To those only slightly familiar with the history of revolutions in the world, the word itself, ‘revolution,’ has a positive connotation. Most Americans are drawn back to the dawn of our country with fond admiration and respect; as it should be. Despite the fact that my team mate and co-author Orrin Woodward and I entitled one of our books, Launching a Leadership Revolution (our intention being to conjure the good meanings of ‘revolution’), all revolutions aren’t good. Many, many revolutions through history were bloody, unjust, horrific affairs ending in tyranny. Only a few, despite near universal propaganda to the contrary, have ever amounted to much more than ‘the mob taking over.’
Take for instance the so-called French Revolution of 1789. What began in high-sounding plattitudes (at first blush similar to those of the American colonials) ended in mass murder and crowd-manic-hysteria. What was the difference? As author Fareed Zakaria wrote, “France placed the state above society, democracy above constitutionalism, and equality above liberty.”
First, community and society are more important than the government. In fact, the government exists to serve society, not the other way around.
Second, democracy cannot predominate over the ‘rule of law’ (restraints placed on the majority so they don’t infringe upon minorities).
Third, individual liberty must be protected against encroachment and/or infringement by other individuals, groups, or even the government itself. The U.S. Constitution is supposed to be a set of chains to bind the government from taking advantage of its people, not the other way around. There can never be equality of results among people; only equality of opportunity and treatment under law. People will always perform at different levels, seek different callings, and work at different objectives and accomplishments. Ensuring ‘equality of results’ is simply another way of embodying the concepts of Communism, and the earth has almost 100 million corpses in its soil to prove that the pipe dream of Karl Marx and his ilk has been tried and found wanting (actually, it has been tried and found murdering)!
Strange, isn’t it, how things get flipped around when we are not diligent? The Constitution is supposed to protect the people from the government, but many today assume the opposite. The ‘separation of church and state’ concept (which, by the way, is not embodied in America’s founding documents, but comes rather from a letter from Thomas Jefferson to a friend), was originally meant to keep the government from establishing its own religion and forcing it upon the people; it never even referred to the concept of keeping people from bringing their religion into the government! Laws meant to protects individual freedoms increasingly get interpreted by the court system in ways that limit (and often eliminate) the freedoms of individuals.
So not all revolutions are good. Not all good sounding phrases work out in actual practice. One sure gauge is to compare any politician, platform, movement, group, or sound bite against two staggeringly different tamplates:
The first: The United States of America’s “LIfe, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
The second: France’s “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.”
One leads to freedom. The other to death. It really is that simple.
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