My Patheos colleague Tim Dalrymple has a story and video that really should make everyone stop in their tracks and think about what we all mean when we say (or sneer) at each other: “success”, “capitalism”, “share”, “evil corporations”, “collectivism” and “church.”We get caught up in words like those — particularly in an election year where, suddenly, words like “hard work”, “build”, “success”, “welfare”, “human dignity”, “profit”, “business”, “hand-outs”, “hand-ups” and “community” are being stood on their heads; particularly in a world where words no longer seem to mean anything unless they can be first hewn into a weapon and used to bludgeon someone else.When the president said, recently, “you didn’t build that” he was ostensibly talking about community, and about the fact that yeah, everyone succeeds (and, sometimes, fails) because of the people around them — people who helped to make them, or to break them. Because he is a “community activist” at heart, he foolishly wrapped that talk around resentment, infrastructure and taxes, and with a sneering sort of “feel guilty for using the roads and bridges (that your taxes and your employees taxes paid for) in order to build your success.” And because he chose to frame his point so poorly, he met understandable resistance from people who said, “don’t guilt me for working hard; the same taxes that built the infrastructure are also paying for social programs people need; should they feel guilty because my success comes to their aid?”And so, yeah, it’s been nasty.

Original link: 

Building on what you’ve built: A GREAT Story