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Thanks for signing on. I’m Bob Carkhuff, and this is Freedomblog.com.

The theme for today is Self-Evident Truths and Abuses.

For Freedom-Lovers and Freedom-Builders, this means our historic successes are exceeded only by our current failures in freedom-building.

Building upon the fundamental assumption that governments derive “their Just Powers from the Consent of the Governed,” our Declaration of Independence dedicated our governance to the achievement of growth “ideals” for its people.

With this foundation, We the People created a Constitution to pursue Life, Liberty, Safety, and Happiness. Over the course of a little over 200 years, We the People have built the greatest nation in the history of the world, The United States of America:

• Its 50 states, some of them larger than most countries, have lived together peacefully and productively over nearly 150 years, thus reflecting the freest political system ever known.
• Among its 50 states, the GDPs of several number among the top 30 countries in the world, thus reflecting the freest and most wealth-generating system in the history of the world.
• Perhaps most important, the citizens of its 50 states have been designated by the Constitution as the policymakers of the freest representative democratic governance in the history of the world.

So what’s the problem? The U.S. has truly demonstrated itself to be The Great Experiment—nay, The Greatest Experiment in the history of humankind.

We reached from the “real” to the “ideal.” We climbed the highest mountains in the history of civilization. We viewed the “peaks” ahead of us. Then we retreated!

Self-Evident Abuses

The problem is that we are now abusing the very truths we have established.

1. We, the People have erected the most culturally related society ever, both within our national boundaries and between ourselves and other nations, even enemies—witness the collaborative Hoover Plan after World War I and the Marshall and MacArthur Plans after World War II.

The First Problem, then, is This: We, the People no longer collaborate culturally. We, the People compete independently!

2. We, the People have erected the most productive and profitable economic system ever, both within our borders and between and among those of the rest of the world—witness the continuing initiatives to generate Free Enterprise Trade Relationships throughout the world.

The Second Problem, then, is This: We, the People no longer sponsor entrepreneurially-driven Free Enterprise! We, the People, now support the totalitarian command-and-control market systems of Global Multinational Corporations, corporations which have no loyalty to the American freedoms that bore them.

3. We, the People have erected the most representative democratic governance system ever—witness the historic flow of democratic changes within and between generations of our representatives and administrations.

The Third Problem, then, is This: We, the People are no longer the policy-makers our Constitution empowered. We, the People have been reduced to the dependent minions of the authoritarian edicts of our now-evolving “Chain-of-Command Society.”

On these dimensions alone, We, the People—We, the Policy-Makers—have failed to elect leaders who serve the “ideals” that ensure our Life, Liberty, Safety, and Happiness. Indeed, we have elected representatives who have intentionally undermined these ideals in our time.

We simply cannot raise generations of people with First World Freedoms, and treat them with Third World Tyranny.

On this topic, The Declaration of Independence has its own recommendations:

But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Objective, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security.

In 1776, The Declaration of Independence told us this: “If you don’t like it, fix it!” This admonition still stands today.

Signing off for Freedomblog, this is Bob Carkhuff.

Remember, We the People… must take back the reigns of leadership.

We invite your comments. Send to Bob at Freedomblog.com.

“May the road rise to meet you,
And the wind be at your back.”

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Thanks for signing on. I’m Bob Carkhuff, and this is Freedomblog.

The theme for today is Freedom-Building as a vital step on your roadmap to freedom.

For thinking people, this means that we must regain our bearings as policy-makers.

Like many of our citizens, I am distraught by current American policy. I believed fervently that we, as a people, would come to a better end than this—“Modern Colonialists,” “One-Armed Superpower,” “Sheriff of the World.”

Further, I hoped that our so-called leaders could be visionaries along the lines of the great Indian Chief, Sitting Bull, who defined leadership forever:

“It is the chief’s responsibility to look seven generations ahead to the welfare of his children’s children.”

Moreover, I am deeply disappointed in people who define programs in what we Celtics humorously label “Irish steps:”

1. “Bring it on!”
2. “Shock and awe!”
3. “Mission accomplished!”

Have we not come along further as a civilization than this “cheerleader drivel?!”

Most of all, I am unhappy with America’s loss of leadership in the marketplace. We used to lead in generativity or creating “breakthroughs” in science. Now we follow the giant Multinational Corporations who want only controlled minimal innovation in the commercialization which satisfies their stockholders.

Moreover, we used to lead in The Freedom Functions:

• Collaborative Cultural Relating where we transformed a “boiling cauldron” into a “melting pot;”
• Free Enterprise Economics where we pioneered Tom Watson Sr.’s principle of “World Peace through World Trade;”
• Participative Governance where our constitution empowered an enlightened citizenry to be policy-makers.

Now we are “Back-in-the-Pack:”

• Competitive with continuous class and cultural struggles;
• Command economics controlled by Multinational Corporations;
• Authoritarian governance controlled by Totalitarian Edicts.

If this sounds more like a description of an Unfree Nation than a Free Nation, it is! For this is what our scientifically derived Freedom Scores tell us.

Yes, along with many, I am unhappy and angry, too!

I am furious to have been led down the “primrose path” pointing toward tyranny.

I am livid with having our freedom-loving attributes turned back upon us.

But I am not feeling hopeless! Our country has taken a “U-turn in The Freedom Road.” But We the People can take the “Roadmap to Freedom!”

We are, after all, Americans!

Pragmatists all, we’ve always taken the best from the past and applied it to our future.

Americans are builders. Freedom-builders! Let’s get our bearings!

Signing off for Freedomblog, this is Bob Carkhuff.

Remember, We the People are freedom-builders and we must let no rank politicians stand in our way. Think about it!

We invite your comments below.  Please send them to Bob at Freedomblog. 

“May the road rise to meet you
And the wind be at your back.”

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Thanks for signing on. I’m Bob Carkhuff, and this is Freedomblog.

The theme for today is Voyage of Discovery.

For thinking people, this means that all science is the explication or explanation of the unknown.

I am a scientist, an applied scientist who defines science as the “explication of the unknown.” I have spent my entire adult life of over 50 years on a “Voyage of Discovery.” Just like the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1805 exploring the Louisiana Territory, I have experienced all stages of human development in the evolution of a Free Civilization—one that was once Peaceful, Prosperous, and Participative.

Just like Lewis and Clark who visited many First American communities in opening the West, I have experienced fully the evolution of humans in our time: as individuals, organizations, families, schools, colleges, governance, businesses, communities, cultures, and nations. I have found the developmental principle, “Ontogeny replicates Phylogeny” to be accurate: human development evolves as does the evolution of life.

Just like the original “Voyage of Discovery” in its dedication to our external Westward Expansion, I am committed to the internal expansion of Human Brainpower in all of its manifestations:

• Relating to receive images;
• Representing to improve images;
• Reasoning to generate new and more productive images.

It is our human capacity to reason that empowers us to shape our own changeable destinies. It is our Reasoning that generates a Science of Freedom. It is our Human Brainpower that will save the world!

Signing off for Freedomblog, this is Bob Carkhuff.

Remember, We the People, that Human Brainpower is the most powerful source of freedom. Think about it!

We invite your comments. Send to Bob@Freedomblog.com.

“May the road rise to meet you
And the wind be at your back.”

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Thanks for signing on. I’m Bob Carkhuff, and this is Freedomblog.

The theme for today is Secrets of the Marketplace.

For thinking people, this means that multi-modal curves best represent the market.

As most Americans, I look for the current utility of past traditions in order to see if we can build upon them. One of the “tricks of the trade” has been to find exemplary performers—past or present—and to study them in operational and measurable terms. Armed with insights from this analysis, we can generate new images of exemplary performance in the future.

In my many voyages discovering these exemplars, I have been blessed by some of the most important people in my life and my work. I would like to take you, the listener, on one of these discovery voyages and introduce you to my guide.

Our voyage is into the marketplace. Our guide is John T. Kelly, D.Sci., or “Doctor Jack,” perennial winner of “Salesman of the Year” and former director of The Office of The Future at IBM, Inc.

When we first met, Jack was a project director at Advanced Systems Design, which helped define IBM’s R & D effort: The Watson Center directed research and A.S.D., Advanced Systems Design, directed development.

Jack’s project at A.S.D. was The Educational and Career Exploration System, or ECES, a computer-based career development system.

When we began our voyage with Jack, we discovered the critical ingredients in the dissemination of all information—Human Processing: information depresses performance if the user does not know how to process it.

When we continued our voyage, we designed the first Interactive Software System—interactive between humans and information, that is: Creating a matrix of human values and career requirements which enabled the user to maximize meeting both at the highest levels.

Now as we conclude our voyage together, we have discovered the secrets of the marketplace and, thus, the secrets to positioning in the marketplace.

Any senior executive will tell you, “Positioning in the marketplace is 99% of the success in the market.”

All honest senior executives will also tell you how much training they have in marketplace positioning: “Nothing! Absolutely nothing!”

Market strategists illustrate the marketplace with a bell-shaped curve. The biggest market secret revealed to us on our journey is this: there is no such thing.

The truth is, the market curve is not a “normal curve.” Indeed, nothing in the universes is linear, normal, and symmetrical. To be sure, the so-called market curve is comprised of multiple market curves: it is “multi-modal.” Each curve, in turn, is itself multidimensional as well as asymmetrical and changeable. We may describe these market curves as follows:

• Generator—Stimulating markets through scientific breakthroughs;
• Innovator—Initiating markets through technology transfers;
• Commercializer—Culminating markets through consumer-responsive products and services;
• Commoditizer—Draining markets through producing more for less;
• Attenuator—Breaking markets through product “dumping.”

Figure 1. The GICCA Market Curves Carkhuff, R. R., et al. The Freedom Wars. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 2004

For our purposes, we label these market phases with the acronym “GICCA.” Generator, Innovator, Commercializer, Commoditizer, Attenuator. Placement in these curves has profound implications for nations, cultures, businesses, people, and products. The multi-modal curves dominate The Global Market, as do “mini”-multi-modal curves within these curves.

Clearly, it is most attractive to be driving the markets from the Generator’s positioning. This means you define the marketplace. If you mobilize the resources of innovation in technology development and commercialization in marketing and sales, you will be positioned for comparative advantage or competitive edge in the marketplace.

However, if you do not mobilize the follow-through resources of innovation and commercialization, your breakthroughs will be exploited by others. Moreover, the costs of research may be prohibitive and the delays in benefits protracted.

Signing off for Freedomblog, this is Bob Carkhuff.

Remember, We the People, that the GICCA Curve best represents the market—Generator, Innovator, Commercializer, Commoditizer, Attenuator. Think about it!

We invite your comments. Send to Bob@Freedomblog.com.

“May the road rise to meet you
And the wind be at your back.”