused to exercise eternal vigilance. Now we are in a mess of our own devising. But history has not yet come to an end. There may yet be republics, monarchies, democracies, or something elses worth keeping. We can be a part of helping to create such places. Although I admit that that beer, and that taco, look awfully inviting.

Recently I finished my sixth reading of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, and that enjoyable and thought-provoking reading has prompted me to encourage others to consider reading the book. By coincidence, tomorrow, April 21, 2017, is Charlotte Bronte’s 201st birthday (b. Apr. 21, 1816-d. Mar. 31, 1855), so this blog post is an early (or very late, depending upon one’s point of view) birthday present for Charlotte.

Jane Eyre the book is likely to continue to attract readers. Jane Eyre the character is a very interesting person. She is an orphan, rejected by extended family who should have loved and nourished her emotionally. She is plain of feature but has a passionate spirit. At age 10 she is thrown out of her home by her aunt, and placed in Lowood school, which is administered by an unjust Christian pastor. She has various sad misadventures there, including the death of her best friend Helen Burns. Within a couple years, the physical and spiritual quality of Lowood improves greatly due to a change in leadership, and Jane does well scholastically and every other way and even rises to become an assistant teacher. She wants, however, a larger life, and advertises for a position as governess.

She gets one response, and, after her references are accepted, is hired at Thornfield Hall. She travels some considerable distance to get there, where she does well for some weeks teaching Adele, the ward of Mr. Rochester–who is not at home, however. He shows up eventually. The plot immediately thickens.

Parts of the plot have been criticized–with some justice. There are several unlikely things. But I doubt if flaws of plotting are ever going to matter too much to most readers. The character of Jane is going to continue to attract readers, and Edward Rochester, the other main character, also is very well done. He is a man of faults mixed in with many virtues.

The author gives us countless passages of very subtle psychology. For example, Jane on preparing for her first morning at Thornfield Hall:

“I rose; I dressed myself with care: obliged to be plain–for I had no article of attire that was not made with extreme simplicity–I was still by nature solicitous to be neat. It was not my habit to be disregardful of appearance or careless of the impression I made: on the contrary, I ever wished to look as well as I could, and to please as much as my want of beauty would permit.” (Chapter XI)

When, at her first formal meeting with Edward Rochester, he begins to speak to her with impatience, she writes

“I sat down quite disembarrassed. A reception of finished politeness would probably have confused me; I could not have returned or repaid it by answering grace and elegance on my part: but harsh caprice laid me under no obligation; on the contrary, a decent quiescence, under the freak of manner, gave me the advantage. Besides, the eccentricity of the proceeding was piquant: I felt interested to see how he would go on.” (Chapter XIII)

When Jane believes herself to have lost forever the man for whom she deeply cares, she speaks up frankly to the man himself.

‘”Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong!–I have as much soul as you–and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh,–it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God’s feet, equal,–as we are!”‘ (Chapter XXIII)

That passage is perhaps the emotional, intellectual, and spiritual center of the book. This gives at least a hint as to why the book is likely to appeal to the general reader. How many of us are wealthy, prominent, good looking? Many or most of us understand ourselves to be poor, obscure, and plain. But we are people too, and Jane tells us that we have as much right to love passionately, as does anyone else. We can have as much soul and heart as people more favored in appearance and in other gifts. Jane may be poor and plain, but she correctly, without arrogance, understands herself to be a young woman of substance.

Dozens of other passages ring true psychologically.

Jane Eyre bears some resemblance to Charlotte Bronte. Charlotte too came from a relatively poor clergyman’s family, underwent unfortunate school experiences, went out as a governess, was little (under five feet tall), was obscure until literary fame (after the success of Jane Eyre) made her very far from obscure, and considered herself plain. On the latter point, she might have been technically accurate, but she seems to have been attractive if not beautiful . If memory serves, she eventually collected three marriage proposals. After some hesitation, she accepted the last one, and her brief months of married life seem to have been happy.

She died three weeks short of her 39th birthday. Her death certificate lists tuberculosis–the family curse–as the cause of death. However, it is possible that dehydration and malnutrition caused by continuing long-term morning sickness were significant factors as well. Her unborn child perished with her. Her widower remarried eventually. He survived until 1916, 61 years after the death of Charlotte.

Charlotte was not a one-hit wonder. She wrote three other serviceable novels: The Professor, Villette, and Shirley. While none of the three will probably ever attain the readership of Jane Eyre, they are not to be shrugged off as negligible. Of the three, Villette is my personal favorite, although I have read it only once. If my declining hours of time permit, I may reread it someday. It, like Shirley, is a major work in length.

Has Jane Eyre attracted filmmakers? I’m glad you asked. The answer is somewhat astonishing. The book has been filmed in about 30 versions! This, I think, indicates that something about the book speaks directly to the spirit of lots of people, generation after generation. I think I have seen only three film versions. One I have not seen but which I hope and expect to view soon, is the 1983 BBC version featuring Zelah Clarke (Jane) and Timothy Dalton (Rochester). Internet reviews seem to indicate it is one of the best, but there seem to be others almost as highly approved. By all means enjoy as many film versions as you want, but please read the book first.

Charlotte was the oldest of three writing sisters. The middle sister Emily has attained fame as the author of Wuthering Heights. It is not a book which is a personal favorite of mine, but the general critical consensus is that it is a great book. Decide for yourself. The youngest sister Anne wrote two novels, Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. The first is good, and the latter is superb. Anne is my personal favorite of the Brontes. She was a Christian lady of quiet courage, high principle, and independence of thought. All three sisters wrote some poetry, and all three died young, of tuberculosis. May they, their erring brother Branwell, their eccentric father Patrick, the mother who died young, and the two sisters who died as young children, rest in peace.

Here are a few more ideas about managing one’s personal finances. Some of the ideas are practical, but a goodly portion of this part will move into the realm of moral/religious/philosophical ideas.

23/Avoid health insurance to the extent you can. A few decades ago few people felt the need to buy health insurance. We will probably get back to that world eventually, when the welfare state collapses or reorganizes, or when there could be a few seceded sections of the ex-country in which semi-sanity begins to prevail. But for now most people feel trapped into paying enormous sums for health insurance, sometimes due to government force. About fifteen or so years ago I briefly had health insurance which covered catastrophic illness only. I never used it, but even so, very quickly my rates went up by some enormous percentage. I was living on a tight budget, and the insurance was a big item. I cancelled. I am old enough for Medicare, but have never signed up for it, nor will I do so. The time may come when I have a serious medical problem for which I cannot pay tens of thousands of dollars to treat. Or I may be allowed by God to pass over with relatively little expense. I am taking a chance. I have lived quite a few years, so if I have to go, I didn’t get cheated out of a lot of time. Use your own judgment. If you don’t have insurance, tell the doctor that you want a no insurance price, and that you will pay promptly. Then pay promptly.

24/Large debt should be avoided. But if you decide that you can and should incur some debt, consider the possibility of getting a loan from a family member. This could help both of you. You may be able to pay him a higher rate of interest than he can currently get in this wretched economy. Meanwhile, maybe he can give you a rate better than you can get at the bank. Even if it is the same rate, you keep the money in the family. A few years ago I went into debt for fixing up the property at which I now live. I borrowed money from my Aged Parent. She got a decent rate of interest, and I kept out of the hands of the bank. I paid off the debt as quickly as possible. Of course this kind of thing can only work where there is trust and honesty in a family. Sadly, one often reads of people who dishonor their word in (not) paying back money to a family member. Again, use your own judgment!

25/Take your lunch to work rather than eating out all the time. It might cost you $2.00 for sandwiches from home, as opposed to $5.00 or more for eating out. That amounts to $15.00 in a week, which adds up quickly. That’s $780.00 in a year, $7,800.00 in a decade.

26/Tithe to a faithful Bible-believing church. To tithe is to pay 10% of your income to God’s church. It may seem counter-intuitive, but being willing to pay 10% of your income, off the top, to God, is actually a way to improve your financial well-being. You are showing the God of the universe that you love and trust Him enough to give a significant portion of your hard-earned money to the advancement of His kingdom. He is a person, and appreciates loyalty as we all do. Moreover, He promises great blessings for obedience in regard to the tithe (Malachi 3:8-12). But first, study the Bible and see if you think it does teach that God requires a tithe. If you think there is no such teaching there, ignore what I say. If you think that the Bible does teach that we are to tithe, face that fact honestly. If you don’t have faith enough to tithe right off, begin by upping your giving by a few percentage points. Then if you feel blessed by God and your faith grows, up your giving more the next year. My experience is that God is patient with someone moving in the right direction. Eventually you will reach a tithe. You will discover what many Christians have discovered, that the tithe is a blessing to you (as well as to the church). My frequently sapient friend Brad Herndon says, “You can’t out-give God.” He is correct.

27/Develop a spirit of generosity. Again, this is counter-intuitive. Be open-handed with others, both financially and emotionally. God is in control of world history. He has created a reality in which a generous spirit thrives. Even if you are a non-Christian, consider developing your spirit of generosity. Give away money to a good cause. However, be careful to what cause you give your money. Don’t give away $100.00 to Planned Parenthood or some other group opposed to the God of the Bible. Use some common sense. You know what kind of things God would approve of (if He existed, which you may think He does not). Give that $100.00 to a crisis pregnancy center trying to keep babies alive rather than kill them. If you give away 2% in one year, see what happens if you give away 3% or 4% the next year. Even a natural tightwad can develop a generous spirit within a relatively brief period of time.

28/Develop a future orientation. Read The Unheavenly City Revisited by Edward C. Banfield (1974). It turns out that social class is to a large extent a function of time preference. If you can develop a taste for delayed gratification, you will be much better able to manage your money. You will not always be living up to your income or beyond your income. You will be saving and investing rather than living for the moment only.

29/Learn some basic economics. Two great places to start are Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt (1946), and Honest Money: Biblical Principles of Money and Banking by Gary North (1986).

30/Develop an unquenchable desire to pay all your bill no matter what. Again, this may seem counter-intuitive. If God exists, it makes sense. But even if God does not exist, it seems to me that the universe is constructed in such a manner that honesty is rewarded, dishonesty is punished. In the short term dishonesty may succeed. But there is a long-term. What if there is an afterlife? Even if there is not, paying all your bills will give you a clear conscience in regard to at least one aspect of life.

31/Never declare bankruptcy. This follows along with #30, naturally. Some people seem to feel that it is all right to declare bankruptcy. Even many Christians believe that. If you have already declared bankruptcy, resolve to pay back every cent. And then do so. Again, the universe itself seems to fight on the side of those who deal honestly with other people. Recently our family dealt with professing Christians who not only cheated my Aged Parent out of $600.00, they also on another occasion declared bankruptcy. Vengeance is God’s; He will repay (Romans 12:19).

32/Resolve to conduct business in a very honest manner. Don’t try to trick anyone. Anyone trying to maneuver in the modern business world is well aware that straightforward honesty is rare. Be different. Be consciously and consistently honest.

33/Save, and invest in wise investments. But what are those? I have no easy answers as to what investments will pay off. Good investments are difficult to find in an era of fiat money overseen by a vicious civil government determined to take as much of your money as possible. So how do you get to a place where you can have wise investments and can protect the money you worked with your precious time and energy to earn? Ain’t no such place right now. What can be done? There is an answer, but it is not an easy one. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to build a civilization in which there is honest money and in which the property of other people is protected. That is not the civilization we have now. We have a bite and devour country, because we are a bite and devour people (Galatians 5:15). This is true not only of our country, but it seems to be true of all countries. All of us, Christians included, refuse to work to build such a civilization. But building such a civilization is the ONLY way we will be able to protect our property and protect the well-being of our children and grandchildren. There is no safety unless we build such a world. So, while complaining about the world we currently have is often enjoyable, it is not a long-term solution. The only way to protect your savings and that of your neighbors and your heirs, is to go to work to make the world better. At the worst, this is job security for you, if you accept the mission.

34/Give yourself an occasional treat. In fact, give yourself plenty of treats, much more than occasionally. God’s creation is bountiful. He is openhanded. If you are willing to work and pay your debts, you can have a sufficiency. Save, plan for the future rather than live only in the present, but also enjoy life. “Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one’s labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward” (Ecclesiastes 5:18).

Last week, in my attempt to evangelize for the tightwadism which is so much of a part of my own life, I listed twelve ideas for controlling expenses. Here is part II of the series. These will once again start out being practical, but I will eventually begin to move into philosophical or moral ideas. (Most of that will come in part III, but some is mixed in here.)

13/Don’t buy new cars. You can buy some really good used cars for two or three thousand dollars. Instead of spending twenty or thirty thousand dollars for a new car, buy a used car for $3,000.00. Pay cash. If you go into a used car lot with cash, you can make the dealer an offer he can’t refuse. Okay, he can refuse it, but if he has a chance to sell you a car, he’s going to want to do that if at all possible. If a car is for sale for $3,500.00, offer him significantly less for a cash sale. You may have to meet in the middle somewhere. Fine. You both save face. If you are shy about talking to car dealers, get a friend or family member to go along with you to give you moral support and help you determine what is a good deal. A Christian lady I know would take her brother along with her to help her buy a car. He was very helpful to her. If you are paying interest on your car payment, you are throwing money away. Settle for something less expensive, pay cash, and don’t worry about impressing the neighbors or impressing yourself.

14/Consider the value of a used bicycle. Riding a bicycle is a good way to not crank up the engine on the car. If you have an errand or two which you need to do, within a mile to two miles, you can often walk. As mentioned last week, walking is a great way to spend time. But sometimes you may not have the time or the energy to walk one to two miles. A bicycle ride is a perfect compromise for those situations–much quicker than walking, but still good exercise, and you see the world from a different perspective than riding in your car. If you have a basket on your bicycle, better yet.

15/If you have to rent your housing, you might be able to negotiate a lower price by offering to pay in advance for more than one month. The landlord will know he is dealing with someone who has enough money to pay more than one month’s rent, and hence a person likely to be responsible and to be a payer–the kind of person all landlords like to see.

16/If you are a single person needing a place to live, an apartment can be pretty expensive, and possibly noisy, and may have other disadvantages. Is there a widow lady at your church who could use a little extra income? She might be willing to rent you a room in her home, for much less money than you would pay for renting an apartment. You might be good fellowship for each other at the same time. You might learn from her wisdom.

17/Consider buying a home which is lower in quality than you really prefer. Then you can fix up that house. This is especially good if you have the ability to work on the house yourself, and are willing to put in considerable spare time doing so. (Otherwise you will have to hire the work done, which is much more expensive.) Not all of us have the talent to repair and beautify a house–I certainly don’t–but others do and would probably surprise themselves in finding how satisfying it would be to make a house much better than it was. When the house was significantly improved, it probably could be sold for more than you paid for it.

18/For groceries, shop at Aldi. The savings are considerable, and the quality of the food is excellent. You have to bag and unload your own groceries, but hey, you’re not a snowflake, are you? The two German brothers who started the Aldi chain eventually became two of the richest men in the world. This is a perfect example showing that the free market is not a zero sum game. We all gain when people are left alone to buy and sell. By doing good to tens of millions of people, the two brothers earned billions of dollars. I don’t begrudge them one cent. May heaven’s blessing be upon them.

19/Drop foolish habits such as smoking or drinking to excess. These are of course bad for your health. They can also be enormously expensive. A $25.00 a week cigarette habit adds up to a lot of money very quickly–that’s $1,300.00 in a year, $13,000.00 in a decade. Playing the lottery regularly is another foolish habit, in which the money wasted adds up quickly.

20/Turn the heat down several degrees, and wear a sweatshirt. Consider turning the heat off entirely when you go to bed. The savings will be astonishing. How low you can turn the heat is a personal matter, a matter of, uh, degree, but most people insist upon being very warm all day and all night. You can train your body to be comfortable in less heat than you currently realize. In the winter time I put the heat at a maximum of 56 degrees. (I turn it higher if I have guests.) I turn the heat off at night unless it is very bitterly cold outside, which it seldom is in balmy subtropical Indiana. My heating bill is extremely low. Most people could not stand to have the heat set at 56–I am considered eccentric, no doubt correctly, by most ordinary people–but most ordinary people could drop the heat from 72 to 70 or 68 or 66, could turn the heat off or dramatically down during hours of sleep, and their savings would be very great.

21/If you have cable TV, avoid the more expensive packages. Consider buying only the generic package, which is cheaper. It astonishes me that people who don’t have two dimes to rub together nevertheless insist upon paying out enormous sums in monthly deluxe cable TV costs. Television can also be a great time waster. Consider reducing your dependence on TV. Keep track of the time you spend weekly, watching TV. Then, if the hours spent seem excessive, make it a goal to cut your hours watching TV by some certain number. Keep track–again, record keeping is not for everyone, but it is fun for some of us–and see if you can do better. We are too dependent on TV for our entertainment. One of the reasons our Christian civilization is slipping away from us is that people with good minds are not reading enough. Lower your TV watching significantly, and spend the time saved in reading books. The mind you save may be your own. Moreover, if you have children or grandchildren, they learn by your example. I can distinctly remember that when I was a young child, I saw my parents reading and I wanted to be like them. Their example encouraged me to become a reader. Being able to do a lot of reading is one of the greatest blessings of my life. Your example is crucial to your family.

22/Take care of your health. Keep your weight down, eat healthy, exercise regularly. The financial benefits are clear, since a healthy body will help keep you out of the doctor’s office, but also the quality of life benefits are enormous. If you need eleven ten-minute breaks before you successfully shovel a bit of snow off the walk, your quality of life could use an upgrade. Take care of your body, and it will help take care of you. You may not live a day longer by having exercised and having kept at least moderately trim, but your quality of life will be enhanced. I write as one who definitely could drop a few pounds–okay, more than a few–without danger of wasting away. So I’m not asking perfection of you. Just try to move in the right direction, and you’ll be glad you did. And maybe you can avoid buying expensive medications in the middle and latter part of your life.

This is going to require a part III.