What Are You Waiting for?
Tomorrow's World Magazine
June 1969
Volume: Vol I, No. 1
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What Are You Waiting for?

Most people seem to spend life in a "waiting" posture. Constantly planning, hoping, "waiting it out," they look for new experiences, travel, financial windfalls, new breakthroughs in their marriages-spending much of their time in WAITING for something new and different. It's time you MADE history, instead of waiting for it to pass you by.

   THERE'S A LITTLE of the dreamer in all of us.
   Otherwise, you wouldn't see so many discontented, struggling, mediocre lives around you — lives dedicated to the "not quites" of living — searching, reaching out, hoping, planning — and usually failing.
   Like gamblers who plunged that last five on a bad throw of the dice, millions of people resignedly accept a "not quite" in life.
   What is a "not quite"?
   Well, it's one of the dozens of compromises you have learned to live with. It's another of those excuses you offered yourself for small disappointments and failures. It's another dashed hope, broken promise, missed appointment, rejected song or novel, cancelled trip, or broken date.
   It's the whole series of little justifications you have offered yourself for being what you are, where you are; doing what you're doing — and still being somehow dissatisfied with it all — just as you are, right now,
   What about it?
   Is your life a real success? Are you really, happy? Is your job exciting, inspiring, challenging and rewarding? Is your marriage, or your social life a constant delight — enjoyable and fulfilling? Are you out of debt — in solid financial shape?

Some Day

   This is no "pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps" article on "self -help" or some kind of personal betterment philosophy. I'll offer no shortcuts to some swift windfall or success. But it's about time we really saw the "waiting posture" in most of us -saw it in true perspective — and identified it as the culprit that brings us no end of private pain!
   From your earliest recollections of frustrations — you began waiting.
   Remember how it was the day the little redheaded bully knocked you down in an argument over the marble game? You shook your skinny little fist and said, "You JUST WAIT — you big bully — I'll get even!... YOU JUST WAIT!"
   Or, you probably said, "ONE of these days — just ONE of these days..."
   But you never did. Somehow, the grand dream of your favorite little girl watching you turn the neighborhood bully into a quavering mass of tears just never materialized. Oh, you hoped it would. You may even have dreamed about it. You could have boasted of it to friends — or looked at muscle-building courses in magazines.
   But this passed, with other youthful hopes and dreams.
   Does this sound far-fetched? I doubt it. Whether your experience was exactly this, or just something similar — so many of us have had such frustrations; broken dreams, missed opportunities, shattered hopes.
   And it wasn't only the boyish or girlish hopes that were shattered — but the very most important ones. Hopes of marriage, home and family — hopes of success, challenge, discovery, new thrills and experiences.
   Let's face it: Millions — no, more than that — of mankind must lire daily with their "not quites" of life.

Conditioned to Failure

   It doesn't take many years for most of us to understand the hypocrisy in the world around us. As early teen-agers, we begin seeing the double-standard world. Our parents may say one thing, and do another. The newspapers are loaded with scandals, "inside stories," infamous trials, Hollywood divorces, and a potpourri of sundry immoral trivia which soon convinces us the idealistic dreams of early youth were really worthless, after all.
   Probably, we began wondering at quite an early age WHAT we would BE. We wanted to BE somebody — somebody, well,.... DIFFERENT. Everybody has had the same experience. Everybody has thought, at one time or another, "But — why does it always have to be ME?" This is mostly vanity, of course, but it happens, nevertheless.
   From childhood, each person wanted to BE something — someone! A fireman? Most boys have thought of it. A pilot? An astronaut? Probably so. Or a chemist, an aeronautical engineer? Or perhaps a captain of a ship, or a cowboy, or a corporation executive, an inventor, or a famous politician.
   But practically Nobody planned to be what most people are.
   How many boys LONGED to be truck drivers, plumbers, carpenters, laborers, machinists, elevator operators (there still are a few), concession operators, or door-to-door salesmen of at least two hundred different articles with varying degrees of uselessness?
   And how many girls REALLY dreamed of marrying JUST the man they're married to — with the job lie has, the home they live in, the car they drive, the children they have, the debts they're in, and the future they share?
   But most people aren't TERRIBLY unhappy in such circumstances.
   They're just "mildly" unhappy.
   But unhappy at all isn't happy. And the unhappiness comes from the frustration of a whole series of small failures. These are the "not quites" in life.
   Most people didn't have "quite enough" education. They don't have "quite enough" money to pay the bills. They "almost" got that raise, that trip, that vacation, that new TV set, or that new automobile.
   And even our accidents, failures, and financial mistakes are justified in that same manner. When someone has had a minor traffic mishap, he'll usually speculate, for useless hours, on the "If I had just..." idea. That means he'll wonder why he didn't take just a LITTLE longer to fumble for his car keys; or not hurry QUITE so fast to make that green light, or stop at the store like he'd intended — a whole host of ideas about events which could have placed him in that fateful intersection either ahead of, or safely behind, that other car.
   We all speculate about what we call "fate."
   And soon, in our many, many little failures, our frustrations and "not quites" we just resign ourselves to our "fate."
   Most people are fairly philosophical about failure. They accept it with quite a degree of alacrity. Some are even seemingly content with it. These are the natural enemies and scoffers of the rich. To such a person, ANYONE with "money" just "got the breaks," but never, never earned it.
   He'll usually be quite an authority on success — on famous, successful people — even though he doesn't have much of it. As a matter of fact, it is a never-ending source of amazement that the lower the amount of success, the more authoritative, all-knowing, perceptive, and wise the person will appear to be.
   Of course, many could say SOMEONE has to be the common laborers of the world — and of course, many will agree. And nothing is wrong with work: nor with carpentry, plumbing, electrical engineering, or truck driving. But unless a man is literally — quite literally — CHALLENGED by such jobs, and finds them exciting, stimulating, and REWARDING, then he's only "marking time" in another of the "not quites."
   Too many people have had to "get a job" instead of developing their God-given talents into an occupation!
   But we grow conditioned to failure.
   Even in the world at large, we see failure.
   We're told, sagely, that we must grow accustomed to living somewhere in the awful and unthinkable area between a war which must never be fought, and a peace which can never be won. We're so scared of the bomb, we simply ignore it. We have even, many of us, accepted the story that the bomb is a GOOD thing, and that its very existence — in tonnages of killing power — forty-four times more than necessary for annihilating all mankind — is what is PREVENTING war.
   Even in world news and world conditions, most of us are conditioned to failure.
   And it happens in our state elections, our local counties, and our school boards. It soon begins happening with our children, and in our closest companions.
   From learning how each new President of the nation finds himself hopelessly ensnared in a bureaucratic morass so deep, so inextricable, that he is, in some vitally important issues, almost unable to move in ANY direction; to discovering the new governor we thought would answer all our hopes and dreams ended lip raising our taxes — we grow conditioned to these things.

The Age of Non-Involvement

   But, we reason — there's nothing we can DO about it all.
   Each of us has decided we're only ONE person, and therefore so infinitely helpless.
   We KNOW many of the wrongs around us. After all, we live with them daily. We see the starvation in Biafra, the tension in the Mideast, and the vague, unreal stories of vast purges behind the Bamboo Curtain. Daily, we read in our papers of the huge, ponderous, never-encouraging problems of the governments of the world.
   Probably, we have a certain attitude toward each one of them. An opinion. But here it stops. We form an "attitude." We conjure up an "idea." And that, in itself, in our mediocre world, seems quite sufficient
   But a private philosophy of a truck driver, or an electrical engineer, or a plumber, or even a corporate executive or airline pilot — doesn't change the world.
   It's grown to the point that world conditions seem to us about like the weather. It's something everybody TALKS a lot about, but never DOES anything about.
   Our leaders haven't helped much.
   But then, that's the way of leaders. They can hardly promise total solutions when not thoroughly understanding the problems. No leader, in his right mind, will promise solutions. He'll speak of "programs" and "progress." He'll talk of "studies" and "methods." He'll even mention the usual workaday terms of peace, safety, prosperity; or attacks on poverty. But he will not promise an end to crime and violence — nor an END to race hatreds, nor an END to wars in the world.
   He cannot.
   Because he only controls a portion of government. He does not control human nature.
   Soon, then, the "not quites" of us simply resign ourselves to the vague, "living for the moment" attitude of the rest of us. Our "waiting" posture is always evident. We're waiting for a better day in the world; a cleanup in the neighborhood, and lessening of taxes. We're waiting for a raise, or a chance to move, or for the weather to clear. We're waiting for crops to mature, or the new models to appear, or for our boy to graduate from college. But always we're waiting. Waiting, and waiting. We WAIT for peace — but it never seems to come.
   So enter compromise. Enter non-involvement. Most of us find out soon enough that the way to make things work for us in our own environment is to avoid getting "involved" in some novel or revolutionary thing. The "don't make waves," "don't rock the boat" attitude is deeply instilled in us, by the very nature of society.
   That's why most of the older generation cannot see anything beyond simple rebellion in the hoarse screams of indignant "turned-off" youth on many a college campus.
   The adults have gotten used to the "not quites" in life — why can't the kids do the same thing? The kids don't have the answers — but at least, many of them are beginning to understand the questions. The Communists arc very eager to use the near-fanatical dedication of many youths who feel they are struggling for some new-found cause. And, in some cases, those CAUSES may be morally sound — even if the methods are both immoral and illegal.
   But still, the older generation, conditioned to the "not quites," and fully committed to the "waiting posture" in life — is unwilling to get that "involved" in something.
   Trouble with much of the youth is they mistake "involvement" for a right cause. They seem to feel if they can do ANYTHING which "society" (meaning, Usually, the police and any other authorities) is against, then it must AUTOMATICALLY be right, because so many of them are convinced the older generation is ALL WRONG!
   It's too bad the youth of our peoples cannot have a TRUE champion — a TRUE cause — a WORTHWHILE work. Of course, they can, if they knew where to look — and that's what this article is about — where to look.
   What about it? Do YOU recognize the waiting posture in yourself? Can you think of the dozens of things you've yearned to do, to accomplish, to experience, to see — and acknowledge that you never will?
   Believe it or not — this vague frustration; this feeling of "not quite" is one of the most important causes of unhappiness in life! It has broken up marriages, ruined businesses, thwarted education, shattered romance, and even caused suicide.
   Usually, it's milder than that.
   Most people just find ways to live with the "not quites." They keep thinking "some day." "Some day," they tell themselves, they'll really get busy and cut down on their drinking habits; widen their circle of friends, and trim off that ugly waistline.
   But they never do.

Why Most Give up

   Let's face it, most people live accidentally.
   You probably don't know anyone who has really planned — set a GOAL — and then patterned his life. Most people take life as it comes to them — haphazardly, accidentally, without long-range thought or planning. That's why the majority follows where the leaders lead. Leaders must plan — must have goals and purposes. History proves most of those goals and purposes have been incredibly selfish; and that the leaders of the world — not the "little people" afflicted with the "not quites" — have finally produced a nuclear stalemate; a daily terror of a world fraught with more problems of more far-reaching and profound consequences than ever; armed to the teeth with hydrogen bombs and missiles — and still divided, suspicious, hostile, and self-seeking.
   And the majority of mankind seethes in frustration.
   You were not ASKED whether you wished to be plunged into the nuclear age.
   Society was not consulted. No group of scientists, government leaders, military men, and representatives of all the millions of "not quites" sat down to seriously, carefully, studiously ponder the hazards versus the benefits of a nuclear age.
   Had they done so — no one can safely predict their final decisions, since most final decisions coming from similar groups of eminent leaders have proved inordinately crass, and sometimes disastrous.
   But you weren't asked.
   You weren't asked about Korea. Or about Vietnam. But your sons, husbands, fathers and cousins may have fought there. And many, many of them have died there.
   But wars are only a part of why people resign themselves to "not quites." The conditions of life around them are another vital part. Whether it's racism, the squalor of the ghetto, or the huge pile of rusting junk in the back yard — now grown familiar to them, they soon learn to accept these things as the "status quo," and live with them. That's "just the way it is," they tell themselves. "That's the way the ball bounces" — "that's the way the cookie crumbles" are the catch-phrases for excusing the "not quites." They're expressions of futility; of resignation, and of frustration.
   Perhaps you're one of the many who practically never fails to pick up a newspaper, or hear a radio news broadcast, or read a particularly nauseating article in a magazine, and get all-fired MAD about it.
   Perhaps it's reading, NOW, about the dangerous side-effects of "the pill."
   Or maybe you were a mother who had an armless child — because practically all the doctors in the world told you, patronizingly, that thalidomide was a wonderful new elixir to solve all your tensions and fears. Only after it was sickeningly too late did you discover the lie.
   Or maybe you grow angry, still (it seem only the few do, anymore), when reading of terrible, brutal stabbings, slashings, bludgeonings, rape, shootings, bank robberies, burglaries — even when these things happen to someone else
   You probably express an OPINION about these things. You may decry, deplore, reject, criticize, and generally condemn all you wish — there's not a single thing you can DO about it. Or at least, so you think.
   On decisions made by the local school board; or the tax laws, or the intrusions into your private life of any number of others regulatory agencies — why bother to speak? They're all a part of the ponderous, intricate, bureaucrats morass of society — something so huge you can't understand it, let alone try to CHANGE it.
   So little by little, as you grew into a ready-made world, accidentally, you learned to accept mild opinions, indignations, and disgust — philosophically.
   You learned you could spout off in the barber chair, or on the courthouse steps, or in private conversation all you wish — but that you were powerless to do anything about it. You soon learned to live with many "not quites." And you patiently sit back and wait. "Some day" you hope things will change. "Some day" you figure people may begin doing the right thing EVEN BY MISTAKE.

An Age of Opinions and Talk

   Our ultra-liberals are angry with the new bumper sticker — "AMERICA, Love It or Leave It." This is virtually unconstitutional (that magical, all-powerful, catch-all for every mysteriously liberal deed), they snort. The precious right of DISSENT is suddenly more dignified, more truly patriotic, more deeply American, than any other one. Some people may feel it was the prime reason for founding the country.
   Of course, they're partly right. The "Like me, or get out" may be well and good for private institutions, family gatherings, and churches — but it hardly suits a country.
   So they talk. Everyone talks. They talk about the "Russians," about Red China and the UN, about the elections, the Mideast, and everything of world importance. They talk of taxes (as they always have), the rising cost of living, crime and dope addiction, and sex. And like the opinion sections of magazines and newspapers, the talk can be as widely divergent as any possible human extreme. While one writer may be rapturously enthralled at the newest shocker on the stage, Hair (where, in the final scene, all the principal players appear in the altogether), another will indignantly blast the show as another sure sign of decaying morals of the country — and the world.
   And who is to say who is right?
   The educators and philosophers avoid the words, "right" and "wrong." The "Moral Relativists" and preachers of situation ethics have convinced much of the public that there is no clear distinction between what's right and wrong. It may have been well and good for the midwestern farmer father to thunder at his children to "no WHAT'S RIGHT" back there in yesteryear — but the forces of nihilism have been very successful in their ridicule of any such dogmatism.
   So today, the people talk. They argue. They listen with rapt attention to the new breed of professional cynics on radio and television whose blissful delight is to interview some suspected charlatan and "get him to say what he didn't intend to say" on the show.
   These men, these cynics, are followed ardently by millions. They can tell you many, many wrongs — but seem to be unable to suggest rights. They can, with piercing accuracy, display all that's shoddy, clandestine and sullied in society — but seem virtually tongue-tied when it comes to what SHOULD be right,
   The various telephone-conversation radio and TV shows all have their eager listeners.
   And this carping, this criticism, this griping about conditions at least seems to relieve some small part of the frustrations most people feel. If they're talking about the war in Vietnam, it seems this is at least a second best to DOING something about it. And many people carefully avoid controversy. Unwilling to stand out as being SOLIDLY "for" or "against" — or to appear really INVOLVED in some particular issue, they'll say, "Well — it's only my OPINION, of course — but..." and then express their "opinion."
   And this, too, is proof of the "waiting posture" of many people.
   Do you get the point? There is a FUTILITY about us today — a defeatism — a willingness to live with NO solutions, NO answers — that is everywhere evident. Too many people have resigned themselves to mediocrity in life. They're unhappy — mildly frustrated — yet willing to accept those "not quites" in life in favor of taking the knocks they know will surely come with real INVOLVEMENT in some burning issue.
   But it's about time more people became INVOLVED. Really involved! It's time people DID get a little excited about the issues — instead of mildly musing over them a few moments, and then continuing along in their own private rut of life.
   You know the issues. The population explosion; the wars and threats of more; the stockpiling of hydrogen weapons and the threat of more nations joining the nuclear club; the starvation — hideous, ugly, wreched starvation in Biafra, and other places in the world; the drought and famine in India; the "purges" in China; the mounting CRIME and VIOLENCE in the Western World; the campus RIOTS; the RACE HATREDS all around you; the worthless, empty nihilistic LIVES all around — the breakup of the HOME and MARRIAGE; the sacrificing of millions of children on the altar of DIVORCE and LUST! The sick entertainment; the hard-core pornography — these and a virtually innumerable host of other evils bombard us daily.
   And most of us just grow little philosophical callouses — and "wait."
   But YOU DON'T NEED to feel helpless. You don't NEED to wait! You CAN GET INVOLVED in these vital issues — yes, WORLDWIDE issues Of MAMMIOTH importance and significance!
   This new magazine is direct involvement in those issues!
   Fulfilling a NEW NEED in this great worldwide work — a work that is UTTERLY UNIQUE in the world — this magazine deals with the practical facts of TOMORROW'S WORLD!

We, of this great WORK, are INVOLVED!

   We, of the WORLD TOMORROW program on radio and television, of The PLAIN TRUTH magazine, and of this very' publication, the news of TOMORROW'S WORLD, are INVOLVED!
   We don't merely philosophize — argue — or express a "point of view." I do not offer my "opinions" over the program — nor will we in the pages of these magazines!
   Rather, we will continue to WARN this dying, sin-sick world of the HORRIBLE, UNIMAGINABLE consequences of man's unbelievable stupidity! MAN HAS REJECTED HIS GOD! He YEARNS for peace — and is going in the EXACT OPPOSITE direction FROM peace — TOWARD war; toward unhappiness, futility, uselessness, failure!
   There IS NOT ANOTHER WORK ON EARTH LIKE THIS ONE!
   We, in this Work of God, are not "waiting it out" — resigning ourselves to the "not quites" — the small disappointments. Rather, we're continually INSPIRED, THRILLED by new developments; new programs.
   Millions listen to my voice over the air, and that is deeply rewarding and satisfying to me, and to all of us! Hundreds of thousands can now WATCH The WORLD TOMORROW, programs on television.
   Our huge, worldwide advertising campaign has brought additional MILLIONS of precious lives into direct contact with this Work!
   MILLIONS have read the vital books on the true origin of the American and British peoples, and their IMMEDIATE DESTINY. MILLIONS have read the hard-hitting articles in The PLAIN TRUTH, and dozens and dozens of thousands have sat down to deeply STUDY their Bibles, the very Word of the LIVING God, through the Correspondence Course.
   People in Ghana, India, Vietnam, Eastern Europe, Central and South America, Indonesia, China, Mexico; from Finland to South Africa, and from Tasmania to British Columbia, are being CHANGED! Their LIVES have been profoundly moved - CHANGED — by the impact of this Last-ditch effort of Christ!
   They're learning how, to LIVE — how to make their marriages — HAPPY, how to lovingly rear their children, HOW to obey God's LAWS given them for their GOOD. They learn how, HUMANITY WILL BE SAVED!
   And many of them are getting involved! Many of them are getting ALL THE WAY involved with God their Father, and the Work of His Christ! But ONLY GOD can accomplish that!
   Only God can stir a person to REALLY get involved with Him, and in His Work!
   Jesus said none CAN come to the Son except the Spirit of the Father draw Him! Of course. it's possible to RESIST the pull of GOD'S Spirit; possible to LOSE OUT on the most precious and rewarding things in life. No one can PUSH some other person toward God's soon-coming world-ruling government. God will not, ,and no one else CAN.
   YOU must decide each thing YOU do.
   But the time for waiting is long over, now. Those who still "wait" through life will not have long to wait, now — because this great Work of God is in its LAST efforts!

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Tomorrow's World MagazineJune 1969Vol I, No. 1