Chapter 9
The Power of IDEALS
The Root of the Problem
Our world is full of deep and complex problems. From troubling cultural, educational, and familial problems to serious geopolitical challenges involving terrorism, health care, and inequality, there is no shortage of serious issues facing our contemporary world. Many of these problems are so deep and pressing that entire academic fields and industries spring up in an effort to critique, address, and even profit from them (sometimes nefariously so).
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| At Freedom Focused, we are interested in the ROOTS of the world's problems. |
Cultural, institutional, or systemic problems are ultimately the result of the limitations, weaknesses, greed, pride, ego, hatred, selfishness, dishonesty, irresponsibility, illogicality, and in some cases the downright evil of individuals operating within systems, institutions, and cultures. Fix individual issues and eradicate personal evil and you will prevent organizational problems that arise when individuals abdicate personal responsibility and intentionally make wrong choices.
Wrongdoing and the abdication of personal responsibility is a cultural cancer that afflicts all echelons of society (i.e. poverty-stricken, lower-, middle-, upper-classes, and the so-called "one-percenters"). Moral and ethical tumors also exist in the highest offices of business and government. Think, for instance, about the last time you read about or heard a powerful, high-profile person get fired—or even go to jail—because of immoral and/or unethical behavior? Or think of the last time you heard a powerful political figure or wealthy business tycoon say: "I take full responsibility for my actions," and then proceed to do absolutely nothing to remedy the actual consequences of one's actions?
To make matters worse, this abdication of personal responsibility is often elevated and even glamorized by the darker sides of contemporary fashion, media, entertainment, corporate, and other popular industries.
The Proper Role of Institutions in Individual Lives
One of the foolhardy philosophies currently en vogue is that institutions—and government in particular—are responsible for, and can fix, people's lives. This ideology, however well intentioned, is fundamentally flawed.
Institutions cannot fix people's lives.
Individuals must fix their own lives.
The key is the order in which you seek out help. Self-Action Leadership posits that self-reliance should always be one's primary objective and source of support, while relying on familial, ecclesiastical, communal, organizational, and governmental assistance as secondary or tertiary sources of aid.
Being self-reliant means that YOU are primarily responsible to do everything in your power to help and support yourself and those for whom you have a direct stewardship (i.e. spouse, offspring). It is, of course, appropriate for others to step in and help as needed along the way; but such assistance should always be secondary or tertiary, not primary.
Temporary aid from others is often vital to our survival, growth, and progress. However, temporary aid that evolves into long-term, or intergenerational doles—however culturally acceptable or politically convenient—does nothing to existentially elevate individual recipients or the families, communities, states, and nations in which they reside. Such unnecessary aid enervates and enfeebles everyone it touches and becomes a driving force behind cultural mediocrity and the atrophy of familial, communal, and national strength, vigor, and vitality. Self-reliance, on the other hand, energizes and ennobles everyone who embraces its challenging, but rewarding pathway.
Whenever and wherever possible, secondary and tertiary aid should be temporary and accompanied by educational, training, and work initiatives that empower recipients to become self-aware, self-disciplined, and ultimately self-reliant. It is human nature to take for granted what you get for free; Pavlovian conditioning applies to humans as well as animals. Continually receiving resources and aid that you did not pay for or work to earn leads to existential inertia, atrophy, indolence, and a growing sense of unmerited entitlement.
Character Education Legislation
It does not, however, promote the legislation of character education beyond this.
Why?
Because we believe that character education initiatives are more likely to succeed in the long-run when they are driven by passionate pedagogues on the grassroots level, as opposed to rigid decrees from stodgy politicians. As with most things, students, teachers, and citizens in general are more likely to embrace that which is encouraged by moral authorities they trust than they are to accept that which is coerced by formal authorities they don't even know.
The difference between formal authority and moral authority is that the former refers to power derived from a position or title, while the latter refers to power derived from one's personal influence.
FORMAL AUTHORITY
Power derived from a title or position.
MORAL AUTHORITY
Power derived from one's personal influence.
Most states already have some kind of legislation that mandate public schools offer various forms of character education, and there are many positive by-products of such legislation. Nevertheless, we at Freedom Focused hold that principle-centered mores and cultures must ultimately be spearheaded and shaped by leaders within the culture itself—not from external authorities that seek to impose their will by executive order or legislative fiat.
Authority figures of all kinds everywhere should teach correct principles and then allow individuals to govern themselves. (1) This invitational oriented pedagogical approach is far more effective than any authoritarian-esque method. As the great French sociologist, Émile Durkheim, once wisely noted: When mores are sufficient, laws are unnecessary; when mores are insufficient, laws are unenforceable.
—Émile Durkheim
What role then should political leaders and governmental administrators play in the pedagogical process of character education? The answer is to consistently make personal and professional decisions rooted in conscience, character, integrity, and selfless service within the realms of their private and public stewardships. They should also use the powerful perch of their various platforms (the Bully Pulpit) to teach and promote True Principles and virtuous practices while courageously drawing clear distinctions between right (good) and wrong (evil). This involves a commitment to consistently say what people need to hear, not merely what they want to hear.
The Power of IDEALS
If you study any individual, family, neighborhood, community, organization, community, state, or nation that has enjoyed lasting success, you will find that humble adherence to correct principles is what created, drove, maintained, and perpetuated that success. True Principles, when adhered to with integrity, become IDEALS upon which individuals and their posterity can perpetually look to for guidance and safety.
When ideals are honored, cherished, and practiced over time, they become intergenerational touchstones with the potential to invigorate, empower, and even transform entire cultures. This is why the American philosopher, Elbert Hubbard, encouraged us to: Keep in your heart a shrine to the ideal, and upon this altar let the fire never die. (2)
—Elbert Hubbard
IDEALS are not Values
It is important not to conflate "Ideals" and "Values," because they are not synonymous terms. Values are things that are important to you. Values differ from person-to-person. Ideals, on the other hand, serve as universal targets that all human beings can and ought to aim at, regardless of one's race, culture, religion, political persuasion, ideology, or values. The SAL Theory and Model, which will be introduced in BOOKS the FOURTH and FIFTH of this Life Leadership textbook, outlines a comprehensive set of such ideals.
While we may not always fully realize the IDEALS we aim for as human beings, a certain nobility exists in pursuing them to the best of our imperfect ability.
By continuously aiming for IDEALS, and continually making course corrections when we fall short, we can stay focused on the thoughts, speech, and actions that lead to growth, progress, freedom, success, happiness, and inner peace.
IDEALS for a Successful Civilization
True Principles followed, or IDEALS adhered to, undergird all authentic and lasting successes enjoyed by nations, states, institutions, organizations, departments, teams, families, and individuals. Niall Ferguson, an esteemed Harvard historian, has identified SIX (6) IDEALS that led to the unprecedented success of Western Civilization over the past 500 years. According to Ferguson, the tremendous advantages that Western Europe and the United States have enjoyed on the world stage during this period of time were not a result primarily of race, geography, or military might. Rather, he attributes it to the practice of six basic principles, or IDEALS, as follows:
1. Competition
2. The Scientific Revolution
3. The rule of law and representative government
4. Modern medicine
5. The consumer ethic
6. The work ethic (i.e. the Protestant work ethic). (3)
According to Ferguson, any nation that embraces these IDEALS will produce predictably positive results over time. These successes include expanded educational and career opportunities, freedom of thought and expression, liberty from tyrannical decrees, longer and healthier lives, a wide array of purchasing options, and achievement that can only come from individual creativity, diligence, focus, and industry.
Ferguson points to countries like China to illustrate how nations in the East are currently achieving greater power, prosperity, and influence because they have begun to embrace similar ideals. He also warns that many Western countries, including the United States, are presently in decline as a result of a gradual abandonment of these IDEALS.
Ferguson points out further that a good education has been the seedbed of our greatest successes in the past, and that poor (or a lack of) education may hasten our decline and lead to our undoing in the future.
"What makes a civilization real to its inhabitants, in the end, is not just the splendid edifices at its centre, nor even the smooth functioning of the institutions they house. At its core, a civilization is the texts that are taught in its schools, learned by its students and recollected in times of tribulation. ... But what are the foundational texts of Western civilization, that can bolster our belief in the almost boundless power of the free individual being? And how good are we at teaching them, given our educational theorists' aversion to formal knowledge and rote-learning? Maybe the real threat is posed not by the rise of China, Islam, or CO2 emissions, but by our own loss of faith in the civilization we inherited from our ancestors. ... The biggest threat to Western civilization is posed not by other civilizations, but by our own pusillanimity—and by the historical ignorance that feeds it." (4)
IDEALS for a Successful Life
Freedom Focused endorses Ferguson's premise. And like Ferguson, we have identified a formula that leads to success. The difference between our formula and Ferguson's is that ours is designed to help individuals become successful, whereas Ferguson's is aimed at assisting collective entities (i.e. nations) become successful.
The two formulas are, of course, inextricably linked in the sense that individuals are the parts that make up a whole (collective) nation or group. The difference between the two formulas lies in their respective foci. Ferguson approaches his formula from a macro, socio-cultural standpoint, whereas we approach our formula on a micro, personal basis.
The individual formula for success, happiness, and inner peace promoted in this Life Leadership textbook is found in the SAL Theory and Model, which consists of two different, but related, theoretical constructs that will be introduced and outlined in great detail in BOOKS the FOURTH and FIFTH. This theory and model presents a compendium of principles and practices that serve as an array of IDEALS which can be studied and practiced on the individual level. When exemplified, these ideals can and will produce immensely positive results for anyone who learns and practices them. These changes will, in turn, provide meaningful contributions to the betterment of humanity and the various groups, organizations, and nations that make up the human race.
- Think of a problem, challenge, or issue you currently face. What are the roots of this problem, challenge, or issue? What are its trunk, branches, leaves, and fruits?
- How do institutions help you in your life? How do they hurt you? Do they ever unnecessarily enable you? If so, how?
- What are some of the principles, practices, and beliefs that you presently hold as IDEALS in your life and career?
—Dr. JJ
Author's Note: This is the 376th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 188th consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.
Click HERE for a compete listing of the other 375 FF Blog Articles
Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL QUOTES
Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL POEMS
Click HERE to access the FULL TEXT of Dr. JJ's Psalms of Life: A Poetry Collection
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Tune in NEXT Wednesday for another article on a Self-Action Leadership related topic.
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Chapter 9 Notes
1. When asked about his philosophy of leadership and governance of a growing religious movement in the mid-nineteenth century, Joseph Smith—leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints from 1830-1844—replied: "I teach them correct principles and they govern themselves."
2. Hubbard, E. (1946). An American Bible. Edited by Alice Hubbard. New York, NY: Wm. H. Wise & Co. Page 145.
3. Ferguson, N. (2011). Civilization: The West and the Rest. New York, NY: Penguin. Pages 12-13.
4. Ibid. Pages 324-325.
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