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

The theme for today is The Retreat from Destiny.

For thinking people, this means that we had freedom in our hands—and then dropped it.

America climbed “The Mountains of Freedom” in her 200-odd years of existence. In cultural relating, she transformed a “boiling cauldron” into a “melting pot.”

In economics, she transformed a “tax-based, colonial system” into an “entrepreneurial-driven capitalistic system.”

In governance, she transformed “subjugated minions in a totalitarian system” into “constitutionally-mandated, policy-makers in a democratic system.”

By relating collaboratively, America established Peace in her 50 states for nearly 150 years.

By conducting entrepreneurial-free enterprise, America generated Prosperity which no nation has ever known.

By implementing direct democratic governance, America enabled Participation which no other citizens have ever known.

Yes, America climbed “The Mountains of Freedom.” And then retreated from her destiny!

Where is “America the Peaceful” where “We the People” responded empathically?

Where is “America the Prosperous” where “We the People” initiated entrepreneurially?

Where is “America the Participative” where “We the People” governed democratically?

Are our “Dreams of Freedom” gone forever?

• Of Interdependent Cultural Relating?
• Of Entrepreneurial-Driven Free Enterprise?
• Of Directly Participative Governance?

Yes, America climbed “The Mountains of Freedom.” And the world followed. Until now!

Signing off for Freedomblog, this is Bob Carkhuff.

Remember, We the People hold our destinies in our minds. Think about it!

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.com.

The theme for today is Back Into the Boiling Cauldron.

For thinking people, this means that we are retrogressing back to class and cultural conflict.

Having been the birthplace of human relating, the United States became the exemplar of cultural relating, both within her borders and beyond with other nations.

Internally, the U.S.A. attempted to relate collaboratively with all of her citizens—emigrants and migrants—and provide them with the full American experience. This effort culminated in the Civil Rights and Human Rights Movements of the second half of the 20th century.

Externally, the U.S.A. attempted to relate to all the peoples of the world—friends as well as enemies. Witness, the collaborative Marshall and MacArthur plans fostering recovery and growth in Europe and Asia.

Existentially, we have retreated from these lofty collaborative goals. Culturally, we moved up the mountain from independence to collaboration. We viewed interdependent cultural relating at the peak of the mountain. And we have retreated back to independence and competitiveness.

Today, we are preparing our children for a world that no longer exists. With the federal legislation, No Child Left Behind, we are drilling our learners in conditioned responding systems for industrial jobs that have already been outsourced to far away places.

Today, we have driven both classes and cultures into conflict. The upper class fears losing tax advantages and luxuries with impositions of regulation upon its businesses.

The middle class fears losing their jobs and comforts to the lower class.

The lower class fears losing their jobs and survival to Third World contractors and First World immigrants.

With full knowledge that poverty is a function of failure to hold full-time jobs, the Multi-National Corporations have deliberately abandoned the inner-cities and their predominantly black populations.

Compounding all others, the candidates who would represent us in the Big White House are dedicating their efforts only to further class and cultural conflict:

• The leading Republican candidates are graduates of Friedman’s School of Supply-Side Economics and seek only tax and regulatory relief for wealthy businesses and their investors (think “Trickle Down Theory”).
• The leading Democratic candidates were trained at The Alinsky Academy of Continuous Class Conflict and seek only to foment cultural struggle (think “Level Down Theory”).

Wow! Are these the ingredients of a “Boiling Cauldron” or what?

Signing off for Freedomblog, this is Bob Carkhuff.

Remember, We the People, that we must aim again for “The Melting Pot” that our ancestors created. Think about it!

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.com.

The theme for today is Back to Colonial Economics.

For thinking people, this means that American Economic Enterprise is no longer either American or Enterprise.

Like so many of our American ideas, liberal economics were born elsewhere and transported tumultuously to our shores. Following the World Wars of the 20th century, the United States emerged as the dominant world economic power.

By the beginning of the 21st century, American business had asserted itself as the world’s “Generative Innovator.” Driven by its Research and Development or “R&D”, American capitalism became the most creative and productive, entrepreneurial-led, capitalistic economy in the history of civilization. All other nations “ran in her draft.”

Then instead of “capitalizing” upon her pre-potent Human and Information Capital assets, American business “capitulated” to Multi-Nationals who compete in the marketplace on the terms of their “M & Ms—Monopolies and Manipulations.”

Internally, American businesses dropped the “R” in the R&D because it was expensive rather than profitable. They dedicated investments only to development that translated directly into short-term profitability for stock-holders.

Gone is the potency of Bell Labs and the Watson and Xerox centers as sources of generativity for innovative “positioning” in the marketplace.

Simultaneously, American businesses adopted Information Technologies, or “IT” as their driving industry. The resultant intellectual retreat to the “Go – No Go” reasoning of the “binary function” has had the disastrous economic consequences of numbing once-generative American brains while simultaneously stimulating Third World brains to participate in designing binary branching systems. America was no longer the generative leader! The world was, indeed, “flat!”

Perhaps most precipitous, America adopted Multi-National Corporations as her market leaders. They were indeed the children of her Free Enterprise System. But they undermined her destiny with “Command-and-Control” market strategies. To be sure, they turned the binary branching systems upside-down as they recreated Free Enterprise in a “Chain-of-Command” society.

Today, America is a “Colonial Economy” once again. As “parasitic host” to Multi-National Corporations, our home-grown Free Enterprise System is being taxed heavily, our entrepreneurs are being emasculated, and our citizens are having their jobs hijacked—along with our technologies.

Once again, the presidential candidates who would save us are from a different age—The Industrial Age:

• Republicans from “The Old Capitalist School of Finance” who endorse the Multi-National’s way of doing business (think “The Last Dinner of the Dinosaurs”).
• Democrats from “The Labor School of Jobs and Dues” who oppose Free Trade, period! (think “Jobs for Nephews”).

Again, we approached the peak of the mountain to get a “peek” at continuously-changing, entrepreneurially-driven, free enterprise economics. And we retreated to the security of Colonial Control Economics.

Signing off for Freedomblog, this is Bob Carkhuff.

Remember, We the People, that we are host to many parasites that no longer serve our Freedom Functions. Think about it!

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

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

(Listen to the audio of this blog.)

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

The theme for today is Back to Totalitarian Rule.

For thinking people, this means that we must stop thinking.

A pending bill before Congress is H.R. 1908. Sponsored by the Multi-Nationals and their lackeys, this bill is dedicated to rendering the American innovators and entrepreneurs impotent. Among other things, H.R. 1908 requires that all patent applications be made public on the Internet for anyone to view 18 months after they are filed and over a year before they are even considered. Moreover, H.R. 1908 creates a new review process allowing for challenges to patents that have already been granted (“First to Invent” is being replaced by “First to File” and “Most to Spend”).

Once again, America was a recipient of the contributions of English philosophers with regard to democratic and representative governance. For the first time in the history of civilization, We the People were positioned as policy-makers in her grand U.S. Constitution. We saw the opportunities to design our own destinies. And we abandoned them here at the start of the 21st century!

The first thing our current governance did was by-pass the people as policy-makers. Not only did they accelerate the degree of our retardation in education, they undermined our enlightenment as participants and contributors with disinformation—commonly known as “spin.” We the People were an “inconvenience” to the profitability mission of Multinationals in economics. Even our president has rejected our representatives, ruling exclusively by “presidential decree.”

The second thing our governance did was to endorse “the Multi-National Giants” as our economic leaders. This meant designing our policies, including wars, to foster the most profitable earnings in the history of business. Dismissing We the People was simply following the dictates of “The Golden Rule: He who has the gold, Rules!”

By-passing the balance of power, our governance created a “Chain-of-Command” society made in the image of the corporate and military sectors. We the People were placed at the bottom of the pyramid, greatest in number and least in power, with our representatives as “Masters of Stasis” rather than “Agents of Change.”

Today, America is an “Authoritarian State” bordering on Totalitarianism (the difference being selected vs. universal edicts). Now our government is mobilizing to produce legislation that supports and reinforces the “Industrial-Military Complex” that President Eisenhower warned us about. Once this support is in place, there will be nothing to defuse a Totalitarian State.

Once again, the presidential hopefuls are primitive “leftovers” from “The Last Great War.” We have a choice between “Scylla and Charybdis:”

• Republicans to the right of Hitler who are quite comfortable with all authority—in any form (think “Uniforms”).
• Democrats to the left of Chamberlain who are comfortable with the multicultural diversity of all forms of authority (think “Uninformed”).

Truth be known, both the extreme left and right are Totalitarian (which do you prefer, “Tyranny of the Strong” or “Tyranny of the Weak?”)

Once again, we saw that the peak of the mountain was within our reach: electronically-driven, town meeting-style, participative governance with educated and enlightened citizens as policy-makers making decisions concerning their own destinies. And we retreated!

How and why we retreated is more a story of “fear of the unknown” than attraction to the known—our loathsome destinies!

Signing off for Freedomblog, this is Bob Carkhuff.

Remember, We the People, freedom is thinking! Think about it!

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

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

(Listen to the audio of this blog.)

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

The theme for today is The Coming Totalitarian Takeover.

For thinking people, this means We the People are being taken over by Totalitarianism.

At the end of the 20th century, the American Freedom Functions were “peaking:”

• Collaborative Cultural Relating,
• Free Enterprise Economics,
• Democratic Participative Governance.

We the People were collaborating and participating in governance and economics.

Then We the People stopped. Unlike our peasant ancestors, we doubted that we could ever transform ourselves from “real” to “ideal.” We reversed our directions:

• Competitive and Dependent Cultural Relating,
• Command-and-Control Economics,
• Authoritarian and Totalitarian Governance.

These were the first signs of totalitarianism—a reversal of the things that gave us “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

President Eisenhower warned us of forming “The Military-Industrial Complex” as the precondition for the “totalitarian takeover.” We are now witnessing the third party to this complex: Government as facilitator and reinforcer of Totalitarian Multi-National Corporations; Government as political empowerer and reinforcer of the bureaucratic hierarchies of the Military.

We are now witnessing “the unrestrained internal axis of evil to all of our freedoms”:

The Government-Reinforced Industrial-Military Complex.

The future is indeed “GRIM!”

Signing off for Freedomblog, this is Bob Carkhuff.

Remember, We the People are the constitutional policy-makers and we must begin to act and face “The GRIM Complex.” Think about it!

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

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