THE WALL STREET JOURNAL MONDAY, FEB 23, 1981

A Voice Cries Out:

The Executive
with
Rose-Colored Glasses

He was a bid ahead of his time.
Still, things will be far more
rosy than he sees them now!

IT’S A PLEASING deception, perhaps, to see the most terrible and widespread evils of human history as if they were nonexistent, and all is well with the world.
     The rose-colored glasses were worn by a highly placed executive of a multinational
Corporation, on a business trip to Cairo. He had read these page messages in a leading U.S. newspaper, and was one of the guests attending a large banquet in the ballroom of the Nile Hilton Hotel. I was the principal speaker, and I was speaking on the current troubled world condition—its causes, and what lies ahead.
     To one beside him he commented that he respected what I am doing, but disagreed that world conditions are really bad. He has it made, economically. He lives well, enjoys the very best in material goods. The fact that half or more of the world is suffering, illiterate, living in abject poverty, filth and squalor—many dying of literal starvation—isn’t affecting his well-being. The moral downdrift of our youths, the breakdown of the family structure, the escalating crime wave, the continual overthrow of the governments of nations, the wars and threats of wars—the myriad knotty, complicated problems and troubles seemingly beyond human solution apparently had not touched or harmed him personally. The anguish of the multiplied millions had not, apparently, as yet reached through to him. But it will!
     How many are in the same boat, happily, oblivious to others who are sinking? Soon we all shall sink, unless the present world trend is reversed.
     When world evils are what they are, and fast accelerating, with the number of nations in the nuclear club increasing, a madman at the helm of any one of those nations could ignite the nuclear explosion that can exterminate us all! Do we have FAITH in such a madman that he will hesitate to exercise such awesome power?
     We are confronted with an almost unbelievable paradox! In the United States and developed nations, progress in civilization has been phenomenal in the 20th century. But this advancement has been altogether in the materialistic and physical realm.
     Conversely the world has retrogressed and is cursed with more unsolved and humanly insolvable problems and evils than any time since mankind has inhabited the earth. And our No 1 problem today is that of HUMAN SURVIVAL!
     What successes we enjoy are in the materialistic realm. But materialism, no matter how abundant, does not produce happiness, peace, joy, the truly meaningful life. And it leaves us questioning about, in ignorance of, worried about or trying to ignore the question of life after life. Material abundance alone can never satisfy.
     Meanwhile the developing countries and the “have-not” countries are lagging or utterly lacking in even material needs, let alone abundance.
     Our real problems and evils are spiritual in nature. They are caused by the way of life I call “GET” for simplicity. The way of self-centeredness, vanity, covetousness, envy, jealousy, selfish competition, strife and violence.
     This way of life transgresses the overriding spiritual LAW I term “GIVE”—outflowing LOVE towards others, concern for their welfare, serving, cooperating, sharing. That invisible spiritual law is as inexorable—as relentless in automatic motion as the law of gravity!
     We can never have a happy, meaningful, satisfying life and world UNTIL WE REPENT—TURN FROM—THE SELFISH WAY OF “GET!” But if humanity won’t—and it will not!—the unseen “Strong Hand from Someplace” will soon intervene in world affairs, save humanity from destroying itself and rule all peoples of the earth with the LAW of “GIVE” instead of “GET.” This will usher in the happy, peaceful, abundant WORLD TOMORROW.
     No one will need rose-colored glasses then!

Herbert W. Armstrong
(1892-1986)