The government bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will cost taxpayers $5.3 trillion. The $700 billion bailout of other notable financial firms is a Band-aid approach to a gaping-wound quandary.

So what is the long-term solution? Does the current crisis represent the end of America as we know it?

What can you do to contribute to a more secure and prosperous economy?

Is it possible for you to prosper in economic downturns?

The first step to identifying solutions is to accurately diagnose the problem. While the reasons are diverse, our current predicament is the product of three primary factors on three different levels:

1. The government manipulates the economy with the money supply, creating artificial demand and warping natural market forces.
2. Corporations have been guided by shortsighted greed.
3. The average American consumes more than they produce.

Since corporate behavior and government policy represent individual action, the only long-term solution to America’s economic woes is for individuals to be the change they wish to see in the world; to focus more on their internal economy than on the external economy.

Internal v. External Economy

The external economy represents everything outside of you: GDP, the Federal Reserve, international trade, supply and demand, manufacturing, etc.

Your internal economy is the sum total of the value you offer to others minus the factors that limit your production. It is your human life value—your knowledge, skills, abilities, relationships, confidence, etc.

It is what happens within you that determines your material and spiritual prosperity, or lack thereof.

Our pressing crisis hasn’t happened in a vacuum; it’s the result of a steady shift in culture, based on personal, internal decisions.

We can blame the government and corporations all we want, but government agents and corporate executives are common Americans like you and I, doing common things.

There’s little you and I can do to influence government policy during this crisis, but there’s an infinite number of things we can do to ensure security and prosperity regardless of what happens in the external economy.

Do you want to learn and grow, or complain and wallow in the misery? If you choose the former, then it’s time to grow your internal economy.

But how, exactly, is this done? Your personal economy will be strengthened and vitalized by living the following five principles:

1. Entitlement is the enemy of prosperity.

Stop waiting for someone else to solve your problems and give you economic security.

Contrary to New Deal lies and cradle-to-the-grave propaganda, the only things you’re entitled to are life, liberty, private property, and the pursuit of happiness.

The government owes you nothing but the protection of your unalienable rights. Corporations can give and take benefits as they please.

Your suffering during hard economic times will be directly proportionate to the degree to which you feel entitled to “security” and benefits from any person or institution.

You’re entitled to the fruits of your own labor and ingenuity—nothing more or less.

Don’t abdicate your responsibility to prosper to funds that you don’t understand, investments that you can’t control and that are not collateralized, and managers that you don’t know.

Take full responsibility for your money and your life.

2. Produce more than you consume.

The average American—while complaining about the federal budget deficit—spends more than $1.20 for every dollar that he or she earns. Contrary to the crippling myth that “consumer spending drives the economy,” production drives the economy.

Production—creating value for others in a way that they compensate you for it—is what gives any individual or entity the ability to consume.

You can’t control government spending. But you can control your own.

• Spend less than you earn.
• Never, ever borrow to consume.
• Pay off consumer debt as fast as you are able.
• Cut up your credit cards if that’s what it takes.
• Increase your production through education, better marketing, a career change, etc.
• Save and invest ten percent of your income.

Do whatever it takes to ensure that your home economy produces more than it consumes; this is the best way to fight inflation.

3. Value creation comes before desire fulfillment.

Who has more money—you, or other people? Obviously, other people.

How can you get others to give you money? By providing something to them that they value more than their money.

Greed and selfishness are at the basis of so many of our current problems. The wise understand that they can only get what they want by first focusing on what other people want.

Ask yourself:

• What do you have to offer that other people want?
• What suffering exists in the world that you have the ability to alleviate?
• What do other people need and how can you provide it efficiently?

Dollars follow value—creating value for others is the only legitimate way to meet your own needs.

4. Integrity is worth its weight in gold.

Corporate executives are being caught in lies like flies to honey. But what about you? Are you going to unfairly take advantage of others in the name of “Everyone else is doing it?”

Or will you take the road less traveled and be a person of your word, a person who others can trust in and rely upon? Does your private life reflect your core values?

When times are hard, people look for stability. Integrity provides stability of character, drawing others toward you.

Integrity alone is a magnetic marketing tool and will boost your ability to influence and serve others, and therefore profit in spite of crises.

5. Find and live your Soul Purpose.

Soul Purpose is your unique set of talents, abilities, values, and passions applied productively and effectively, making tremendous impact upon the world and bringing the highest levels of joy and fulfillment to you and everyone you touch.

You were born for something wonderful. Are you doing it?

Do you love to get up every morning? Are you energized by your career? Does it continually stretch you to achieve your fullest potential? Or is it time for you to choose something different?

Prosperity is much more than dollars, investment accounts, and toys; it’s the internal joy that you experience by applying your best work to pressing problems.

Soul Purpose is the best long-term investment. Find what you were born to do and do it—your prosperity will increase exponentially.

Rise to the Occasion

The problems we face are big—which means that there’s now more opportunity than ever to create value by alleviating suffering.

Big problems require bigger solutions, and bigger solutions pay bigger dividends.

The positive side of the financial meltdown is increased awareness; there is now enough pain for us to course-correct and overcome the economic myths of the last century.

The solution isn’t to elect new leaders any more than changing drivers on a broken car makes the car run better.

The solution is for common Americans to reform the economy from the inside out by:

1. Eliminating the entitlement mentality
2. Producing more than we consume
3. Creating value for others
4. Developing impeccable integrity
5. Living Soul Purpose

If you don’t know what to invest in—especially during hard economic times—your best bet is to invest in yourself through education.

After all, the external economy is nothing but a reflection of the aggregate of internal economies.

*******************************

Garrett Gunderson is an entrepreneur, financial coach, the founder of Freedom FastTrack, and the primary author of the New York Times bestseller Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity.

Garrett loves inspiring others to turn their potential into production. He has dedicated his life to living and teaching a unique concept known as Soul Purpose that reveals how anyone can live a more prosperous and rewarding life.

As a finance and business productivity coach, Garrett instructs both large and small groups of business owners and financial service professionals nationwide.

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“Hi Bryan,
“How are you doing?

“Just wondering, a friend of mine at work was pretty ticked off at you for a show of yours she listened to this weekend. She said that you were saying that Fox [N]ews fans are delusional, and that you didn’t reference what people should be watching or listening to instead.  Just curious if you have time, could you further explain?”

Uh-oh.  Looks like I might have some ‘splainin’ to do.  All right, let’s get to it.

Yep. I said that people who rely SOLELY on Fox News for their information, thinking that they’re no longer being propagandized are, in fact, deluding themselves.  

Of course the same is also true for those who depend entirely upon CNN or NPR or any other single source of information.

The problem is that there is no unbiased source of mass communication and the single greatest challenge for anyone who wishes to be informed today is to be capable of sifting through all the spin and propaganda to clearly comprehend the way things really are.

It’s not so much a matter of which information source we use as a matter of developing our ability to use critical thinking skills in order to correctly interpret that information.

As citizens, our greatest responsibility during times of crisis is to think clearly and independently.

My biggest beef with Fox News is that too many people think they’re getting all the information they need when, in fact, the information is just as spun and the debate is just as controlled as anything they’d get from the mainstream media.

Information Versus Truth

Too often we forget that information isn’t always the same thing as truth.

Talk radio listeners exacerbate the problem when they become content to simply repeat whatever talking points they hear Beck, Rush or Hannity saying.

Parroting someone else’s words creates a dependency that tends to make a person dogmatic in their viewpoints. Dogma coupled with an inability to articulate one’s own thoughts is a perfect recipe for defensiveness when one encounters a differing viewpoint.

Before retiring a few years ago, Charley Reese was a writer of unusual clarity.  Here’s what he had to say about thinking we know it all:

“But since our means of learning are limited so that we can never learn everything about anything, we should avoid being dogmatic. I don’t mean living in a constant state of uncertainty, but we should at least always concede the possibility that what we think is so isn’t so. I have trouble understanding people who get emotionally upset when they bump into an opinion they disagree with.”

Does that last sentence not describe the scorched earth approach taken by many of the top names in talk radio who feel they must shout down, marginalize or hang up on anyone whose opinion differs from their own?

If you dare deviate from what the talking heads of ANY of the mass media sources consider the acceptable parameters of debate on a given issue, prepare to have disapproval heaped upon your head.  

And the rancor won’t just be from the commentators, but also from those faithful viewers or listeners who have hitched their ideological wagon to a particular star.

Whether it’s the person who just knows that “our news media” would never lie or the one bearing their testimony of “Brother Beck” to you, your dissent, however mild, represents a threat to their worldview.

Charley Reese made a recommendation years ago that I took to heart and I offer it now to you:

“Take this little test: Pick out any national issue or any national political figure and ask yourself, What do I really know about this issue or this person? The honest answer in most cases will be not much that hasn’t been spoon-fed to you by liars and propagandists.”

Once this realization occurs a person can begin to actually study the issues for themselves and take responsibility for their own viewpoint.  

The beauty of this approach is that it is much more based in reality than simply taking talking points from a professional propagandist.

There is real effort involved in thinking for yourself, but the payoff is that you will never be at the mercy of another in knowing what to think about a given issue.

One last quote from Charley Reese to drive the point home:

“Remembering and imagining are not thinking. Emotional reactions or ideological reactions are not thinking. Belief in the ‘word magic’ of labels is not thinking. Faith is not thinking.”

“Thinking is the use of reason to determine the truth as best we can. To do that, we have to shuck emotions, desires and wishes and look at the world in its nakedness as it is, not as we wish it were or as someone else has told us it is.

“Reality is not affected by our desires or by our comprehension. We glean data from our senses of that world outside our bodies and use our brains to draw inferences from the data. We have to conform to it; reality will not conform to us.”

My point on my radio show was that we need a propaganda-proof citizenry now more than ever, but few Fox News viewers or talk radio listeners would ever admit they were being bamboozled.

Liberal Arts: The Remedy for Propaganda

This is where there is simply no substitute for a true blue liberal arts education.

It’s been nearly 60 years since Mortimer Adler and then-president of the University of Chicago Robert Hutchins set about publishing the Great Book series containing the greatest works of Western thought spanning a period of nearly three millennia.  

The published collection is a remarkable achievement in and of itself, but the purpose for which Adler & Hutchins set about compiling the Great Books of the Western World is as timely today as it was in 1952.

The first volume of the 54 book set is titled “The Great Conversation,” and in it the editors make a powerful case that the disappearance of the great canon of Western Thought from education portends a calamity rather than progress.  

They clearly saw that while America’s standards of living were continually rising in terms of material comforts, a majority of adults were becoming impoverished morally, intellectually and spiritually.  

The predictable result of this type of educational malnutrition is a trend where each successive generation is further impaired in its ability to think for itself.

In Hutchins’s words:

“We believe that the reduction of the citizen to an object of propaganda, private and public, is one of the greatest dangers to democracy.

“A prevalent notion is that the great mass of the people cannot understand and cannot form an independent judgment upon any matter; they cannot be educated, in the sense of developing their intellectual powers, but they can be bamboozled.

“The reiteration of slogans, the distortion of the news, the great storm of propaganda that beats upon the citizen twenty-four hours a day all his life long mean either that democracy must fall a prey to the loudest and most persistent propagandists or that the people must save themselves by strengthening their minds so that they can appraise the issues for themselves.”

Hutchins understood that study of the great books provides one with a more well-rounded grasp of humanity, history, politics, morals and economics that enable the reader to effectively exercise their own mental abilities rather than waiting for experts to tell them what to think.

It’s been nearly 60 years since Hutchins made the following prescient observation:

“The trials of the citizen now surpass anything that previous generations ever knew.  Private and public propaganda beats upon him from morning till night all his life long.  If independent judgment is the sine qua non of effective citizenship in a democracy, then it must be admitted that such judgment is harder to maintain now than it ever has been before.  

“It is too much to hope that a strong dose of education in childhood and youth can inoculate a man to withstand the onslaughts of his independent judgment that society conducts, or allows to be conducted, against him every day.  For this, constant mental alertness and mental growth are required.”

The editors of the Great Books in no way pretended that the series was a panacea by which all of our problems could be answered.  

Instead, they recommended them as tools to further one’s self-education by allowing the reader to come face to face with what the greatest thinkers of the past 3,000 years had to offer.  

Only those who have actively put in the effort of studying great thinkers like Herodotus, Plato, Descartes, Machiavelli, or the many others whose works comprise the Great Books can accurately attest to the insight such study provides to better understanding the current issues and crises of our own time.

It was once considered self evident that a liberal education (meaning a well-rounded one) was how a person gained the necessary thinking skills to be capable of perpetuating liberty.  

Today, in ideological circles, the very word “liberal” causes some to have palpitations and others to reflexively genuflect to the state as their master and savior.

The Great Books won’t teach a person what to think, but by studying the great ideas (even the ones that were wrong) our minds become trained in how to think and how to ask the right questions.  

This type of education doesn’t even require a formal classroom setting.  Most liberally educated people got that way by diligently spending a bit of time reading and studying daily in the privacy of their own study or bedroom.  

There are no shortcuts to self education and that’s why the concept is such a tough sell to generations that prefer to plop down in front of the TV or computer and be entertained.

Mortimer Adler said it best:

“Anyone who has done any thinking, even a little bit, knows that it is painful. It is hard work-in fact the very hardest that human beings are ever called upon to do. It is fatiguing, not refreshing. If allowed to follow the path of least resistance, no one would ever think…

“Whoever passes by what is over his head condemns his head to its present low altitude; for nothing can elevate a mind except what is over its head; and that elevation is not accomplished by capillary attraction, but only by the hard work of climbing up the ropes, with sore hands and aching muscles.”

Instead of waiting for someone to tell us what sources to tap for information, we need to develop our thinking skills to the point that we can avail ourselves of many sources and accurately sift truth from error.  

This type of independent thought is what inoculates a citizenry against the effects of propaganda from any side of the political spectrum.

********************

Bryan Hyde is a radio host, husband, father, graduate student at George Wythe University, and seeker of truth. He does professional voice work through his company One Clear Voice.

Bryan blogs at The White Rose Society and writes firearm reviews for The Truth About Guns. He and his wife Becky are raising their six children in Cedar City, Utah.

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“I am really no different than you. I may have more money than you do, but money doesn’t make the difference…

“If there is any difference between you and me, it may simply be that I get up every day and have a chance to do what I love to do, every day.

“If you want to learn anything from me, this is the best advice I can give you.”

If you’re unhappy with your life, the chances are that you are not providing a fraction of the value that you’re capable of.

Happy people who focus on developing their unique gifts always produce more value for others and alleviate more suffering in the world than those who are routinely unhappy.

What will it take for you to live the life you love?

What will be the effect in your personal life? What will be the effect on the world at large? How many more people can you impact by living your ideal life and doing what you were born to do?

How many problems exist and how many people are suffering if you’re not?

But there is a significant difference in the leadership value in different types of reading.

For example, few would doubt that there is a difference in benefits between reading the following items:

• a technical manual
• your friends’ Facebook entries
• a work by Plato or Shakespeare
• a historical, western, science fiction or fantasy novel
• the prospectus for a financial investment
• a romance novel
• The Wall Street Journal
• a tabloid magazine
• a business self-help book

The list could go on. One could argue that all of these have some benefits, but the value would depend on what the reader was trying to gain from the reading.

In short, all reading is not the same.

As David Brooks wrote in the New York Times:

“Recently, book publishers got some good news. Researchers gave 852 disadvantaged students 12 books (of their own choosing) to take home at the end of the school year….They found that the students who brought the books home had significantly higher reading scores than other students….In fact, just having those 12 books seemed to have as much positive effect as attending summer school. This study, along with many others, illustrates the tremendous power of books….

“Recently, Internet mavens got some bad news. Jacob Vigdor and Helen Ladd of Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy examined computer use among a half-million 5th through 8th graders in North Carolina. They found that the spread of home computers and high-speed Internet access was associated with significant declines in math and reading scores.”

He concludes his analysis with this:

“Already, more ‘old-fashioned’ outposts are opening up across the web. It could be that the real debate will not be books versus the Internet but how to build an Internet counterculture that will better attract people to serious learning.”

Perhaps the key is to resurrect the word “great.” This word is often used (perhaps overused), in our society, but it is seldom used to mean what it originally meant.

“Great” has several meanings:

1. huge, immense, grand
2. distinguished, remarkable, impressive
3. noble, heroic, majestic
4. wonderful, fantastic, excellent
5. complete, profound, utter
6. unlimited, boundless, abundant
7. major, momentous, weighty

“Great” can mean any one of these things, or a combination of a few or all of them.

Antonyms of the word “great” include: unimportant, small, minor, lowly, slight, awful, tiny, and ordinary. In academia, business and athletics, the word “mediocre” is also used as an antonym of “great.”

Now, consider some of the ramifications of applying more greatness to education, reading and learning.

What if children and youth were strongly encouraged to read a few of the greats in everything they read. For example:

• 2 of the greatest technical manuals ever written, things like The Wizard of Ads by Roy H. Williams
• 2 of the greatest works each by Plato and Shakespeare
• 2 years of Berkshire Hathaway’s annual report
• 2 each of the greatest historical, western, science fiction and fantasy novels, titles like The Bridge at Andau, The Virginian, Lord of the Rings, etc.
• 2 of the greatest romance novels ever, such as Gone With the Wind, Sense and Sensibility, etc.
• 2 of the best tabloid magazine articles ever written, which have weathered the test of time and proven to be excellent and accurate (just the process of researching this would be a great educational project that would teach many lessons about good versus bad journalism)
• 2 of the top business self-help books, such as works by Napoleon Hill, Wallace Wattles, Paulo Coelho or Jim Collins
• Some of the top Wall Street Journal articles ever published, things like “A Separate Peace” by Peggy Noonan
• 3 of the greatest Facebook entries ever (examples anyone?)

Such readings, be they from books or newspapers or the Internet, are by their nature grand, remarkable, impressive, excellent, profound, momentous and weighty. Some are even abundant, noble, majestic and/or heroic.

In a word, they are great.

None of these would be unimportant, small, minor, lowly, slight, awful, tiny, ordinary or mediocre. Readers may agree or disagree with what they read, but they would at least be reading some of the greats.

This would help them judge the quality of other things they read by simple comparison.

Great readings greatly impact learning. What is an education without Tocqueville, Austen, Newton, Einstein, Aristotle, Virgil, Twain or Mother Teresa?

Unless we read the greats, our education simply cannot be accurately called great.

Beyond this, however, there are a number of great works being produced each year and in many mediums—from books to music, art to theater, cinema to mathematics, accounting to marketing, family relations to philosophy and religion, and from the Internet to all the latest social networking sites.

Great works are more easily found in some of these mediums than others, but all of them offer at least a few greats!

We just need to look for and share them—especially with the youth. Cultivating our taste for greatness, and our ability to detect it, is an important aspect of becoming “educated.”

On a related topic, the only free peoples in history were societies of readers! If we want to be free, we must read. Books matter, and great books matter greatly.

Other kinds of readings also produce some great work, and all of us can do better by simply adding more “great” readings into our lives. As we do this, our children and students will be more likely to follow our example.

Finally, in what ways can each of us help establish and support Internet content that is deeper, more excellent and truly greater reading material? This is a vital mission for many of us.

In one way, the Internet may be more effective at promoting great education than even books: Nearly all Internet content is interactive, meaning that youth naturally want to write about it as well as read it.

Where reading of books and writing of essays are usually separate processes in traditional education, the Internet can bridge the gap by naturally combining great reading with important writing.

If they are reading great works and ideas, learners will be more likely to write about great thoughts.

The problem is that without reading great things, great writing seldom occurs.

When children learn texting (entertainment) before they actively fall in love with and engage great books (learning), their writing won’t usually emphasize great thinking.

The greatly educated naturally use e-media to share and improve their education, while those with shallow education naturally take their shallowness to the keyboard.

In short, we can all benefit from bringing more great readings into our lives—wherever they are found.

But among children and youth, it is much more effective to learn from books first and later take up social networking only when they have something important to say.

When this order is reversed, many youth struggle to do the work of great education when life is dominated by e-entertainment.

In the Internet Age, great education is more available than ever—but only if children fall in love with books. And this is a lot more likely if their parents and teachers set the example.

***********************************

Oliver DeMille is the founder and former president of George Wythe University, a co-founder of the Center for Social Leadership, and a co-creator of TJEd Online.

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.

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However, this desire can lead down a path that will take us away from where we want to go. In Leo Tolstoy’s novel Resurrection the author shows us the darker side of allowing society to influence us instead of individuals influencing society.

The story centers around a formerly idealistic young man who experiences a dramatic change (for the worse) over a course of three years and then ten years later is placed face-to-face with the consequences of his actions.

Tolstoy introduces us to Prince Nekhlyudov, describing how idealism (what is eternally real, not temporally real) is a discovery of how wonderful life can be and how it is a determination to pursue that life in its ideal.

“During that summer at his aunts’ Nekhlyudov experienced that rapturous state of exaltation when a young man discovers for himself, without any outside recommendation, all the beauty and significance of life, and the importance of the task allotted in life to every man; when he sees the endless perfectibility of himself and the whole universe; and devotes himself not only hopefully, but in complete confidence to attaining the perfections he dreams of.”

What does Tolstoy mean that one “discovers for himself, without any outside recommendation?”

Human beings have a profound ability to reason and believe and find truth. When we are depending on faith in God, the wonders of nature, our own reason, and great books/thoughts, most individuals will come to very similar and correct ideas about life.

What a difference it would make if we see the world and others as Tolstoy describes that the idealist (one who acts based on eternal truths) sees it: as something completely perfectible in work, word, deed, and act…it changes everything.

For Nekhlyudov, time with nature and family was what brought out this perspective.

In the story, Tolstoy teaches us the process through which the way see the world changes from an idealistic to a pragmatic view:

1. One begins to care for own enjoyment only.
2. Life loses its mystery and everything depends on relative circumstances
3. We lose communion with nature and “thinkers” (there are relatively few of theses about) and start to depend on social status and affairs of what others think (especially experts and those already accepted by society).
4. Women become a “familiar means of enjoyment,” instead of a mystery and enchanting, as in the case of Nekhlyudov. Relationships with the opposite sex become strictly physical with gratification as a goal.
5. Spending money without thought of why, how, whom and the underlying philosophy of spending and consuming.
6. Once we change how we see ourselves, how we see everything else changes.”[Prior to the change, Nekhylyadov] had regarded his spiritual being as his real self; [after this transition] his healthy virile animal self was the real I.” This is likely the fundamental actor here.

What brings about the change in the way we see ourselves? Tolstoy gives the answer. Nekhlyudov came to trust this virile ”animal self” because:

“…he had ceased to put his faith in his own conscience and had taken to trusting others. And he had ceased to trust himself and begun to believe in others because life was too difficult if one believed one’s own conscience; believing in oneself, every question had to be decided, never to the advantage of one’s animal self, which seeks easy gratification, but in almost every case against it.

“But to believe in others (and their sense of right and wrong) meant that there was nothing to decide: everything had been decided already, and always in favor of the animal ‘I’ and against the spiritual. Moreover, when he trusted his own conscience, he was always laying himself open to criticism, whereas now, trusting others, he received the approval of those around him.”

Slowly, the opinion of the world begins to matter more than our opinion and this leads to a shift in allegiances, from God and that spiritual self that is so intimately tied to Him, to an allegiance to others, and eventually to evil.

This is at first difficult for Nekhlyudov; however he began to smoke and drink, which dulled his sense of right and wrong and there by “forgot the uncomfortable feeling and even experienced great relief.”

Why do we grant society such influence over us? Why do we give more weight to what others think than to our own reason and conscience?

Tolstoy argues that human beings make better decisions trusting in their conscience, studying others’ ideas and spending time in true reality (nature) instead of in the false reality of concrete, computers, TV, and movies.

Human nature creates society through our desire to cooperatively work together; but we cannot allow society’s influence to draw us away from trusting ourselves and God.

************************

Mike Wilson received his B.S. degree in Chemistry from Brigham Young University and pursued graduate work at the University of California, San Diego, where he earned a M.S. degree in Biomedical Sciences prior to obtaining his M.D. at the UCSD School of Medicine.

He lives in Cedar City, Utah with his wife Jenni and their six children and practices emergency medicine in St. George, Utah while working on a Ph.D. in Constitutional Law at George Wythe University. He is also an Associate Mentor at GWU.

Mike’s passion is promoting idea that the common man has power and capacity to affect grand change in the world through true principles of love, goodness, and virtue. Because of his Jeffersonian trust in the common man, he considers himself a “little d” democrat (an ideal, not a political party).

He believes that the cause of liberty is founded essentially in widespread powerful education, checks on power, and promotion of virtue and goodness. Force is never a real solution to problems for Mike and the statesman’s role is to understand the ideal, see where society is, and then put himself in a position to move society in the direction of the ideal.

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“The fabric of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of the consent of the people. The streams of national power ought to flow immediately from that pure, original fountain of all legitimate authority. –Alexander Hamilton

Simply put, legitimate foundation means the will of the People at large, while legitimate authority is the express permission granted by the People to the government to perform some function.

Put together, they form the philosophical foundation of the powerful idea that man does not exist for the state, but that the state exists for man.

Legitimate Foundation

The idea that the government should exist according to the will of the People and solely to benefit the People at large was revolutionary in the 18th Century. Previously, governments primarily benefited those governing, or special interests.

The American Founders taught that the will of the People, as expressed through constitutional means, is the only solid, sustainable, and legitimate foundation of republican government.

This does not mean, however, that they were referring simply to the concept of majority rule alone, as we learn from Federalist Paper #51; the idea is to guide the nation by the will of the majority, while protecting minority rights (i.e. preventing the majority from taking private property).

Legitimate Authority

Thomas Jefferson spoke of legitimate authority in the Declaration of Independence when he wrote,

“…That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…”

The United States Constitution was the first (and to my knowledge the only) constitution to be instigated by, or to have originated in, the People, then ratified by the People.

In other words, the People, through their colonial representatives, called for the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Representatives at the Convention represented the People within their respective territories–not the government itself.

They were authorized by the People to do the will of the People. Our Constitution was initiated and created from the bottom up, rather than dictated from the top down.

Then, after its creation by the representatives of the People, the Constitution was taken back to the People–once again through their colonial representatives–to be ratified, or accepted.

Previously, the historical norm was for the government–whether through a monarchy, aristocracy, or other form of ruler’s law–to dictate from the top down the laws and constitutional forms that the People must obey.

As David Hume wrote in 1752,

“Almost all the governments which exist at present, or of which there remains any record in story, have been founded originally either on usurpation or conquest or both, without any pretense of a fair consent or voluntary subjection of the people.”

Why It Matters

To drive the point home with these critical concepts, think of illegitimate versions of the same concepts.

For example, illegitimate foundations of government would include a government being founded by the will of a monarch or a dictator, a special interest group, one branch of government solely, etc. and primarily to protect and benefit such individuals or groups.

Illegitimate authority would include any government imposing arbitrary laws without permission from the People to do so through constitutional means, any branch of government engaging in extra-constitutional activities; a special interest group, such as a banking cartel, exercising undue influence upon the People without their consent; etc.

Any time a government, individual, institution, or special interest group imposes any law, regulation, policy, program, or procedure without the express permission of the People through constitutional means–and backs it up with force and violence–tyranny ensues.

In fact, the word “tyranny” itself originates from the Greek, meaning “illegitimate ruler.”

It’s like your in-laws meddling with your children — only much worse, since it usually involves pesky things like theft, murder, rape, and pillage.

Danger From the People

However, an even more important point must be made, which is that the greatest danger to popular governments lies with the people themselves, rather than with illegitimate rulers or laws.

With the right and ability to vote and legitimately influence public policy comes the temptation for the People to vote themselves benefits from the national treasury. As Benjamin Franklin wrote,

“When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”

Our nation flipped this ruinous switch in 1913, with the ratification of the 16th and 17th Amendments and the passing of the Federal Reserve Act. I’ll save my analysis of these for another article.

The point is that with rights and privileges come responsibilities. We are so blessed in America to enjoy a constitutional structure based on legitimate foundation and legitimate foundation. However, this also means that We the People are primarily responsible for the maintenance of our freedom.

This requires education. As Thomas Jefferson wrote,

“I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.”

Recommended Reading:

Federalist Paper #38
Federalist Paper #22

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Stephen Palmer is a marketing consultant and persuasive writer with KGaps Consulting, a co-founder of The Center for Social Leadership, and the New York Times best-selling co-author of Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity.

He is a liberal-arts graduate of George Wythe University and a graduate of the “non-traditional business school” Wizard Academy.

Stephen resides in Round Rock, Texas with his gorgeous wife Karina, awesome son Alex, and princess daughters Libby, Avery, and Laela. Stephen and Karina blog about their magical life on Palmer Journeys.

Connect With Stephen:

Email: spalmer [at] kgaps [dot] com

Read the questions, then answer them by commenting below.

1. What is the source of man’s rights?

2. What are the differences between inalienable and civil rights?

3. What is the proper role of government?

4. What is the American form of government?

5. What is more important–culture, or politics and government?

6. What are “legitimate foundation” and “legitimate authority” in political philosophy?

7. What is the fundamental character of human beings?

8. What are the connections between liberty and property?

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Stephen Palmer is a marketing consultant and persuasive writer with KGaps Consulting, a co-founder of The Center for Social Leadership, and the New York Times best-selling co-author of Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity.

He is a liberal-arts graduate of George Wythe University and a graduate of the “non-traditional business school” Wizard Academy.

Stephen resides in Round Rock, Texas with his gorgeous wife Karina, awesome son Alex, and princess daughters Libby, Avery, and Laela. Stephen and Karina blog about their magical life on Palmer Journeys.

Connect With Stephen:

Email: spalmer [at] kgaps [dot] com

“Propaganda is to democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.” -Noam Chomsky

During the 2008 presidential campaign, I received the following ridiculous email:

Subject Line: Obama Quotes From His Books — In HIS Own Words!

Text:

Check out these quotes from his books yourself. FORWARD TO ALL YOU CAN.

From Dreams of My Father: “I ceased to advertise my mother’s race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites.”

From Dreams of My Father: “I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother’s race.”

From Dreams of My Father: “There was something about him that made me wary, a little too sure of himself, maybe. And white.”

From Dreams of My Father: “It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.”

From Dreams of My Father: “I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn’t speak to my own. It was into my father’s image, the black man, son of Africa , that I’d packed all the attributes I sought in myself, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela.”

And FINALLY the Most Damning one of ALL of them!!!

From Audacity of Hope: “I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.”

If you have never forwarded an e-mail, now is the time to Do so!!! We CANNOT have someone with this type of mentality running our GREAT nation!! I don’t care whether you are a Democrat or Republican, or a Conservative. We CANNOT turn ourselves over to this type of character in a President. PLEASE help spread the word.

P.S. At a recent political rally (media did not report, of course), Obama referenced our “57 states.” Of course we only have 50 states, HOWEVER, there are 57 Muslim controlled countries!!!!

Obama was certainly not my choice for President, but integrity and good judgment dictate that I take a stand against mean-spirited and deceptive propaganda, regardless of the target.

Well-intentioned though the passion may be, this email was a misguided, propagandized, and highly inappropriate smear campaign. It was based in fear and only perpetuates fear.

Four Clues To Recognize — And Reject — Propaganda From Any Source

More than just condemning the email, however, I want to offer the following four clues for seeing through any mass email and/or advertisement, political or otherwise:

1. Excessive Use of Exclamation Points & Capitalized Letters

Fourteen exclamation points in a 291-word email is a glaring red flag for any message.

And any sentence ending in more than one consecutive exclamation point should be immediate cause for deleting the email without further consideration.

Anything more than three consecutive exclamation points is just laughable.

Exclamation points and scattering capitalized letters are like indiscriminate vulgarity: “The weak attempt of a feeble mind to express itself forcefully,” in the immortal words of an old friend.

2. Quotes Taken Out of Context

Taking quotes out of context is the worst, most damaging kind of lie.

I sympathize with Barack’s words, which obviously speak of the confusion of choosing between races in a world where race is still a charged issue. His words speak of the difficult journey of a youth; not the political mind of an adult.

I find nothing unreasonable or objectionable in the referenced quotes; they are perfectly understandable and justifiable in a nation whose original Constitution referenced African-American individuals as being three-fifths of a person.

Snopes published this excellent article that illustrates the true context of each quote.

3. Bald-Faced Lies

The “most damning” quote is an outright misrepresentation — to put it plainly, a bald-faced lie:

“I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.”

I’ve checked out several sources to verify the true statement, which is as follows:

“Of course, not all my conversations in immigrant communities follow this easy pattern. In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific assurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.”

In my view, Obama could not be any more right on in this area. I stand fully behind him in relation to this quote.

It seems that one of the casualties of the War on Terror is common decency. Every freedom-loving American should hope and pray that we get a President this wise as regards this particular issue.

And who are “the Muslims” anyway? Is that like the “Catholics” or the “Protestants?” Why are we supposed to be so afraid of a person who vows to stand behind “the Muslims?”

4. Anecdotal Inferences With No Proof

I found the “P.S.” to be particularly laughable:

“At a recent political rally (media did not report, of course), Obama referenced our “57 states.” Of course we only have 50 states, HOWEVER, there are 57 Muslim controlled countries!!!!”

First of all, we’re given zero proof that this ever happened — in fact, the writer negates our ability to prove or disprove it with the insertion that the “media did not report.”

Ah, of course — we’re in the Information Age nine days away from one of the most critical presidential elections in history and not a single media outlet saw fit to report such a blunder, even if just for laughs.

Secondly, even if it did happen, there are infinite possibilities to explain it, other than the bizarre inference.

I’d love to question the person who wrote this, as well as anyone who has forwarded it, if they have ever misspoken in their lives.

If so, then they are obviously America/whites/Christian-hating, Muslim-loving, power-mongers who are out to ruin the country. It really is that preposterous.

And may fellow Americans have mercy on the person who ever runs for political office and who has participated in such smear campaigns.

Conclusion

This article is more than an analysis of one petty email; it’s a plea to every reader.

Make your judgments of political candidates based on fact, not hearsay and propaganda.

Give candidates the benefit of the doubt — they may disagree with you and they may even be wrong, but I believe every one of them are sincerely doing what they feel is best to help America.

Nobody, no matter how opposed their views are to ours, deserves the kind of treatment Barack Obama received in this email.

Frankly, I’d rather live in a nation run by Barack Obama than by those who write and spread this kind of deceptive propaganda against him.

We have far more to fear from harbingers of propaganda, no matter how “conservative” they may be, than from the likes of Barack Obama.

Make your vote about what you believe in, not about what you’re opposed to.

Forget about fighting against Barack Obama or any other candidate and start fighting for your preferred candidate, values, and platform.

And never, ever spread propaganda of any form; doing so only makes us become what we’re fighting against.

The moral high ground is the most crucial real estate to maintain in any cause or political campaign. If one’s cause is just, there is never a need for deception.

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Stephen Palmer is a marketing consultant and persuasive writer with KGaps Consulting, a co-founder of The Center for Social Leadership, and the New York Times best-selling co-author of Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity.

He is a liberal-arts graduate of George Wythe University and a graduate of the “non-traditional business school” Wizard Academy.

Stephen resides in Round Rock, Texas with his gorgeous wife Karina, awesome son Alex, and princess daughters Libby, Avery, and Laela. Stephen and Karina blog about their magical life on Palmer Journeys.

Connect With Stephen:

Email: spalmer [at] kgaps [dot] com

Read Part 1 Here
Read Part 2 Here
Read Part 3 Here
Read Part 4 Here

Few people realize how widespread the New Tribe revolution has become.

The many examples of online New Tribes show how rapidly this trend is growing. But there is even more to it than that.

One cycle of business growth says that all new things go through four levels:

1. They are ignored.
2. They are laughed at.
3. They are opposed.
4. They are accepted as obvious.

The growth of New Tribes is at the Obvious stage.

For example, tribal currency is now the most widely used money in the world. That may surprise some people who believe that the dollar or the yen or some other national currency is most used.

But try this experiment. Pull out your wallet or planner, and see how much money you have in government-printed currency.

Then see how much you have available in private bank currency (checks or debit cards).

Finally, how much are you carrying in tribal currency (from, say, the Visa or Mastercard tribes, or Discover or American Express)?

While it is true that these private currencies exchange into government money, the truth is that your credit account is most likely a niche or tribal account rather than a government account.

And I dare say that more than a few readers are befuddled by this example, as they transact very few purchases by pulling out their wallet, with the actual plastic in hand; they most often buy over the phone or online—further making the point.

The significance of this is huge. How much wealth are you carrying in sky miles, for example? Or hotel or travel points?

The reason companies issue loyalty cards is to get you to stop being in the traveler niche and instead join the Delta or British Airways tribe.

While you still have your wallet or purse out, look through it to see how many tribal membership cards you carry. Costco? Sam’s Club? Trader Joe’s? An automobile club? What else? Do you carry a church card, or a school card?

The point of all this is that New Tribes are here to stay, and indeed that before the 21st Century ends they may well take over many roles that were traditionally governmental.

For example, the phrase “I’ll fedex it” has replaced “I’ll mail it” in many corporate circles, and toll roads are becoming more popular around the world.

Just like government railways were phased out by private airlines, look for the rise of many more tribally-led industries and services in the years and decades ahead.

For New Tribes to fully achieve their positive potential, it is helpful and perhaps essential for them to learn from the best lessons of the tribes throughout history.

Both leaders and participants of tribes gain much wisdom by studying the best practices and traditions of the world’s tribes.

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Oliver DeMille is the founder and former president of George Wythe University, a co-founder of the Center for Social Leadership, and a co-creator of TJEd Online.

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.

Connect With Oliver: