Management and the decline of civilization

"If you love me," said the greatest of all leaders, "you will keep my commandments." "If you know what is good for you," says the manager, "you will keep my commandments and not make waves." That is why the rise of management always marks the decline, alas, of culture. If the management does not go for Bach, very well, there will be no Bach in the meeting. If the management favors vile sentimental doggerel verse extolling the qualities that make for success, young people everywhere will be spouting long trade-journal jingles from the stand. If the management's taste in art is what will sell--trite, insipid, folksy kitsch--that is what we will get. If management finds maudlin, saccharine commercials appealing, that is what the public will get. If management must reflect the corporate image in tasteless, trendy new buildings, down come the fine old pioneer monuments. ("Leaders to Managers: The Fatal Shift", Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints)

What do we do now?

We're told there was no contention among them [in 4 Nephi]. Is there any wonder about that? There's no contention. What, no plot in the play? We're not going to have any fun without contention. With us, after the buildup, after the climax, after the denouement, they ride into the sunset or they live happily every after. The play must end there, because the author or the playwright has nowhere to go. After all the problems, after all the dirty work, after all the dangers have been passed, then we say, "The cloudless skies are all serene. Oh joy, oh rapture unforeseen." They have no place to go, so the author has nothing to do but end the play. But that's where the play should begin. What kind of fun are they going to have after that if they've lost all the excitement, if it's all passed away? This, as Spangler says, is the ultimate disaster to civilization. After all our problems are solved, then we have nothing to do but collapse into a pile of ashes. We're not going anywhere. Problemlosigkeit is the absence of problems. We've got to have an answer here. ("Lecture 103: 4 Nephi 1", Teachings of the Book of Mormon: Semester 4)

Certain eternal things

There are certain things of which we never tire, with which we never become bored. Those are the things of eternity. Yet strangely enough it is these which we easily dismiss and neglect as if they were highly expendable. ("Goods of First and Second Intent", Approaching Zion)

Gospel automatons

We were very strictly brought up. When I was a little kid, we would sooner be dead than go to a movie on Sunday. That was absolutely unthinkable; we were petrified. But once a year, my mother would take my brother and me, and we would go to a show on Sunday. Well, I thought the lightning would strike us. I would go in tears. It was to [make this point] perfectly clear. If we didn't, we'd be perfectly helpless. We'd be automatons; we'd get no merit for not going. Of course, the lightning didn't strike or anything like that. But it was to show us that we were free to act. We could go if we wanted; therefore, if we didn't go, we got credit for that. Otherwise, we were just paralyzed; we were just automatons. We were just acting automatically. ("Lecture 49: Alma 12-14", Teachings of the Book of Mormon: Semester 2)

Science without religion

Science without religion, like philosophy without religion, has nothing to feed on. . . It is my contention that any branch of human thought without religion soon withers and dies of anemia. ("Science Fiction and the Gospel", Temple and Cosmos)

Right to revelation for all

In recent years, one frequently hears (especially in testimony meetings) such things as, "We are thankful for having a Prophet who can tell us exactly what we have to do and think every moment of the day." The Prophet is a convenient time and trouble saver. Actually, people pester him to death for these things (they always have), as someone ready to bail us out no matter what silly things we've done or what a fool you've made of yourself. We're not going learn anything that way. Let us recall Joseph's warning the people who "were depending on the Prophet, hence were darkened in their minds, [and] . . . neglecting the duties devolving upon themselves" as much as the prophet; but he was not to be called on for every emergency. "It is a great thing to inquire at the hands of God, or to come into His presence; and we feel fearful to approach him, . . . especially about things [which] . . . men ought to obtain in all sincerity . . . for themselves, in humility by the prayer of faith." Don't ask me for revelation in your own affairs, says the leader. You have just as much right to it as I have. ("Criticizing the Brethren", Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints)

The stable societies

What do the other civilizations leave behind, the ones I call the stable ones? The ones after the manner of the old people. They leave themselves behind. Their next generation takes over and carries on. Time means nothing to them. It's an eternal order of the law. The law of consecration is an eternal order. We will just leave ourselves, the culture, behind, without any loss of product. People will have plenty to do and plenty to think of. ("Law of Consecration", Approaching Zion)