Regime Changes | Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E.

Introduction
In this article the word "regime" will refer to a person or group of people who are in control of a system of any size and of any nature. It can refer to a household, a family, a school, a business, a church, or a government.

A regime may exist for a few hours, or days, or weeks, or months, or years, or decades. But regimes do not remain stable during their existence. Regimes are constantly changing, either for better or worse.

The purpose of this article is to briefly review some of the regime changes I have personally experienced during my life.

Discussion
Family:
I was fortunate to be born into a family that had God-fearing parents and grandparents. That provided consistent and stable guidelines for my behavior and if I did something that was wrong then I knew what was going to happen. My mother died of a heart attack when I was 20 years old during my Junior year in college. We mourned her death but we continued with our lives because we believed her spirit was in heaven. Two years later my father remarried a God-fearing woman and they remained together until she died in her late eighties. Therefore when I visited my father and my stepmother their home life was the same as when I was growing up when my natural mother was alive. In other words, there was no change in the household rules as a result of the regime change from my natural mother to my stepmother.

School:
I attended kindergarten in a small town but then we moved to a large city and I attended grades 1 to 4 at a different school. During this time I learned that the standards and the rules of my different teachers would change each year. At the time I did not think much about this because I figured it was just the way things changed as you advanced from one grade to the next grade. But then we moved and I completed grades 5 and 6 at a new school and the standards were really different and the rules were really different even though we were still in the same state. I successfully adjusted. This continued until I graduated with an engineering degree from a major state university. I was able to succeed because I knew that the standards and the rules for each teacher were going to be different and that the first thing I needed to do was to learn what those new standards and rules were, and then I needed to adhere to them. I was able to succeed in school because I was able to adapt to what each new "regime" demanded.

It is unfortunate that schools have changed drastically during the past 50 years. In the public school system many students are rude and disrespectful to everyone. And it is not possible to discipline these students in any way because it would result in the teacher being fired and perhaps becoming the target of a lawsuit. And many public schools have eliminated a "failing grade" from their standards and all students pass all courses even if they never learn anything, and if they never turn in any of their assignments. The primary reason is because the parents of those students don't care and they don't bother to respond to any type of feedback from the school system. The law says their child has to attend school and that is all they care about. But if their child gets a bad grade then they will firmly put the blame on the teacher and threaten legal action. This is the reason that qualified teachers are leaving the public school system in the thousands. They do not believe that a student should receive a passing grade in a class when the student never does any of the assignments and the student always turns in blank test papers.

However, there are some students in public schools that continue to do their assignments and they continue to get high grades. But many parents are now enrolling their children in private schools because they want their children to be influenced by other students who have to work to pass their classes. And some parents are home schooling their children because they love their children so much that they want to take positive action to ensure that their children get the type of education they desire. In the future it is entirely possible that the students who become educated will receive the higher paying better jobs, unless our government becomes 100% socialized and all people earn the same amount of money regardless of how well they do (or don't do) their jobs.

Work:
I went to work at the age of 17 as a waiter in a restaurant. After three months my boss was drafted into the military and a new boss took over. Some of the things I had been taught how to do were acceptable to my new boss but he trained me to do some things in a new and different way. Since I wanted to keep my job I did things the way my new boss told me to do them. This was my first exposure to a regime change in business and it was very helpful to me because I was better prepared to work as a engineer for a variety of different bosses after I graduated from college.

While working as an engineer in industry I had three different bosses at one of the companies I worked for. I was able to be successful for that one company because I was flexible and I did things the way each new boss, or regime, wanted things done.

Higher Education:
I was a university professor for 37 years. During that time our university had six different presidents. And our engineering college had seven different deans. And my department had eight different department chairs. In every case the new regime made some changes to the ways things had been done in the past. This happened at the department level, at the college level, and at the university level. I mention this because some of the things that I had been encouraged to do when I first because a professor were considered to be of little value when I retired after 37 years of service. This didn't surprise me or upset me because I had observed how different regimes had made changes to the ground rules over this entire 37 year period.

Religion:
I have been a sincere Christian since 1976. During this time I have seen the regimes of major Christian denominations change and each new regime changed the ground rules for their denomination. In some cases the new ground rules were simply a different opinion of the leadership of the denomination. For example, when I was eating at the school cafeteria in the 1960s the school served fish every Friday because the Catholic Church encouraged religious people to eat fish on Fridays. Then a new Pope took over and he said that religious people no longer had to eat fish on Fridays. Therefore the public school cafeterias stopped serving fish every Friday. However fish was still on the school menu but fish might be served on any day of the week.

In the twenty-first century some denominations are ordaining clergymen who adhere and practice the current sexual guidelines of the government and those clergymen have abandoned the sexual guidelines of the Holy Bible. And they encourage their congregations to follow their example. This illustrates how a regime change can lead to the abandonment of one of God's Laws as God clearly explained His Laws in the Holy Bible.

Government:
I do not wish to discuss the impact that regime changes have had on the local, state, and federal governments during my lifetime because it would take too long. In the twenty-first century most adults expect the legal guidelines to be changed on a regular basis by the regime that is currently in control.

Summary:
Almost everyone who is age 25 or older understands that the rules they are currently following may be replaced by a different set of rules at any time. This can result in the long-term destability of a nation because its citizens realize that their past obedience to all the existing laws will not matter because those laws may change at any time and they could be labeled with some derogatory name at the discretion of the current regime, whether it is a business, school, church, or government. Therefore huge numbers of people are simply giving up and they are removing themselves from the workforce. An example would be the current lack of qualified teachers in the public school system. And if the vaccine mandate is enforced by denying a person's religious exemption request, then a large number of medical professionals, career military personnel, truck drivers, and restaurant workers will join the ranks of the unemployed. However, this may not be a bad thing for your community because these individuals have skills, including military personnel who were dishonorably discharged for refusing to be "voluntarily" vaccinated, and those skills could be of significant benefit to a small community.

Conclusion
There is one regime that has remained unchanged for approximately 2,000 years. I am referring to the reign of Jesus Christ as LORD over all of creation. His Words have been translated into more than a thousand different languages. And His rules for the successful operation of any family, business, society, or government are the same in the twenty-first century as they were in the first century.

Although His Words have been interpreted differently by different people, and by different religious organizations, His Words have not changed. And even though different "religions" have incorrectly used their interpretation of His Words to defend the evil things they do, this does not invalidate Jesus' original Words.

And Jesus has promised that He will reward each person who sincerely tries to be faithful to His original Words by granting that person eternal life in Glory with Him, and by giving that person an eternal home in His new Jerusalem, and by rewarding that person with eternal treasures that will never mold, mildew, or wear out.

If you truly wish to put your confidence and your efforts into a regime that never changes, and that never revises their rules, and that offers you eternal rewards, then may I suggest that you read a valid translation of the Holy Bible and that you consider putting your trust, your faith, and your allegiance in Jesus Christ.

Malachi 3:6 - King James Version
6 "I am the LORD, I change not;"

Joshua 1:5 - New International Version
5 "I will never leave you nor forsake you."

Matthew 24:35 - King James Version
35 "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."

May God Bless,
Grandpappy.

Grandpappy's e-mail address is: RobertWayneAtkins@hotmail.com