The culture trend of our day is quickly sweeping us into the
age of democracy.
For over two centuries the US culture has been an age of
Constitutional Law, but over the last 80 some years we’ve been shifting,
changing. The massive and insanely rapid technological advances we’ve been
seeing over this period of time have greatly aided this shift towards a far more
democratic form of government.
The odd part of this trend, and it seems almost
contradictory, is that as governments, businesses, and banks get bigger and
bigger, the close relationships built between them and the people at large are
getting further and further apart. How many people have, or have had, a close
personal connection with someone who has major decision making power in say
Amazon, Apple, the Green Bay Packers, Wells Fargo, Fannie Mae, The Presidency,
Nike, The New York Times, Samsung, Google, etc.? Or are they under such lock
and key, special body guards, and highly private and invention only parties and
meetings?
The further away these powerful people get, it seems the
more involvement customers want in those companies. The bigger the company gets
and the richer these men and women become, the more the people despise and seek
after their demise. The more polarized politicians and companies get on issues,
the more the flood gates open of hateful memes, tweets, and vines.
We want to have our cake, but we demand to be able to eat it
too. This is not a good place to be.
The Age of Democracy
The desire to have the cake and to eat it too very nicely
sums up the sentiment that Democracy in
America by Alexis de Tocqueville and The
Federalist by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay wrote about on democratic forms of
government. Let me be blatantly clear, this does not mean the democratic party,
simply the democratic form of government as opposed to a republican form of
government.
A big win for the whims of men, as opposed to the rule of
law, came in a time of crisis and several companies were considered too big to
fail. Many people were angry and understandably frustrated that they were too
small to be cared about; thus being allowed to fail. Many people lost their
jobs, their homes, their security, their credit, and their confidence in the
law.[i]
When the law is on our side we’re all for it, but as soon as
the benefit for another starts hitting our wallet we can’t stand for the
treachery. When government and bank representatives came knocking on thousands
upon thousands of homes saying you no longer own this property and you have two
minutes to be out. Let me back up a step real quick: by law they were required
to give eviction notices with ample time to move.
So many people thought they owned their home, it was not
just a house, but their home. Their car. Their things.
The hard cold truth of the matter is that if it’s mortgaged,
if it’s financed, if it’s collateral it belongs to someone else. Period. There
is no security in debt. The piles of paperwork to sign for a home, a credit
card, a car payment, same as cash checks, and title loans are so easily signed.
The immediate pressure of paying the wolf pack of money collectors to get them
off our backs, or to provide for the expected
Christmas joys, or whatever the
case may be comes so easily. But we agreed to pay the piper when it is time,
and we struggle to understand why my home isn’t actually mine. Why the judge
would be so cold, why the Sheriff is so cruel, why the real estate agents would
do such a thing, why our very own government is doing these things to us. 
We then cry out, demanding to have our cake. We then cry out
foul play. We then cry out to be saved. Big business, big banks, and big
government have leveraged the law to win big. They’ve turned the law against
the people, making so much fine print that the average person making a living,
living a good life, won’t be able to understand.
As more and more people come out hurt and wounded,
blind-sided by The Three Bigs (big business, big banks, big government), the
people are the biggest of them all and they demand that they are too big to
fail. If government officials want reelection, if bankers and businesses want
customers and not riots, they’ll start giving the benefits demanded. This has
led to the modern middle class squeeze. The wealthy know how to get breaks, the
poor get the benefit, and the middle class ends up paying.[ii]
Many of the American Founding Fathers wrote—and many
political scientists before and afterwards also came to a similar conclusion—that
once a people realize they can vote themselves benefits the society is not far
from destruction.
By Whims or By Law
The law used to be in favor of the people at large. But
somewhere in the last 80 years the people have stopped studying the law, paying
attention to what the heads of each sector of society are up to, and holding
themselves and others to the bounds of the law.
If we were to divide the United States into two parts, I
think a very clean line would be made between those who understand how the law
works, and those who don’t. Those who know, often prey on those who don’t.
The law should be the check and balance between the elite
and the other classes, but also amongst themselves. Once the law is used as a
whimsical tool to aide one business over another, or one group over another,
then the firm foundation by which the referee on human nature is founded
cracks, slips, and crumbles. Then it becomes every man for himself. It degrades
to whose whims can win over the law more than the next man’s. This war of human
nature and its whims does not end well.
There must be a better way than for those who can’t cover
the bills to become outcasts and/or babysat, for the middle class to be
squeezed out of existence and be the main group paying, and for the elite to
either sit idly by or to be siphoning off the labor of the middle and lower
classes. There must be a better way than the self-destruction of a democratic
or whim ruled society.
Simple or Complex?
What I’m about to propose is nothing amazing or outstanding.
It’s not revolutionary, neither is it necessarily exciting and cool.
I’ve mentioned these things before in previous blogs and
speeches. I’ve heard them mentioned dozens of times in various places by my
mentor. I’ve seen these answers pop up in ancient times as well as modern, from
the blue side as well as the red side, the poor side as well as the rich. They
have been a common universal answer to practically every problem faced in the
course of human nature.
The formula for greatness, for success, for freedom has
always been simple. Rarely easy, but very simple. There is a lot of stress,
fear, and doubt in our society today, many run from one place to another
looking for the fix, the solution, the hero to save the day. We go from making
one political party dominant to then making the other party dominant, and then
back again. This mad scurry and swinging pendulum won’t stop until we take a
deep breath and decide to hunker down and do the hard work necessary to enact
the simple solutions needed.
Looking to the Future
We must develop in ourselves and spread the skills and
principles of entrepreneurship.
We must become voracious readers and deep thinkers in all
things great. This is definitely including the fine print of businesses,
governments, and banks.
We must build communities. Building support groups, friend
groups, trusting groups. There is strength and power in numbers. There is
security, aide, and encouragement in great communities. Communities enable,
fill gaps, connect, lead, develop, and strengthen empathy; communities
Become a student of success, find the simple solutions for
yourself. I’ve found them to be as simple as entrepreneurship or
intrapreneurship, being a voracious reader and thinker, and building
communities.[iii]
The people have been breaking themselves against the law and
not understanding what is going on. One or the other will give. What if both
give? What if we lead out by using the three vital principles from above and we
all come out of this struggle victors, a free society, a nation of opportunity
and prosperity?
