Guest MINDSETTER™ Jeff Deckman: Greece and RI - Independence Back into Bondage

Thursday, July 09, 2015

Guest MINDSETTER™ Jeff Deckman

 

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The Greek government is on the doorstep of default. The reason for their default is all their fault but they want to blame everyone else. Such is the nature of the entitlement consciousness that is inherent with socialism.
 
They have no money, no credit and zero credibility. They also have lost the commitment to excellence, work ethic and the sense of honor that made the Ancient Greeks the forefathers of modern civilization. Over many decades the modern Greeks replaced liberty with socialism, excellence with inertia, work ethic with entitlement and honor with false pride.
 
What was once a great democracy that gifted civilization with what are known as the 5 Legacies of Greece has now become a pathetically weak far left socialist state whose legacy will be the example of what happens when a civilization chooses entitlement programs and prays to the alter of big government versus choosing empowerment programs and honors the freedom and the inalienable rights of the individual.
 
How sad, but also how predictable once you understand the evolutions of governments.
 
In 1787, the greatest governmental experiment in the history of civilization was in the birthing process. The men and women who created this new government, which they called the United States of America, had spent many years, hundreds of thousands of hours and much blood, sweat and tears working to create a revolutionary governmental design that was “of the people, by the people and for the people.”
 
Their design was genius and they proved to be masters of implementation. The result was the first “humble” government ever created by western civilization. It was a government that dedicated and devoted itself to creating the conditions that would honor and place the value of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” of its citizenry above all else, including its own needs.
 
These men and women were committed to creating a robust free market economy that limited government intervention, taxation and suppression. They were willing to risk their lives and fortunes to achieve this goal for future generations. And many paid the ultimate price.
 
They truly believed that free people coupled with a free market would be like “nitro meeting glycerin," with the result being a civilization exploding with potential for prosperity for even the poorest of its members. They did this knowing they would never be the true beneficiaries of the great nation they were creating. They did it for us. And they were right.
 
The model they fashioned was a representative republic. Today many of us simply call it a democracy. Their vision and design was so innovative that it was the catalyst for accelerating the development of humanity to levels, and at a rate of speed, unprecedented in human history. Ironically, one of the models used for this new form of government was ancient Greece.
 
While you will find many fools and self-serving politicians who argue against a free market, liberty based government and argue for veiled versions of socialism, the facts are indisputable. Our system works. Their system fails. It is as simple as it is undeniable.
 
Houston we have a problem

During that same year of 1787, Professor Alexander Tyler decided to map the evolution and life span of a democracy. What he found turned out to be eerily prophetic for the Greeks while sending a foreboding warning to those of us in living in left leaning Rhode Island.
 
His research revealed 8 stages of evolution of a democracy that creates the following arc: Stage 1. Bondage to Spiritual Faith. Stage 2. From Spiritual Faith to Great Courage. Stage 3. From Great Courage to Liberty. Stage 4. From Liberty to Abundance. Stage 5. From Abundance to Complacency. Stage 6. From Complacency to Apathy. Stage 7. From Apathy to Dependence.
 
Guess what the 8th stage is…… From Dependence back into Bondage!!
 
Unfortunately he was not able to find an example of a civilization that ever made it back out of bondage after once being a democracy. I am thinking that is because by the 8th stage the government has had so much control of everything for so long that it has drained all life, liberty and any hope of pursuing happiness from so many generations of its people that they simply surrender to the bondage of government. Unless, that is, they can get a fresh start in a land that the locusts of government have not already made barren and void of the fruits of the human spirit.
 
That is why people in the 17th and 18th century sailed across oceans to get far enough away from oppressive governments to be able to build a fresh society. Today we have no new continents to use to reinvent spoiled governments. So we will have to respect and protect the ones we have; or suffer the fate of Stage 8.
 
Upon examination of Professor Tyler’s arc it is easy to identify the time and place of the death of liberty and free market values that are the cornerstone of a vibrant civilization. It occurs at Stage 5. It is also just as easy to see the time and place of the birth of socialism which marks the beginning of the end of a vibrant civilization. It occurs at Stage 5.
 
In other words, at Stage 5 we see when the voracious appetite of the government parasite shape shifts and takes over its host. Before Stage 5 the governmental parasite is like a pilot fish, which forms a mutually beneficial relationship with its host. Then at Stage 5 it becomes the tapeworm that, if left unchecked, eventually sucks the life and energy out of its host.
 
It is clear that Greece’s choice to elect left leaning socialist leaders for many years has led them to Stage 7. At this point they can stomp their feet and vote as often as they want against facing the reality of Stage 8 but that economic death train has already left the station and they are all aboard.
 
Oh well….nothing personal, its just how things work.
 
One has to remember that the only time during the arc of democracy that people have choices and free will are from Stages 1 to 4. If they are either unable or unwilling to avoid Stage 5 then they will have begun turning their lives, liberties and their children’s children’s future over to a socialist government.
 
A bitter pill for leftists

Regardless of what the left may say or even actually believe: socialist leaning governments hate people. The reason for this is that governments and people are in competition for an incredibly valuable, life giving resource that both require for their existence. But the problem, for the government at least, is that that resource resides within the people. And the only way the government can get it is to first ask for it; then demand it and finally take it with force.
 
That resource is the time and labor of people. Government can do nothing without the fruits of the labor of people. Since it can create neither of either on its own it from people. Which, in a government that is between Stages 1-4, is achieved through mutual agreement because the relationship between the host (people) and the parasite (government) is still symbiotic.
 
Once a government crosses into the socialistic Stage 5 this relationship becomes adversarial as power of the government begins to turn against the people. In turn people and economies begin to suffer as they begin to be drained by over taxation. Government’s response is to make itself bigger by creating programs to give back a portion of the money they just have taken from the people as entitlements and subsidies. This further oppresses people and the economy. And they precipitous fall to Stage 8 begins to accelerate.
 
In the meantime leftist and progressive politicians demonize and financially punish the only people who can bring the economy back to life; fanning the flames of class warfare in the process. So those people leave.
 
This leaves those with the least resources, who are the weakest and most vulnerable, as the only ones left. At this stage more people become more addicted to being fed by the government’s spoon and to the false promise of getting “free money”. The decay becomes so drastic that even the government begins to starve which creates a social disaster for those poor folks left behind.
 
And the left profess to care about people…
 
One only has to look to Detroit to see Greece’s future. One only has to Greece to see Rhode Island’s future. And one only has to elect free market politicians from either party to avoid either scenario.
 
Rhode Island is already between Stages 6 & 7. The only thing we have going for us, that gives us a chance to avoid becoming Greece, is our size. Being small we can make a big impact in a relatively short period of time in the voting booth.
 
But with the likes of Gov. Raimondo who is determined to force the people feed her government an extra billion dollars to pay for the repair of its roads and bridges instead of fighting to reduce the state’s budget by a mere 1% we better move damn fast!
 
Such is the human impact on people when they are led by self serving leaders.
 

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Jeffrey Deckman is a leadership and organizational design consultant. He is the founder of Capability Accelerators and can be reached at [email protected]

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