Why Tribes are Vital to Success in the 21st Century
October 4th, 2010 // 4:00 am @ Oliver DeMille
SETH GODIN’S RUNAWAY BESTSELLER Tribes took a quaint anthropological label and turned it into a pop culture buzz-word.
And while his timely ideas helped articulate a fresh and needed approach to marketing and beyond, the power of tribal culture is far greater than any publishing or sales phenomenon.
Whether he realized it or not, Godin swerved into a truth of huge ramifications — far more significant than social networks or marketing wizardry.
Tribes are not only the shape of our past, but the key to our future; and they have everything to do with freedom.
Several millennia of history seem to argue that there is something both natural and functional about tribal society for human beings. And yet most moderns have little sense of its value, nor less, its relation to our freedom and our future.
Our Tribal Roots
On many occasions I have asked well-read college students, including executives and masters/doctoral students, to diagram the American government model which established unprecedented levels of freedom and prosperity to people from all backgrounds, classes and views.
It’s turned out to be something of a trick question, as they usually do it in the wrong order — and they invariably get the most important part wrong.
Specifically, they start by diagramming three branches of government (a judicial, an executive and a bicameral legislature) and then sit down, thinking they’ve done the assignment.
When I ask, “What about the rest?” they are stumped for a few seconds.
Then, some of them have an epiphany and quickly return to the white board to diagram the same thing at the state level. This time they are sure they are done.
“What level of government came first in the American colonies?” I ask.
After some debate, they agree that towns, cities, counties and local governments were established, many with written constitutions, for over two centuries before the U.S. Constitution and many decades before the state governments and constitutions.
“So, diagram the founding model of local government,” I say.
They usually diagram a copy of the three-branch U.S. Constitutional model — which is entirely incorrect. This little exercise would be a whole lot more amusing if its implications were not so troubling.
This sad lack of knowledge indicates at least one thing: Americans who have learned about our constitutional model have tended to memorize it largely by rote, without truly understanding the foundational principles of freedom.
We’re like apes at the switch: highly trained, but with no earthly idea what all the machinery is for — or any sense of our lacking.
Civics 101
The first constitutions and governments in America were local, and there were hundreds of them.
These documents were the basis of later state constitutions, and they were also the models in which early Americans learned to actively cooperate to govern themselves.
Without them, the state constitutions could never have been written. Without these local and state constitutions, the U.S. Constitution would have been very, very different.
In short, these local constitutions and governments were, and are, the basis of American freedoms and the whole system of Constitutional government in the United States.
The surprising thing, at least to many moderns, is that these local constitutions were very different than the state and federal constitutional model.
True, they were harmonious in principle with the ideals that informed the state and federal models. And there were some similarities; but the structure was drastically different.
The principles of freedom are applied distinctly to be effective at local and tribal levels.
Freedom at the Local Level
Another surprise to many is that nearly all the early townships and cities in the Americas adopted a constitutional structure very similar to each other. They were amazingly alike.
This is because they are designed to apply the best principles of freedom to the local and tribal levels.
But there is more. A similar model was followed by the Iriquois League as well, and by several other native American tribal governments.
This same model of free local/tribal government shows up in tribes throughout Central and South America, Oceana, Africa, Asia and the historic Germanic tribes.
Indeed, it is found in the Bible as followed by the Tribes of Israel; this is where the American founders said they found it — primarily in Deuteronomy chapter 30.
This pattern is not accidental, coincidental or imitative. It is a predictable model based on natural law and human nature; and an understanding of these leads to the establishment of efficient, effective and freedom-producing local forms.
And it is these local “tribal councils” that are the roots of freedom, from which all the more complex and over-arching forms at the state and federal levels are derived.
Detach these from their tribal-governance roots, and you end up with a very different outcome.
Foundations of American Freedom
The most accurate way, then, to diagram the American governmental system is to diagram the local system correctly, then the federal and state levels with their three branches each, separations of power and checks and balances.
But how exactly does one diagram the local level?
The basics are as follows.The true freedom system includes establishing, as the most basic unit of society, local government councils that are small enough to include all adults in the decision-making meetings for major choices.
This system is clearly described in Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, Volume 1, Chapter 5, and in Liberty Fund’s Colonial Origins of the American Constitution.
These town, city, or tribal councils truly establish and maintain freedom by including in the most local and foundational decisions the voices and votes of all the adult citizenry.
These councils make decisions by majority vote after open discussion. They also appoint mayors/chiefs, law enforcement leaders, judges and other officials.
All of these officials report directly to the full council and can be removed by the voice of the council.
Representative houses and offices are much more effective at the larger state and national levels.
But the point that cannot be stressed enough is: The whole system breaks down if the regular citizens aren’t actively involved in governance at the most local levels.
In this model, every adult citizen is literally a government official, with the result that all citizens study the government system, their role in it, the issues and laws and cases, and think like leaders. Without this, freedom is eventually lost.
Indeed, in a nation where the government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed, is it any wonder that a population of unengaged “citizens” is the beneficiary of a government constantly increasing its power at the cost of our freedoms? What other outcome can reasonably be expected?
Once again, the most successful tribes, communities and even nations through history have adopted this model of local governance that includes all citizens in the basic local decision-making.
The result has always been increased freedom and prosperity. No free society in history has lasted once this system eroded.
Tocqueville called this system of local citizen governance the most important piece of America’s freedom model.
Today we need to better understand the foundations of tribal culture so that we actually, truly begin to understand local and tribal governance in a system of freedom.
This will be vital to the future of freedom in a world where the new tribes are taking the place of historical communities.
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Oliver DeMille is the founder of the Center for Social Leadership, and a co-creator of TJEd.
He is the author of A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the 21st Century, and The Coming Aristocracy: Education & the Future of Freedom.
Oliver is dedicated to promoting freedom through leadership education. He and his wife Rachel are raising their eight children in Cedar City, Utah.
Category : Citizenship &Community &Constitution &Government &History &Liberty &Tribes
Beyond Liberal & Conservative: Independents, Postmodernism, & How to Really Understand the Issues
October 1st, 2010 // 4:00 am @ Oliver DeMille
If you want to understand and profit from the political, economic and cultural forces at play in today’s world, you must understand two things:
- The evolution of pre-modernism, modernism and post-modernism.
- How independents view and are shaping the world.
Armed with this understanding you’ll be able to see through the superficial and misleading “liberal versus conservative” debate portrayed by the media. Furthermore, you’ll be able to harness our current societal transformations to your advantage.
The most fundamental question in the Great Debate of how society should be organized is “Who (or what) will save us?”
Pre-modernism, modernism, and post-modernism all have different answers.
Pre-Modernism & Modernism
Modernism is defined in many ways. One of the most enlightening is discovered by comparing modernism to the pre-modern and post-modern worlds.
In a nutshell, pre-modern societies believed that some supernatural being or at least super-powerful entity would save mankind. Man is flawed and weak (so the narrative went), and if we are to be saved it must come from something greater than man.
The three main branches of this view ⎯ one God, many gods, and shamanic energy powers ⎯ all agreed on the basics.
For example: man needs saving, he can’t save himself, a higher power must save us, and we should therefore live in a way that pleases or avails us of the benefits of the higher power.
That’s a simple version of pre-modernism.
Modernism began when societies changed these assumptions. The modern era adopted the following beliefs: man needs saving, he can’t save himself and it seems no godlike power is inclined to step up (for whatever reason), so man must build institutions which can save him.
In short, modernism rests on the belief that man-made institutions can and should save us.
The early modernists built on their pre-modern religious roots and turned to churches as the institutions most likely to fix the world’s problems. Those who were dissatisfied or impatient with this solution turned to governments as the answer.
If there are any problems in the world, according to this view, government should fix them. If a government won’t fix a problem or allows any suffering, it is bad and should be reformed or replaced. If a government tries but can’t fix problems, it is too weak and must be given more power.
After all, we humans like our higher powers incredibly strong and always benevolent.
Government v. Markets
A third major branch of modernism arose when governments repeatedly failed to solve the world’s problems. This school of thought believed that big business was the answer.
Huge, powerful businesses, as Keynes argued, reach a size where they care less about profit and more about taking care of their employees and society in general.
This view has business provide insurance, benefits and other perks to help the people live happily. It tends to ignore small business and even large “greedy” businesses, and instead promote more power to the biggest corporations.
In recent years we’ve witnessed the debates between all three branches of modernism, from faith-based initiatives (church as central institution) to health care reform (government as central institution) to executive bonuses (corporation as central institution).
But since the media usually couches all these and many other issues in “Conservative versus Liberal” terms, few people realize what is actually going on in these controversies.
The church-as-savior belief lost most of its influence in the last century, leaving governments and businesses to jockey for first place in this race to be the central institution helping mankind.
Many participated in this debate: Marx, Darwin, Bastiat, Nietszche, Freud, C.S. Lewis, Andrew Carnegie, Ayn Rand, Solzhenitsyn, Keynes, Kinsey, Milton Friedman, Mao, Reagan, Clinton, Bush, Obama, several Popes, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and others.
Most recently, Ralph Nader has argued that the only solution to our current problems is for the super-rich to use their influence and power to reduce corporate power in the world and let governments save us.
Government offers the most hope to mankind, this view argues, and corporations are the problem. Greedy corporations caused the economic downturn, according to this view.
In contrast, the famous Shell Oil Global Scenarios have made a case that government cannot and will not solve truly global problems like energy, environment, transportation, economic ups and downs, communication and education.
Their solution is for corporations with experience planning across borders to be given the power to make and follow a “blueprint” for global success.
Leaving it to governments would cause a mad “scramble” toward more war, poverty, depression and suffering, according to this view.
After all, the corporations say, when the economy fell it hurt most companies and nearly all governments. Only the biggest corporations remained strong ⎯ so they should govern us!
Both sides (“Government Should Fix It” and “Big Business as Savior”) see the other as a dangerous utopian scheme.
Consider, for example, the issue of health care (or energy policy, unemployment, boosting the economy, or any other national issue). Most officials and media personnel see the debates as political, between conservatives and liberals.
To a certain extent ⎯ votes in Congress ⎯ this is true. But the real debate is much deeper and broader than politics.
It is about who we are as human beings and where we’re headed as a society. While there are still some supporters of pre-modern or modern views, governments and businesses have so far failed to deliver heaven on earth or even ideal society.
The End of Conservative versus Liberal
For most people today, neither of these institutions are the answer.
When conservatives talk about faith-based initiatives or Republicans tout trickle-down economics, most people are skeptical. Likewise when liberals emphasize anti-corporate measures or Democrats roll out the latest government program.
The result of this growing skepticism characterizes the rise of the independents.
A few independents are anti-government and a few are anti-corporation, but the large majority just want government to do its job, do it well, and stop trying to do everything else.
While there is heated debate over what, exactly, is the government’s job, most independents would settle for good national security, good schools, fiscal responsibility, social equity, and a high-opportunity economy.
While the Left hopes to create a good economy through government programs and the Right through big business initiatives, most independents want both ⎯ along with less regulation on small business.
But this tectonic shift in American society is much bigger than politics. Most Americans, and indeed many around the world, have lost faith in modernism itself, in the promise that big, powerful, man-made institutions⎯be they church, government or corporation⎯can solve our problems.
Indeed, there is a growing sentiment than most big institutions tend to increase the world’s problems.
Business, church and government all have a place in society, the independents say, but none are the “higher” powers we once hoped for.
Postmodernism & Independents
Enter post-modernism. While nearly every person who writes about postmodernism defines it differently, one thing is clear: The fastest growing worldview is not modernism.
That is, postmodernists are of many stripes, but they don’t believe that government or business will save us. Period. And they are the new majority.
Independents are likely to read and champion ideas from both Milton Friedman and Ralph Nader, vote for both Barack Obama and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and quote both Ted Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.
Neither liberals nor conservatives understand them.
What is the cause of this social/cultural/political earthquake?
At least part of it is that independents no longer have a basic faith in the infallibility or fundamental goodness of government or the market. They see a role for both, and feel that both must be limited.
But the biggest shift of all may be that postmodernists and independents have a new faith: “We must save ourselves, at least as far as this world is concerned.”
On one extreme, this means becoming truly self-made, like an Ayn Rand hero, building yourself and your family at the expense of all others.
At another extreme, it includes those who still believe God will save us, but feel that we must live in a way that we deserve to be saved — or at least become worthy to live in a God-made world.
Most postmodernists adopt neither of these — believing instead that we should become our best selves and help the people around us in the process.
“Humanity needs saving, so do your part,” is the growing mantra. If you are in government, do your part and do it well. If you are in business, likewise.
Be a great parent, grandparent, doctor, coach, teacher, policeman, nurse, business owner, fireman, mayor, friend. Whatever your role, do it better.
Some postmodern thinkers, like James Redfield (author of The Celestine Prophecy), promote teams of spiritually-awakened people praying down power from the universe to improve the world.
Others, such as intellectual Ken Wilber, suggest learning the truths found in all fields of knowledge and from all cultures and philosophies⎯ and then integrating them together.
Marianne Williamson says to trust our inner greatness and also in miracles, and many recommend manifesting our personal power to build entrepreneurial wealth and use it to help others.
Nearly every nation and industry has its prophets of manifesting success, from Miguel Ruiz and Carlos Castaneda to Anthony Robbins, Brian Tracy, Peter Senge, Ken Blanchard, Paulo Coelho, Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin or Steve Jobs.
In retrospect, it probably shouldn’t surprise anyone that the “self-help,” “how to,” “new age,” “success,” “skeptic,” “green” and “secularist” genres would eventually impact the philosophy of modernism. All of them share a faith in self over institutions.
After all, an unproven belief in government or big business is referred to in both “success” and “skeptic” literature as “the victim mentality.”
Even atheistic secularism is now turning its back on blind faith in big government and big corporations, replacing it with a “get ahead together” ethic.
And the debate between national sovereignty and globalism is being replaced with the growing concept of glocalism ⎯ local sovereignty with widespread economic ties.
The Issue Behind the Issues
Where liberals and conservatives are talking about things like health care reform, insurance companies and needy patients, independents are talking a lot about living healthier lifestyles, improved community structures, organic foods, and fresh water.
They want reform, and they want to make healthier choices in their personal lives as well.
Of course, not all independents are postmodernists or “success literature” readers. But few independents now believe that the way to get ahead ⎯ personally or nationally ⎯ is to turn to government, corporate or other institutional answers.
To say it another way: Many independents are postmodernists and don’t even know it yet.
Perhaps surprisingly, most independents want to simultaneously:
- Succeed economically
- Help others
- Heal and protect the environment
- Keep their nation strong
- Build friendlier relationships with other nations
- Expand the freedoms of the marketplace
- Take care of the needy and the sick
- Greatly improve schools
They want government to do its part in this, and corporations too, and they believe that they personally can have a significant positive impact on their little corner of making the world much better.
The media will probably continue to describe health care and other issues in modernist “conservative versus liberal” terms. After all, media is a big institution too.
But the reality is incredibly powerful: In the 21st century, faith in big institutions is beginning to wane.
Conservatives routinely label independents as “leftists,” and liberals call them “right wing.” The truth is that most independents are centrists, postmodernists and pragmatists.
More to the point, while almost everyone else is pointing fingers or turning to government or corporations for leadership, independents are quietly and consistently increasing their personal education, holdings and influence.
How to See What is Really Happening
It remains to be seen how all this will play out, but for years to come the real issue behind the issues will be the rising power of independents, most of whom do not have much faith in big institutions.
When they side with a government program, liberals will claim they won with the support of the American people. When independents prefer a market approach, conservatives will claim victory.
In reality, however, winning policies will be those that gain the support of independents.
If you want to know the future of any issue, find out how independents view it. And if it appears that a big-institution issue is winning, find out why independents support it ⎯ they usually support a certain reform, not the institution behind the reform.
Through all the politics and media reports, if current trends continue, faith in and deep support for big institutions will slowly dwindle.
It is unclear exactly what will replace it, but that replacement will be the biggest story of the 21st Century.
***********************************
Oliver DeMille is the founder of the Center for Social Leadership, and a co-creator of TJEd.
He is the author of A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the 21st Century, and The Coming Aristocracy: Education & the Future of Freedom.
Oliver is dedicated to promoting freedom through leadership education. He and his wife Rachel are raising their eight children in Cedar City, Utah.
Category : Economics &Featured &Government &Independents &Politics &Postmodernism
Beyond the Vote
September 30th, 2010 // 4:00 am @ Oliver DeMille
Imagine what would happen if a huge chunk of citizens stopped accepting what they are told by one of the parties, stopped just aligning themselves with candidates from one of the monopoly parties, and started deeply studying, analyzing and thinking about the issues of government independently.
Imagine if they shared their thoughts openly with many others, instead of just letting the news be defined by the big media responses to the big parties.
Imagine the revolution that would occur in the voting citizenry.
This is exactly what happened in the decade the Internet went mainstream. It is valuable to know the profound history that led to this freedom revolution.
Keynesianism
Karl Marx agreed with Hegel that history is created by the dialectical conflict between upper classes and the masses; Lenin transferred the attention from class warfare to the conflict between rich and poor nations.
Most Americans and Europeans adopted this view during the Cold War. Indeed, the Cold War was the “inevitable” result of class conflict leading to conflicts between the governments of the “greedy” nations and the collectivized socialist states.
Keynes, like Lenin before him, shifted the debate by arguing that since many nations were not willing to adopt socialistic government ownership of all business, the only solution was for big businesses to give people privatized “socialism” such as health insurance, savings programs (like the current 40lk), retirement programs and other employee benefits.
Keynes further predicted that if government did things right, then small businesses would be increasingly less able to offer such benefits over time and that eventually big business would run the entire economy in partnership with highly-regulating governments.
Together, Keynes thought, big government and big business would phase out the disruptive, nonconformist and anti-social element of independent small business power and replace it with big corporations offering all the benefits envisioned by socialism.
Simultaneously, governments would keep mavericks, entrepreneurs and innovators from rocking the boat. Socialist goals, albeit through private corporate means, would be implemented into all capitalistic nations.
The result would be the end of warfare between owners and labor and the solution to most world problems.
Keynes said that once companies become so big that they are less focused on profits than appearing caring, helpful and socially responsible to the public, they will make decisions based on public relations and therefore socialistic values rather than making money.
If enough big companies could be coaxed to this point, and if increased government barriers to small-business success could effectively squelch entrepreneurial initiative, even the most capitalistic nations would provide privatized “socialist” safety nets for the whole society.
This is aristocracy, pure and simple.
In such a system, big corporations would work together with big governments to continually increase the delivery of socialistic goals such as:
- Free education for all
- Free health insurance for all
- Free health care for all
- A society of employees
- Jobs for everyone
- A meritocracy of experts ruling society
- A docile and obedient populace
This system was adopted slowly but consistently so that Richard Nixon could announce by the mid-1970s that “we are all Keynesians now.”
In short, Keynesianism promotes big government with high levels of regulation along with big business promoting various private offerings of socialist goals.
This social safety net has proven popular in all the Western nations, and has offered a number of short-term and positive lifestyle benefits.
It has also proven a better solution than government-only socialist equivalents in one-party states like the USSR, Eastern European nations and modern Russia, China and Cuba.
In multi-party nations like France and Germany some parties promote big business and others big government, and still others emphasize their pet areas of focus.
In the United States the maintenance of Keynesianism requires a major party supporting the government, a major party supporting big business, and a system of swinging back and forth between the leadership of each.
When the big-government party is in power, the Government-Industrial-Complex grows, and when the big-business party is in power the Industrial-Government-Complex expands.
When Keynesianism is flourishing, both parties use power to increase entitlements, foreign involvements and government spending.
Taxpayers and small businesses suffer.
The End of History
Francis Fukayama predicted in the 1990s that with the fall of the Berlin Wall and end of the Cold War this conflict between the rich and poor nations was over; he called this “the end of history,” citing both Hegel and Marx.
In the ensuing model of the 1990s, where everybody was a “capitalist,” economies flourished.
With a united Germany, declining Soviet power, and the dot.com and real estate booms, everybody seemed to have forgotten Keynesianism in the Roaring 90s.
Everybody, that is, except the two big parties.
Entitlements, debts and deficits grew during the Bush, Clinton, Bush and Obama Administrations.
When 9/11 struck, everyone realized that history was far from over and that major challenges were still ahead. If the end of history had come, Keynes won.
Ironically, the fact that Keynesianism uses capitalistic means to accomplish socialistic ends allowed both liberals and conservatives to claim victory.
Conservatives rejoiced that socialism had lost to markets, and liberals celebrated that the era of big, irresponsible capitalism was over.
Unfortunately, what they brought us was far from the utopian ideal envisioned by socialism’s iconic philosophers or the freedom statesmen in history.
In fact, it was not so much socialism—where the state provides for all—as aristocracy, where the masses provide for the elite.
But back to our narrative: Keynesianism requires both political parties constantly and vocally doing battle. Neither can fully win or destroy the other; and when one wins an election the other is needed to play a minority role until it can win back the majority.
Whichever party is in power, the scope of government and big business must both increase during their tenure.
Of course, the result is that the far right hates Democrats when they are in power, and then turns on Republicans when they win and grow government. The far left does the opposite, hating the Republicans when they rule and then turning on Democrats in power for not doing enough.
Mainstream members of both parties simply support their party and dislike the opposition.
The key action in all this, the thing which makes Keynesianism work, the linchpin of the whole model, is for the citizenry to do nothing but vote.
Of course, they can live their lives, work at their jobs, send their kids to school and volunteer in their community. If they do these things, plus vote, they are good citizens. No more is asked, or wanted, from them.
“Just shut up and vote,” is the subtle message from both parties.
Of course, if one is an expert in politics, if it is their job, they are expected to do more than vote. They are required to study government, the issues and impact public opinion.
The same applies to professional journalists, attorneys, professors, etc. But this only applies to professors of political science, law, public policy or a related field.
Professors of literature or chemistry, for example, like postal workers and soccer coaches, are encouraged to leave governance mostly to the experts.
This cynical view is, unfortunately, widespread. Keynesianism depends on a society of experts where nearly everyone leaves governance to the political professionals.
Citizens are subtly taught that voting is the role of citizenship, along with serving on a jury if called up, and to otherwise leave governance to the experts.
After all, their party is watching their back for them and keeping the other “evil” party from doing too much damage.
Or, if the other party becomes dangerous, their own party leadership and the media will let them know.
Responses to Being Patronized
When a few citizens realize that they are being “handled” by the professionals of their party, the first response is naturally to want to elect better party leaders.
When time shows that this doesn’t work — that in fact it is the nature of party leadership to spin the truth and patronize the party rank-and-file — the disillusioned party loyalist often looks to some extreme group within the party—such as the radical right or the fringe left.
Alas, honest citizens find that faction leaders are usually as prone as major party heads to spin the issues and handle party members.
At this point, many party members just give up.
“The other party is bad,” they rationalize, “and my own party leaders are just too political. But at least candidates from my party are better than those from the other party.”
Some sincere seekers actually ignore tradition and years of brainwashing and seek for a better situation in the other party.
At first, party switchers may find a few things they really like better about the new party—especially if they attend in-person events and get to know some of the people in the other party.
“Republicans /or/ Democrats aren’t so bad,” they realize.
The longer they stay with the new party, however, the more they see that both parties are run in virtually the same way, like a formula primetime program, with the same character-types inhabiting the various roles.
Eventually they see most of the same problems that caused them to question their original party.
The idea that both parties are a problem is like the end of history for many voters. Most have seen politics itself as a war to put the “good” party in power and kick out the “bad” party.
So when a voter realizes that both parties have serious problems, and even worse—that neither party is likely to really solve America’s problems—there is a major paradigm shift.
Some give up in utter frustration, while others get really mad at their own party. Others get even more angry at the “other” party and refocus their support for their original party.
But one reality remains in the minds of most people arriving at this understanding: Neither party has the answers, and neither party is likely to really fix our problems.
More, the system is basically designed so that the party of big government and the party of big business take turns being in charge.
When regular citizens understand the goals of Keynesianism, it is a major shock.
At this point, what is a caring, sincere and committed citizen to do? When you learn that parties are parties are parties, how do you stay involved in governance? And how do you stay positive and optimistic about the future?
The Big Decision
The answer to these questions is for citizens to begin to study and think a lot more about government and to stop ignoring freedom by leaving it to the political professionals.
Unless regular people realize that freedom is up to them, not the experts, and that they need to learn more and take more action to make a real difference, they are unlikely to become true citizens.
When a person does make these realizations, however, he or she drastically changes. He becomes excited about impacting freedom.
There are three major ways to do this, and the three are drastically different:
- Populism
- Activism
- Independence
This is “the big decision” for free citizens who really want to maintain and even increase freedom.
Whether your political views are generally liberal, conservative, libertarian, progressive, green, or centrist, the big decision is a powerful way to start making a real difference.
Here are more thoughts on the three paths of the big decision:
1. Populism
This means openly and vocally fighting the system, pointing out its flaws, and actively participating in influencing change.
Populism has a long history in America, from the People’s Party movement of the 1880s and 1890s which arose because many people felt that neither of the two major parties would listen to them, to the Progressives of the early 1900s, the Labor movement of the 1920s and 1930s, or the counter-Culture revolution of the 1960s and the counter-Populism of the 1970s.
More recent populism includes anti-incumbency, Tea Parties, Coffee Parties, and the Green movement, among others.
2. Activism
Activism consists of committing to one of the major political parties and really having a powerful influence on it.
While I strongly emphasize the rise of independents, it should not be understated how valuable truly independent-thinking citizens can be if they choose to maintain strong party ties.
This is not only a legitimate but a highly-needed role of promoting freedom in our society. Both major parties need more members who really study, analyze, independently think and participate in improving party communication, leadership and impact on society.
3. Independence
This means becoming your own, personal political party—a party of one citizen.
Today there are more independents in the United States than either Democrats or Republicans. Independents don’t depend on any party but independently study, analyze, think, spread their influence and then vote for candidates and issues they feel will most help the nation.
Whatever your decision—whether you choose to help improve society through populism, activism or independence—note that is it vital to do certain things.
Those who simply depend on party experts leave these things to others, and the result is a loss of freedom. These things include:
- Making a deep study of the principles of freedom and the U.S. Constitution.
- Studying the history of freedom in order to truly understand current and future events within their context.
- Studying and analyzing current issues in depth and from many different perspectives.
- Considering the views of those who disagree with you and really understanding the points of merit (and not just your points of contention) in their ideas.
- Drawing your own independent conclusions about proposals and policies after deep study.
- Articulating and sharing your ideas with others.
- Using your influence to impact the direction of the nation on specific issues and in general.
Populists are often criticized for not doing these things, but those who do can make a real, positive difference in populist circles.
Activists who commit to these things can greatly support party choices, and independents need to do these in order to have a meaningful impact.
The American founders wanted citizens to do these things, and predicted that the loss of such behaviors by the citizens would be the end of the republic.
If we want our freedoms to remain and even increase, we must be the kind of citizens who deserve such freedoms.
If we leave our future to the current power of Keynesianism, we will see more of the same: on-going crises, angry and ineffective politics, increased government spending and debt, increased taxes and regulations, continuing foreign conflicts and the loss of American lives, and an inability of government to solve our major problems.
The more the parties fight and the louder the conflict, the greater the power of Keynesianism. Keynesianism depends on heated arguments that drive the citizens to demand bigger government programs.
As long as the party of big business and the party of big government hold a joint monopoly on our society, voters will vote and little will change—except that debts, economic crises and problems will increase.
If this is the future we want for our country, we just need to leave politics to the politicians.
In contrast, the future of freedom depends on citizens who do a lot more than just vote and serve on jury duty. It depends on citizens who do the things which bring freedom—as populists, activists or independents, but all studying and thinking independently.
The American system was designed with the people as overseers of government. We all need to fulfill this role better.
We need a party of small business, a party of family, a party of entrepreneurial leadership, a party of the regular citizens, a party of freedom.
The American founders had a name for such a party: Citizens. Such a party naturally occurs and grows in free society when we do our true part as citizens.
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Oliver DeMille is the founder of the Center for Social Leadership, and a co-creator of TJEd.
He is the author of A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the 21st Century, and The Coming Aristocracy: Education & the Future of Freedom.
Oliver is dedicated to promoting freedom through leadership education. He and his wife Rachel are raising their eight children in Cedar City, Utah.
Category : Aristocracy &Business &Economics &Government &History &Independents &Liberty &Politics
The Anti-Federalists, Entrepreneurship, & the Future of Freedom
September 28th, 2010 // 4:00 am @ Oliver DeMille
Click Here to Download a Printable Version of This Article
Like Gladstone, I believe the U.S. Constitution to be “the greatest work ever struck off by the mind and purpose of man.”
Even though it had its flaws—especially slavery—it actually provided for the fixing of these flaws.
The U.S. Constitution, both directly and indirectly, is responsible for the freedom of more people than any other government document in the world’s history.
That said, the anti-Federalists had a point. In fact, they had several.
They were mistaken to oppose ratification of the Constitution, but we would be unwise not to listen to the concerns voiced through their loyal opposition.
They were right about some critical details. In fact, we are dealing with exactly these concerns today.
Entrepreneurs Change the Debate
The brilliance of both sides of the Constitution debate—the Federalists and the anti-Federalists—is an example of how the producer culture and entrepreneurial mindset accomplish the highest quality in citizen involvement—regardless of party politics.
Even in the midst of deeply divided partisan battles, the Federalists and anti-Federalists produced a level of depth, detail, nuance, and excellence in citizen debate that is perhaps unsurpassed either before their time or since.
Today’s citizen dialogue seldom measures up. This is a direct result of that generation’s lifestyle of entrepreneurship, producer-focused education, ownership, initiative, and enterprising mindset.
When a nation of entrepreneurs debates on topics of freedom and leadership, the quality is deeper and richer than when lower classes are uninvolved (as in 1780s Britain) or when most citizen-employees defer to the experts (today’s America).
Anti-Federalist Predictions
The anti-Federalists scrutinized the U.S. Constitution and the federalist papers, and, based on the structures of government, they looked ahead and warned of some of our biggest problems.
They also, in most cases, recommended solutions. We need to heed their words.
What are these challenges, and what can we do about them? To answer both questions, consider six issues the anti-Federalists warned of more than two hundred years ago:
- The executive branch will increase influence over the national budget.
- National expenditures will increase and eventually bankrupt the nation.
- Power will flow consistently away from the states.
- The courts will eventually have too much power.
- Justice will be lost as government grows.
- The treaty power will be abused.
Anti-Federalist Prediction #1: The Executive Branch Will Increase Influence Over National Budget
Prediction: The Executive Branch will increase its say over the national budget and then drastically increase debt, run harmful deficits, engage in unconstitutional military actions, and otherwise run the economy toward ruin.
Unfortunately, this has proven to be accurate. We have learned over time that the people don’t hold the White House accountable for this behavior because every president blames the last political party (in Congress and the Presidency) for the problem.
Both parties use the Executive Branch to commit funding for their projects, even as taxpayers are funding the projects of past administrations.
The Federalists responded to this anti-Federalist warning by correctly pointing out that the Constitution only gives the House of Representatives power over the purse strings.
The Federalists’ “solution” worked for more than a century, but unfortunately for us the Cold War brought secretive and expansive government, and the role of the presidency significantly increased.
Today we are dealing with a system where the House tinkers with and has the final say on national budgets, but the political environment has turned over to the presidency responsibility for proposing, gaining the votes for, and then administering federal budgets.
The House still holds the authority to slow or reject budgets and spending, but it has generally lost the will to use this power. The Executive Branch usually runs the budget.
The result is drastically out-of-control spending. Simple interest payments on the national debt are a huge expense to the taxpayer.
Social Security and other entitlement liabilities can never be fully met without continuing in debt and deficits, as well as drastic and progressive increases in taxes. International military involvement is a mounting problem.
Both political parties like to blame each other for recessions, unemployment, and other economic challenges, but U.S. budgets and spending beyond our means is the underlying problem.
As Larry Summers asked before he joined the Obama Administration, “How can the world’s biggest debtor nation remain its biggest power?”
Note that China, the second largest economy in the world, has huge savings (unlike the former Soviet Union or the current United States) and is a major buyer of U.S. debt.
China has three of the world’s four largest banks, the two largest insurance companies, and the second largest stock market. (See the article “Red Mist” in The Economist.
With all this, the Communist Party remains in control; it also remains firmly communistic in philosophy and is, if possible, increasingly totalitarian.
As for the United States, neither party seems serious about reducing spending. With the Executive Branch running the budgets, spending just keeps increasing.
The Reagan Administration greatly increased spending. Presidents Bush, Clinton, Bush and Obama all followed suit—just as predicted by the anti-Federalists.
Anti-Federalist Prediction #2: National Expenditures Will Increase
Prediction: Expenditures and taxes will generally increase over time until they bankrupt the nation. They will become massive, and never be significantly reduced.
This has not yet entirely occurred, but we certainly appear to be on track toward these results.
As mentioned, whichever party is in power finds ways to promote more expensive projects while we are still paying off past expenses.
Anti-Federalist Prediction #3: Power Will Flow Away From the States
Prediction: Power will flow consistently away from the states and increase the scope, size, and power of the federal government. Only major crisis, where the federal government falls, will ever send significant powers back to the states.
Again, we are perfectly on target for this even though it has not yet fully matured. Federal budgets now dwarf state costs, and many state programs are funded by federal money.
Indeed, this has become a major misunderstanding in modern America.
The media constantly pounds the populace with the message that government is broken—Washington is in gridlock and accomplishes little. In reality, however, this is highly inaccurate.
Each year Washington manages to drastically increase the budget, debt, and deficit. It is spending more and more annually, and each year Congress authorizes many new programs.
A lot is getting done—many would argue too much!
Perhaps we could learn from the British-published magazine The Economist, which wrote in February 2010:
“It is simply not true to say that nothing can get through Congress. Look at…TARP…The stimulus bill…The Democrats have also passed a long list of lesser bills, from investments in green technology to making it easier for women to sue for sexual discrimination…
“America’s political structure was designed to make legislation at the federal level difficult, not easy. Its founders believed that a country the size of America is best governed locally, not nationally…
“The Senate, much ridiculed for antique practices like the filibuster and the cloture vote, was expressly designed as a ‘cooling’ chamber where bills might indeed die unless they commanded broad support.
“Broad support from the voters is something that both the health bill and the cap-and-trade bill clearly lack.”
The Senate has killed bills from Republican and Democratic presidents through the years, but this should be seen as the success of our mixed democratic republic with checks and balances rather than as government not working.
If the Senate had killed more bills in the past century, the power of the states would not have diminished to such a weakened place.
Both major parties often make the ingenuous mistake of claiming to be carrying out the “democratic” will of the people when they have broad voter support, and then when such support is lacking of blaming the Senate and Congress for gridlock, partisanship, and a system that doesn’t work.
When there is widespread dislike of certain proposed policies, not being able to pass them isn’t gridlock, but good government.
The Senate was designed specifically by the founders to protect the states, to leave most things to the state level and only allow issues to receive federal support when they were wanted by a large majority of Americans and needed to be accomplished at the national level.
Indeed, the system works more often than the modern media gives it credit.
Anti-Federalist Prediction #4: The Courts Will Eventually Have Too Much Power
Prediction: The courts will not only be independent but will eventually have too much power because there are really no effective checks on their decisions.
This has happened and is still increasing in its impact. Without checks on the Supreme Court, states have little recourse against growing federal controls over powers previously (and constitutionally) held by the states.
Our freedoms consistently decrease as the Court expands its interpretation of the role of the federal government in our lives.
Anti-Federalist Prediction #5: Justice Will Be Lost as Government Grows
Prediction: Governments will become so big and impersonal that even juries won’t know or care about the accused; enforcing the rules will be more important than true justice. Freedom will significantly decrease as a result.
This has occurred and is still happening.
Before 1896, a jury of peers was not some nominal, demographical designation. The “peers” often actually knew the accused and even the victim personally.
As a result, they not only were quick to put away those who were truly dangerous to society, but they also used their power to oversee the laws and protect citizens from government.
Not only could juries declare someone innocent, they could also nullify laws they considered bad or against freedom.
This system was altered at least partly because it was frequently used in a horrible miscarriage of justice as racist juries ignored the law and both freed white criminals and jailed innocent people from minorities.
It is unfortunate that in response to such abuses we threw out not only racist dominance of juries, but also the concept of juries of known peers.
In fact, the best remedy for discrimination by the justice system could have been juries of true peers, who not only could have protected those falsely accused, but with such empowerment would have been the most motivated to hold accountable the true criminals among them.
When all are equal before the law and are subject to the admonishment and reprisal of true peers, racism is more readily weeded out.
This would have been a great support to abused races, and could have greatly advanced the cause of civil rights in America.
We have never found a way to re-balance this loss of freedom or for the people to quickly overturn the effects of bad laws.
California responded within a few years of the 1896 change in jury power by adopting Recalls and Initiatives, but these still left the people with less power than before.
Anti-Federalist Prediction #6: The Treaty Power Will Be Abused
Prediction: The treaty power will be used to change the Constitution in ways the people don’t even know about and that benefit the rich at the cost of the people’s freedom.
This has happened and still does. In fact, it may soon be a major concern.
For example, when banks fold and endanger entire nations, government can bail them out. The same is true for huge businesses and even state-level governments.
But what happens when nations fail financially?
The old answer was that they became open to attack like Western Europe during the Great Depression. The result was devastating.
To prevent such a disaster from being repeated, the Allies met in 1944 and crafted the Bretton Woods organizations, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
Since then, nations who couldn’t pay their debts have been bailed out by the IMF.
In return for such benefits, the borrowing nation submits to “Austerity Measures,” under which the IMF closely watches national policy and government institutions to ensure that the nation does nothing to jeopardize its ability to pay back its loans.
This system has certainly had its share of successes.
But Austerity also amounts to a virtual transfer of sovereignty from national government to IMF regulators—well beyond the power of the citizenry to require accountability or to effect remedies.
So far the United States and most Western European nations have been lenders to the IMF, not debtors.
But if the U.S. ever needed to become a debtor nation, Austerity Measures would prove the anti-Federalist prediction devastatingly true.
For example, when Greece defaulted on its debt payments in early 2010 and Spain threatened to do the same, the European Union came to the rescue.
The IMF was called in to advise the EU, and Austerity was established over the Greek government.
Many citizens (including a huge number of professionals and managers) took to the streets in protest.
But instead of protesting a drastic loss of freedom to Austerity, they were upset because of wage freezes.
There are three ways the U.S. can avoid Austerity at some point in the future.
First, we can tighten our belts, reduce government expenditures, and deregulate and lower taxes on small businesses, which historically make up 80 percent of our economy’s growth.
This would convince many employers to hire and consumers to spend.
Second, we could borrow from other nations. China has a huge surplus of government and also private savings, and it wants to invest in the United States. Indeed it is our largest creditor now.
Other nations may also be persuaded to keep supporting our spending habits. But one has to wonder why our philosophical opponent (communist China) wants to invest so much.
Are its motives pure? What if they’re not? Is it a simple profit motive? What if it’s something more?
As Peggy Noonan wrote in The Wall Street Journal:
“People are freshly aware of the real-world implications of a $1.6 trillion deficit, of a $14 trillion debt. It will rob American of its economic power, and eventually even of its ability to defend itself. Militaries cost money. And if other countries own our debt, don’t they in some new way own us? If China holds enough of your paper, does it also own some of your foreign policy? Do we want to find out?”
A third possible method of solving our debt problem is to borrow from huge international corporations. This carries the same problems as borrowing from nations.
Note that if we do eventually take IMF loans, they will only pay the interest on the debts. We will have to pay back the original loans, and an international team of regulators will run our national economic policy and make our economic decisions.
If Americans are frustrated with Congress, imagine their frustration with a group of international bank officials running our economy—bankers who may not have as their motive either to see us out of debt to them or to strengthen our economy, society, international influence, or other elements of our way of life.
The rule of international borrowing is simple: The lenders make the rules.
Method one of facing our economic reality—returning to an incentivizing free enterprise system and living within our means—is hard.
Neither political party wants to promote it, and whoever does implement it will probably be blamed for higher short-term unemployment, stock market losses, and a worsened recession.
In the long term, however, this course will revitalize America’s economy and free lifestyle.
The other two options keep America in economic decline and will eventually result in reduced political power, weaker national security, and fallen status.
They will also, most importantly, lead to a significant decrease in our freedoms and the prosperity of our children and grandchildren.
This is our choice: Make the tough decisions now, or lose freedoms and prosperity for generations. So far we have passed on making the right choice.
No wonder independents, tea partyists, and the far left are so frustrated with both Republicans and Democrats.
Moreover, economic downturns are three-headed dragons; and to this point we have only faced recession and high unemployment.
Inflation is likely to be the next crisis, and it may very well rekindle and worsen the first two.
Whatever we decide to do economically, we should, like the Federalists and anti-Federalists, clearly understand one thing: Economics and freedom are directly linked.
A debtor nation is less free than when it was solvent.
Solutions Old and New
The anti-Federalist solutions for these problems may well have helped. They proposed that the people amend the Constitution, specifically in the following ways:
- The Bill of Rights would include the requirement that juries consist of local peers who know the accused and can protect citizens from government.
- Treaties would require full debate in and passage by Congress—just like laws.
- Any decision by the Supreme Court could be overridden by a majority of the States.
How effective these amendments would have been is debatable.
But the answer may be found in another proposed anti-Federalist amendment which actually did get passed.
To counter the danger of huge expenditures and taxes by the Executive Branch, loss of power from the House to the Presidency, and transfer of powers from the States to the federal government, the anti-Federalists wanted an amendment clearly stating that all power not specifically given by the Constitution to the federal government would be retained by the states.
The anti-Federalists got their way in the ratification of the Tenth Amendment:
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited to it by the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”
Unfortunately, these were weakened by Court cases between 1803 and 1820, and later by treaties adopted between 1944 and 2001.
We the People
It turns out that Constitutional limits and language are only guaranteed to last as long as the people are vigilantly involved.
No matter what the Constitution says, it won’t endure if the people don’t closely read it and demand that it be followed.
In this sense they are the fourth branch of government: The Overseers.
When the people stop requiring officials and experts to adhere to the Constitution, those in power alter the Constitution, redefine its precepts, and sometimes mutually agree upon a revisionist and opportunistic definition of its language.
The people are left out of the decision, and their freedoms decrease.
At times, as designed, constitutional checks and balances keep one branch from usurping power even if the people aren’t involved.
But the greater danger occurs when a collusion of branches agree in taking away power from the states or the people (this happens too often, especially since Butler v. the United States in 1936).
Arguably the most important document for freedom ever created by mankind was established and ratified by those who supported the U.S. Constitution.
The second deepest freedom analysis of government was provided by their opponents, the anti-Federalists.
This second group saw that whatever a Constitution says, as important as it certainly is, the people simply must stay actively involved or they will inevitably see their freedoms decline.
The Producer Perspective
The fact that both groups came from a society of owners and producers is neither surprising nor insignificant.
Owners value freedom over security, see the most decorated experts and celebrities as merely other citizens, and see their own role as citizen as vital to society.
Producers think in terms of protecting society’s freedoms, and they simply don’t believe this responsibility can ever be delegated or ignored.
Successful ownership, farming, and entrepreneurship are all about keeping track of all the details; taking action whenever it is needed to achieve the desired results; listening to the counsel of experts and authorities—and then leading by making the best decisions even if they goes against expert advice; and building effective teams that work together without depending too much on those at the top.
People trained and experienced in such skills are truly competent in handling and preserving freedom.
What we need in our day is not necessarily more specific proposals from the Federalists or anti-Federalists.
Rather, we need a return to the producer-entrepreneurial style of thinking and expertise that founded and built the freest nation in history.
If we want a society of freedom that lasts and prospers, we must as citizens become talented and practiced in the arts of freedom.
America was created on the basis of freedom, and until we choose to become a citizenry steeped in freedom principles and actively involved in their promotion, freedom will not likely increase.
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Oliver DeMille is the founder of the Center for Social Leadership, and a co-creator of TJEd.
He is the author of A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the 21st Century, and The Coming Aristocracy: Education & the Future of Freedom.
Oliver is dedicated to promoting freedom through leadership education. He and his wife Rachel are raising their eight children in Cedar City, Utah.
Category : Constitution &Entrepreneurship &Government &Liberty &Producers
Overcoming Hamilton’s Curse: Specific Solutions that Only Entrepreneurs can Provide
September 23rd, 2010 // 4:00 am @ Oliver DeMille
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When America decided to follow Alexander Hamilton’s economic model instead of the Jeffersonian system, a number of changes occurred which now haunt our generation.
Jefferson envisioned a nation of small farm and shop owners that spread around leadership and prosperity, while Hamilton preferred a mercantile system with a few wealthy owners employing the large majority of the populace.
Hamilton felt that an increase in wealth among the leading families would make up for the reduced freedom and less-widespread prosperity under a mercantile economy.
After all, this was the model used by the most powerful nations in Europe.
Ironically, we have now reached a point where the greatest challenges we face are caused by the mercantile system and can likely only be solved by an entrepreneurial mindset.
Funny how history pulls these types of pranks.
Failed Solutions
Unfortunately, the two main sides emphasize government solutions (more government-provided jobs and stricter regulation against corporations and bonuses) versus big-business mercantilism (hire and fire as best fits company projections, and move operations abroad to less hostile regulatory environments with cheaper labor—or in other words, business as usual).
A third view comes from frustrated populists who want Washington to get its act together and fix the economy.
All three of these views miss the point.
Wall Street, Washington, and Main Street still seek Hamiltonian solutions: “Big institutions should fix things for us.”
The specific challenges we face, however, don’t lend themselves to institutional fixes. Our current problems need precisely entrepreneurial-type solutions.
This isn’t the old debate of whether public or private programs are best. The truth is, that debate nearly always promoted institutional fixes.
What we need now are patently non-institutional innovations.
Major Challenges
Consider the major problems we are facing.
Most are the natural results of too much reliance on institutional size and power and not enough initiative, innovation, and leadership from “little guys.”
Of course, the few who are entrepreneurs do an amazing job against increasing odds.
But a major shift to the Producer Mindset is needed to overcome our current challenges—and more such challenges will continue to arise as long as we stay addicted to big institutions.
Specifically, the major concerns we’re facing in the years and decades ahead include the following:
- Running out of money for social security and many other entitlements.
- The flight of many in the entrepreneurial class to Brazil, India and other places with less regulation of small business.
- The wartime economy of China that is built to thrive in times of conflict (and struggles in times of peace).
- The end of privacy as government is pressured to oversee everyone and all things in the name of security and protection from terrorism.
- The end of America’s production base as industry continues to go abroad and we continue to train the world’s attorneys instead of more engineers and inventors.
- The growing gap between rich and poor in the U.S. and globally.
Also consider the following items that will peak and commence declining in the years immediately ahead, as outlined in the book Peak Everything: Waking Up to a Century of Declines by energy expert Richard Heinburg:
- Oil availability and cheap fossil fuels to drive the economy
- Fresh water availability per capita
- Easy, cheap, quick mobility
- Available land in agricultural production
- Political stability
- Safe, inexpensive food
Only one of these looming challenges (security against possible Chinese aggression) can be effectively solved directly by government as it is now constituted.
And even this could be beyond the government’s scope if attacks are not military but cyberwar¹ on, say, America’s financial records or utility providers.²
A truly free government emphasizing a free enterprise economy would help against all of these, by empowering entrepreneurial action, wealth, and innovation to meet each challenge.
Heinburg’s solution to these problems is “fifty million farmers,” which he describes as a drastic increase in the number of small farmers.
Such people, Jefferson predicted long ago, own their own land and bring initiative and tenacity to producing food and also free citizens.
While the problems we face are clearly greater than a mere shift to locavorism will remedy, the heart and mind of the citizen farmer is a good start.
In addition to farmers, we need millions of producers of all kinds applying entrepreneurial talents and skills to overcoming our biggest challenges.
Habits & Complexes
There are at least two major roadblocks hindering this needed Freedom Shift.
The first is habit. Our society has become habituated, at times addicted, to certain lifestyles.
For example, when the recession hit, people spent more money, not less, at McDonald’s. We are habituated to eating out, and tightening our belts in hard times has come to include eating even more french fries.
Perhaps our most debilitating rut as a culture is a dependence on experts. Until we kick this dependency, how can we rise above the statistics and become a nation of entrepreneurs and leaders?
The answer, as challenging as it is, is for entrepreneurs to show us the way, and to keep at it until more of us start to heed.
The second huge roadblock is our complexity. Indeed, we have reached a level of complexity where simplicity itself is suspect.
For example, the simple reality is that jobs migrate to less difficult nations. It’s the old Rule of Capital: Capital goes where it is treated well.
In nations that have become too complex, taxes and regulation cause at least a doubling of the amount employers must spend on labor.
Many experts call this “progress,” but the natural result is that many companies respond by sending their operations and jobs to less costly nations.
When this happens, complex nations react in an amazing way: They villainize the companies (“greedy profiteers”) rather than reducing taxes and regulations to entice companies back home.
Then they take an incredible extra step: They increase taxes and regulations even more on the businesses that stayed!
The result? More money flees and recession inevitably comes.
At this point, when the need is obviously to lure businesses, capital, and jobs back home with decreased regulation and taxes, nations that are too complex actually compound the negative situation as angry workers cry out for more regulations and controls.
Freedom, prosperity and stability all suffer.
As Ken Kurson put it,
“Our bipartisan addiction to spending and borrowing pairs with a hostility toward employers that makes real recovery difficult.”³
Or, as the Governor of Minnesota said:
“I was talkin’ to people this morning who run small businesses. Where’s their bailout?”4
People who point out how ridiculous this is are often labeled extremists or radicals. Simple answers aren’t often very popular in complex nations.
Sadly, only major crisis is usually enough to get people to listen to simple solutions.
Poor Complexion
Another example is found in the issue of health care.
Health care costs consistently increase where voluminous regulations along with medical lawsuits cause huge malpractice insurance costs.
When government seeks to regulate and force the costs down, it must find a way to reduce litigation and payouts.
But in complex society, people want to have their cake and eat it too.
They want health care to cost less and also to leave doctors and insurance companies paying for incredibly expensive lawsuits.
How is it possible to get both? “The government should make it so,” is the answer of a complex society. But how? “The government should just fix it.”
This amazingly naïve view of things is the result of complexity. Far too many citizens don’t even expect to be able to understand the issue, so they leave it to the experts.
And once all is in the hands of experts, they are expected to solve everything without any pain or problem to the populace. After all, they’re the experts, right?
Those who benefit most from the costs of lower health care either need to forego the threat of so many lawsuits or be willing to pay higher prices.
But such simple answers don’t convince in complex societies.
One more example is interesting. Hamilton argued in The Federalist Papers that for society to be free the legal code would need to be long, detailed and difficult to understand.
He based this on the systems in Europe at the time. But these were the very systems the founders fought to abandon.
In contrast, Jefferson, Madison and many others taught that complex laws and legal codes were sure signs of oppression.
They agreed with Montesquieu, Locke and Hume and that laws must be simple, concise and brief, and indeed that the entire legal code must be simple enough that every citizen knows the entire law.
If a person doesn’t know the law, they argued, he shouldn’t be held liable for breaking it or freedom is greatly reduced.
In complex society, most attorneys don’t even know the whole law.
The Right Level of Complexity
The main criticism of simple societies is that they are often intolerant, controlling, and narrow-minded. This is an accurate and good criticism, and such simple societies are not the ideal.
Indeed, Madison shows the negatives of such societies in Federalist Papers eighteen through twenty.
He proposes that by establishing a large nation and a free constitution we can simultaneously establish both an open, modern, and progressive society and a free, prosperous, and happy nation.
Fortunately, we are not forced to choose between a stupidly simple nation and an overly complex one.
The ideal is a nation sufficiently complex to promote progress, toleration, cooperation, and growth and one with enough simple common sense to achieve freedom, prosperity, and opportunity.
This is the traditional entrepreneurial mix.
Whereas mercantilism values a few cosmopolitan elites employing a mass of less urbane managers and workers, in contrast the entrepreneurial challenge has always been to balance complex and intricate details with simple and effective systems and results.
In short, we need more entrepreneurs running more small, medium and large institutions in society.
Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous
The success of the next few decades will depend on certain types of people with certain skills and abilities.
The talents and habits of “The Company Man” came into vogue in the 1950s and helped create a society of professionals, experts and officials. This greatly benefited the final half-decade (1955-2005) of the Industrial Age surge.
But as the Information Age moved past infancy (1964-1991) and began its rebellious growth to adulthood (1992-2008), many became aware that change was ahead.
As the Information Age grasps maturity and takes over in the 2010s and 2020s, major alterations in society are inevitable.
The Company Man is now replaced by what David Brooks called Patio Man: Individualists who want personal freedom, enough income to pay the bills plus some extra spending money, a government that provides national security and keeps jobs plentiful, a nice house, a nice car each for him and her, a grill, a good movie tonight and friends over for the big game on Sunday.
At first, this was paid for by one working parent, then by both.
But unless something changes, this lifestyle is at an end for all but the wealthiest tenth of the population.
The thing which facilitated such a lifestyle in the first place was the prosperity generated by entrepreneurship, and the only thing that can maintain such a lifestyle and still pay off our society’s debts and obligations is a drastic increase in the number of entrepreneurs.
Period.
Specific Entrepreneurial Challenges
Let’s get specific. Either a generation of entrepreneurs will arise or the “Patio Man” lifestyle will end.
Very soon, the following must occur:
- Entrepreneurs must figure out how to cover their own retirement and that of their employees and many others so that when we run out of money for social security and other entitlements it just won’t matter.
- Entrepreneurs must figure out how to compete with the entrepreneurial classes of Brazil, India, and other places with less regulation of small business.
- Entrepreneurs must figure out how to rebuild a strong American industrial base to provide the basic foundational economic strengths of society.
- Entrepreneurs must figure out how to replace an oil-driven economy with cheaper and hopefully better and cleaner energy alternatives.
- Entrepreneurs must figure out how to provide inexpensive and quality fresh water, food, and mobility without cheap oil.
Researchers, experts, professionals, employees and governments do not have the ability to make these things happen. They will be needed to help accomplish these vital needs, but ultimately it will require the skills of entrepreneurs.
These types of changes are the arena of entrepreneurial talents and free enterprise innovations, not of legislative discussions, bureaucratic rules, or expert publications.
Legislatures, bureaucrats, and experts are important to society and are good at certain things, but initiative, innovation, taking major risks, and tenacious ingenuity are not their forte.
As significant as these challenges are, we need the best of the best solving them.
If entrepreneurs accomplish the goals listed above, we will naturally see increased political stability, a well-funded government that can protect against Chinese or other international aggression, and a narrowing gap between the rich and poor.
It will also take a widespread entrepreneurial mindset to figure out how to effectively thwart terrorism without turning the government into a secretive surveillance state, and also help the nation evolve into a less litigious and more productive society.
Government cannot wisely do either of these projects, since it is a central party to both.
And big corporations also have a conflict of interest; they would naturally use both projects to increase their own power at the cost of freedom.
Entrepreneurs are more suited to succeed in these projects than any other group, and to then share their views with the citizenry.
The most critical problems we now face are also our greatest opportunities.
We need more entrepreneurs, and we need entrepreneurs who engage more in social leadership.
Our future now, more than at any time since the founding and pioneering eras, depends on producers.
Hamilton’s ideas contributed much to American growth, but it is time for a renewal of the Jeffersonian spirit of independence and initiative—in all of us.
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Sources:
- From the article entitled, “Good for Some” in the 2/13/10 issue of The Economist: “In January Google suffered a serious attack on its infrastructure, originating in China. On February 2nd Dennis Blair, the White House director of national intelligence, went to a Senate committee to give an annual threat assessment. He used it to give a warning of a large and far-reaching threat. Sophisticated cyber-criminals are stealing sensitive government information every day, Mr. Blair explained, and state agencies often find shadowy presences on their networks—‘the hallmark of an unknown adversary intending to do far more than merely demonstrate skill or mock a vulnerability.’ An overarching concern is that in a time of crisis network infrastructure might be seriously compromised.”
- See James Fallows, “Cyber Warriors,” The Atlantic, March 2010. See Israel on its Internet Fighting Team in Harper’s Index, Harpers Magazine, November 2009.
- Ken Kurson, “A Hedge Fund for Little Guys,” Esquire, March 2010.
- Governor Tim Pawlenty, quoted by Mark Warren in “The Dark Horse,” Esquire, March 2010.
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Oliver DeMille is the founder of the Center for Social Leadership, and a co-creator of TJEd.
He is the author of A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the 21st Century, and The Coming Aristocracy: Education & the Future of Freedom.
Oliver is dedicated to promoting freedom through leadership education. He and his wife Rachel are raising their eight children in Cedar City, Utah.
Category : Aristocracy &Economics &Entrepreneurship &Government &Producers &Prosperity
