Get rid of the X Factor Mentality and the Class War

We cannot afford to be disengaged from the business of politics but at the same time we need to recognize that whatever the business of politics our own destiny depends of what we as individuals are willing to do for ourselves.

Conspiracy theories and all the talk about conspiracy theories do not change the fundamental fact that our successes or our failures are the direct consequence of what we, as individuals, are willing to do to change our so called bad luck into good luck. The mix is about 10 per cent of genius and 90 per cent of effort and for all of us - without exception - a day is 24 hours.

We blame the weather, a Zionist Conspiracy, those of the Left, those of the Centre and those of the Right for whatever happens in our lives without accepting that much of what happens in our lives is linked to what we do and what we don't do.

From an early age, I learnt to recognize the fallacies of Socialism that blames those who have for the misfortunes of those who have not. I look at the behavior of the have and have not and I remember the words of Benjamin Franklin who said: "Laziness travels so slowly that Poverty soon overtakes him."

I am not a friend of alcohol and I sincerely despise tobacco and other kinds of addictions including comfort eating. Whenever we feel that the world is coming to an end, we should remember the words of Rudyard Kipling, keeping ourselves grounded and using every minute available to do something to improve our human condition: 

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!