Robert L. Minteer                          Political Philosophy                         3mpub.com

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Chapter One:  The Freedom Bell Curve

Just what is the Freedom Bell Curve? Many distributions of events and probabilities in life can be easily understood by means of a bell curve. A bell curve is, as its name suggests, shaped like a bell. For example, the distribution of the birth of fully developed seven-pound babies when plotted against length of pregnancy results in a bell curve approximately as follows: 

 

With this simple graph, it can be easily seen that the vast majority of births of fully developed, seven-pound babies occur after pregnancy lengths of between eight and ten months, with a fair number at seven months or eleven months, but very few before or after those lengths.

This simple bell curve describes the distributions of a great number of events in the Universe, and in a great many areas of study. Recently it came to my attention that the same bell curve could be used to understand to a great degree why people are the way they are. It all has to do with our attitudes and beliefs about freedom. There are probably as many definitions of freedom as there are people in the world, but for the purposes of this book the focus will be freedom from economic enslavement. A person who believes in such freedom to an absolute degree thus believes that NO PERSON HAS THE RIGHT TO ANY PART OF THE FRUITS OF ANOTHER PERSON’S LABOR WITHOUT THE EXPLICIT AGREEMENT OF THAT OTHER PERSON. At the other extreme have been the slave owners throughout history, from small landowners or homeowners with servants to plantation owners to kings and dictators. All those types of people believed that they had the right to not only own the fruits of other people’s labor, but to actually own the other person’s person. Slavery has been against the law in most of the world for over a century. But as this book unfolds, we will see that, as with so many laws that are on the books, it is enforced only in its narrowest sense, and only to the extent that those in power wish it to be enforced.

So The Bell Curve of Freedom would look something like this:

 

 

To the left under the Bell Curve of Freedom are those who truly believe in freedom. Those who believe in absolute freedom are very few, because absolute freedom is believed to be impossible. And those who believe in the greatest freedom for the greatest number, and who live that belief and prove it by their actions, are also rather few in number. In the middle, under the largest part of the bell, are the majority of mankind. Many of us give lip service to freedom, because that’s what we’ve been trained to do, and many of us believe that most of the world is free, again because that’s what we’ve been trained to believe. Possibly most of us never give it much thought, because we think that slavery is ancient history. And why do we think that? Yes, because that’s what we’ve been trained to think.

But I really do believe that the vast majority of mankind truly wants freedom and justice for all. The vast majority of us do not believe that we have the right to keep others as slaves or help ourselves to the fruits of their labors. But there is a growing number of people in this country who apparently believe that it is OK to get what they can as quickly as they can. And they have been trained to believe that they deserve it, that they’ve earned it, and if the rest of the world isn’t keeping up, that’s just further proof of their inferiority.

Further to the right under the curve lie the robber barons of the 1800s, the kings and petty tyrants of the Middle Ages, and most of the rulers of all kinds previous to that time. The United States was founded on the principles of freedom and equality of rights and opportunities. By this stage in our history, with the power and wealth we have amassed, we should be teaching and showing the rest of the world how to go about accomplishing the same things. Sadly, we are not. Why not? I believe that it is because most of us have been lulled into complacency, and have forgotten how to think for ourselves. We’ve gotten lazy, and have let others do our thinking for us. And we have fallen into the trap of squandering our hard-earned wages on useless products and amusements. And it’s all been done in the name of freedom. We feel that the wide variety of choices we have is a great freedom. But is it?

And who benefits from the lifestyles that most of us lead? We do, of course, to a certain degree. But those in power benefit to an even greater degree. And that would be OK, if they truly were providing us with the services and opportunities which they claim they are providing. But, since we’ve had the ability to reason for ourselves trained out of us, it’s hard to see through even the most blatant deceptions.

This book will look at the institutions and people who have the most power in the United States of America in the year 2000. It will be seen that quite a large percentage of those in power have gotten there and stay there because we have allowed them to have control over more and more areas of our lives. To understand how they have managed to do that we will next need to look at the Pyramid Scheme of Power, and see how it is constructed. That will be the subject of the next chapter.

Of interest concerning the Bell Curve of Freedom is the fact that those to the Left are more interested in freedom, which today means those interested in change. And Leftists and The Left in politics have long been associated with radical ideas. To the Right are those who believe in slavery to varying degrees. And The Right and Rightists have long been associated with conservatives and those who want to maintain the status quo. Coincidence? I think not.

 

Chapter Two:   The Pyramid Scheme of Power

Most of us are familiar with pyramid schemes—several well-known companies use it as a direct-selling method. The idea is that people recruit others to be “under” them, and thereby earn some of their recruits’ earnings. It seems to work quite well, and can be very lucrative for those who sign on early. But eventually the market gets saturated, and it becomes harder and harder to get more recruits, so that for those further down in the pyramid it gets more and more difficult to earn anywhere near as much as those closer to the top of the pyramid.

In connection with the Bell Curve of Freedom, it struck me recently that the acquiring of power has lately evolved so that it works just like any other pyramid scheme. As with the term freedom, there are probably as many different definitions of power as there are people giving those definitions. But in the United States of America in the year 2000, money is power. Sad but true. It used to be that the older, more experienced (and thus wiser) members of a society wielded considerable influence and power. And in a few parts of the world that is still the case to some extent. But now money is power. How that came about is beyond the scope of this book, and is no doubt the subject of many historical volumes and much research. But it really baffles me that any person can believe that because he has a piece of paper with a seven-figure number on it that he is therefore more valuable and should be entitled to more power than someone who has a piece of paper with just a four-figure number on it.

But that’s the way it is. And it continues to get worse and worse with each passing year. More and more power continues to be concentrated in the hands of a smaller and smaller percentage of the population. Never mind that the Constitutions of many states have statements in them that say that all power comes from the people. Lincoln’s talk of government of the people, by the people, and for the people has been perverted so that today it is really government of the rich and powerful, by the rich and powerful, and for the rich and powerful.

And which are the most powerful institutions in the United States in the year 2000? Where is the most money and control of money concentrated? No doubt you, the reader, will have your own opinions as to which institutions are situated on the uppermost layers of the Pyramid Scheme of Power. But the order probably won’t differ to any significant degree from this pyramid:

 


Of course, the pyramid is really much larger than that, and in fact could go to many millions, to include each of us as individuals. But again, for the scope of this book, we’ll stick to well-known institutions and industries. First we’ll list them in order from the most powerful on down, then we’ll take a look at each of them in a separate chapter.

1.         The Government. In this category will be included not just the Federal Government, but all State and local governments as well. It includes all government agencies. Anyone whose salary or wages are paid from tax dollars is in this position on the Pyramid Scheme of Power.

2.         The Media. This of course includes newspapers, radio, TV, magazines, and now the Internet. Any business which is supported by advertising and which therefore promotes those advertisers’ products is right up there near the pinnacle of power.

3.         The Advertising Profession. This must be considered apart from #2, since they sell their “product” to the Media, and have sales tactics uniquely their own.

4.         The Legal Profession. Some overlap between this group and #1 will be evident, as many of the top people in government have legal training.

5.         The Medical Profession. The Health Industry—or the Sickness Industry, as it would be more appropriately referred to.

6.         The Insurance Profession. Many of these Professions are commonly referred to as “Industries”, but since they don’t produce anything, we’ll stick to the designation Profession.

7.         The Banking Profession.

8.         The Education System.

9.         The Stocks, Bonds, and Commodities Traders.

10.     The Utilities Companies.

11.     The Telephone and other Communications Companies.

12.     The Big Three Automakers.

13.     The Oil Companies.

14.     The Teamsters and other Labor Unions.

15.     Organized Crime (The Mob).

16.     The Military.

17.     Organized Religion.

18.     Special Interest Groups.

19.     The Clothing Industry and Fashion Companies.

20.     The Entertainment Industry

21.     The Retail Giants.

That will be enough for now. No doubt several other groups will come to mind and need to be added as we proceed through those already on the list.

The basic premise is that those groups near the top of the Pyramid Scheme of Power are those that have the most power and that they, as in any pyramid scheme, derive much of their power and obtain much of their funding from those directly below them in the pyramid. The relationship of the Pyramid Scheme of Power to the Bell Curve of Freedom will also become apparent. Those groups nearest the top of the pyramid will be observed to have the highest percentage of their members lying under the right side of the bell curve. They will be most supportive of the status quo, and believe most strongly that they have the right (and further, that they deserve to have that right) to be supported by those underneath them. Of course, within any organization we will find hard-working, dedicated people who truly believe that they are serving those under them rather than mooching off of them. It is hoped that this book will open the eyes of some of them, so that they can see that by the very nature of the Pyramid Scheme of Power it is essentially impossible for those institutions to really serve or help the public. We the people are a strong, independent people, and rarely need help or service of that sort, and we greatly resent having it shoved down our throats. And even more strongly do we resent being forced to pay for this “help” that we do not need and did not ask for—and often we are forced to pay for it two and three times over.

It will also be readily apparent that there is quite a bit of collusion among the Top Nine groups especially, and to a lesser degree among those further down the list. Most of these organizations started out small many decades or centuries ago, and were no doubt begun for innocent and perhaps even for noble reasons. And they may genuinely have helped the people they were intended to help, and those who by choice availed themselves of such help were no doubt glad to have such help available when it was needed. It was a thing called community, and it was genuine, not the political sound bite that it is used as today.

As we go further down the list, there will be a greater number of people involved in those institutions who truly believe in freedom. And eventually if we continued on down to number 50 or so, we might find a majority of members who truly believe in freedom. Unfortunately that far down the list such organizations have very little power. And they are bound by the laws, rules, and regulations promulgated by and for the benefit of the groups near the top.

Ultimately, however, all the groups above the base of the pyramid rely on the base to support them. And just who makes up that base? Is it all of us? Or is it just those of us who have been taught from birth and who believe, to whatever degree, that this is the land of opportunity, and that we can climb right up to the top of that pyramid if we work hard enough? Or that used to be the formula—now it’s if we can figure how to work the system in our favor. There’s just one flaw in that theory. As in any pyramid scheme, eventually the market is saturated, and there are few new people to be added to the base. What then? Globalization, of course.

So, let’s begin our look at those institutions near the top of the Pyramid Scheme of Power.

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Page was last edited on 11/11/10 04:38:34 PM