It’s time for power to go back to where it belongs; to the people. With politicians and the business elite making all our decisions for us, we are losing our freedoms each and every day, and our standard of living goes down with that loss.
LeaderShift, by Orrin Woodward & Oliver Demille, is a call for people to stand up and become who they need to be in order to take back our freedoms and prevent it from being lost again. It in no way supports Republicans, nor does it support Democrats; it supports the American people (and Canadian if you read it from my perspective).
It is written in the form of a business parable about the United States, but don’t let that fool you into thinking this is just for Americans. There are a number of proposals put forth in the book that could drastically change the way we run our society, and the principles behind them can be applied to any country.
It all starts with the Five Laws of Decline; If these laws are not addressed in the frame-work of a company or a nation, they will become its undoing. Leadershift will go through the details of how they apply to a nation, but the reasoning will become obvious as you go through them.
1. Sturgeons Law – 90% of everything is Crud (this includes workers, leaders, politicians…) This means that 90% of the people running for office (and being elected) can’t be counted on to do the right thing. Thankfully the other side to this law is that 10% of the people out there are good leaders. We just need to allow them to come forth.
2. Bastiats Law – People will do the least amount of work possible to satisfy their wants. This means that if someone can get what they want without doing anything or by getting someone else to do it for them, they will.
3. Gresham’s Law – When bad behavior is rewarded, more will occur; The good ones will be driven away. Through this law, If you need to be corrupt to get ahead in an organization (or country) those that aren’t corrupt will not even enter the field; if they are already involved, they will likely leave. They do not want to be bad people, and will not be part of something where they feel they will need to do something wrong. At the same time, Those that don’t mind doing something wrong will be much more likely to do so since they will be rewarded for it.
4. The Law of Diminishing Returns – There is always a point where increased quantity produces lower quality. If something grows too big, it will become very inefficient without any significant changes to cope with the growth. When a government gets to a certain size, anything more they do actually wastes more and more resources.
5. The Law of Inertia – An object at rest stays at rest; an object in motion stays in motion. This law ties all the other ones together. If the first four are in motion, it becomes very hard to stop them and even hard to turn them around.
There is no doubt that these laws are in effect in our nations today. It doesn’t matter who is in power, nothing ever really seems to change no matter what is promised during the elections. Whether it’s Democrats, Republicans, Liberals, or Conservatives, These laws are in effect.
Things keep getting worse because the people in power, or those in control, want it this way; it doesn’t get worse for them. Most people who want things to get better don’t know how to talk to people in a way that will make them understand – it often comes across as elitist and caring only for the rich. I have the same problem when I talk to people about this; they seem to think I don’t care about the poor because I speak in the same language as the books I got the information from, not in the language of the general population.
The book explains this idea very well:
“The problem is that business leaders are accustomed to using the language of elitism, so the people in the nation end up thinking that the 10 percent are trying to take away democracy and freedom. The truth is exactly the opposite. The 10 percent are really just caring, regular citizens who happen to have business leadership skills. But as long as they talk like elitists, many of the people won’t trust them.
The irony is that the real elites, the ones who want to increase the divide between themselves and the masses, have learned through history how to speak the language of democracy. They are actually more like aristocrats than elitists, but they are educated on how to sway things so they end up winning.”
What if we could get people interested in caring for themselves and their future? What if we could get people to see the truth, and not blindly be maneuvered by the elites; the 0.001 percent who actually control things?
What if we could significantly limit the power of our governments to tax? What if there were a set amount to be divided among the different levels of government; forcing them to take from each other if they wanted more instead of taking more and more from the people every time they wanted to do something? What if they could be limited to only doing what the people can’t do for themselves?
What if we were able to force the government to balance the budget and not hurt our future or that of future generations? What if an automatic election could be called if the budget wasn’t balanced? Would the worry of losing their position force them to do what ‘s right?
What if we were able to get rid of our fiat money system that lets the government print what it wants, with the burden put on the lower class who has no means to protect itself from inflation?
What if Senators were appointed by the states or provinces, helping to insure the federal government couldn’t encroach on their territory and responsibilities? What if most of the power and money were given to the cities and towns, to be spent in the areas that matter the most to that local population?
What if all non-military government meetings were open to the public, and broadcast on cable TV?
What if you could help make a difference?
It began with Oliver DeMille’s FreedomShift and then 1913. Now we have list of proposals put forth by both Orrin and Oliver. I can’t wait for the next LeaderShift book that they’ve already started writing!
I’m so thankful to people like Joce Dionne and Claude Hamilton who mentors with Orrin Woodward; without their involvement in LIFE, I never would have been put in touch with such great information. I never would have had a chance to be involved in the coming LeaderShift.
Leadership to Freedom 