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Page Contents Copyright © 1991-2007 Kim E Lumbard. All Rights Reserved.
Greetings!
My name is Kim and I am your typical American. I was born in a small town in New England, went to college in California, and then got into computers as a career. I worked in Silicon Valley during the height of the startup craze and while I never struck it big, I earned a good living during an exciting time. I carefully attended to my career advancement until I was the CTO of a small internet travel company. I dutifully followed the capitalist formula and it gave me what it promised: an affluent lifestyle with the possibility of even more material gain.
In late 2000 I took two trips to India because some friends of mine (two different couples) were getting married. These trips profoundly changed the way that I look at the world. I had two distinct revelations, one about life in the third world and the other about life in the free world, and I would like to share these experiences with you.
The first epiphany was almost cliche. Everyone says that your first trip to the third world is a sobering experience, and that's exactly what mine was. On my first trip to India, I saw over six hundred million people living in villages in economic poverty. Without power, running water, proper medical care, or even the possibility of improving their lot. They were locked into a life that their social and economic conditions dictated. I was outraged by this; everyone should live free, be treated fairly, and have the opportunity to create a better place for themselves and their children.
However, despite this economic poverty, the people in India are happy and vibrant. They are connected to one another in a very real way and have a tangible sense of family and community. The Indians are also incredibly hospitable. I felt more than welcome when I was there, I felt like I was an active participant in the culture. This happened with more than just the families I was visiting, it happened everywhere in I went in India. I had a wonderful time during the first trip and returned to the States briefly to attend to business before heading back again.
That's when the real culture shock hit and I had the second revelation. On my return to the United States I saw two-hundred and fifty million free individuals... living in material splendor and spiritual poverty. Without community, purpose, or spiritual will; with ample capability to reshape the world but lulled into a complacent life of leisurely consumption. We are truly free to choose... but we still let our social and economic considerations dictate our actions, sometimes allowing ourselves to become little more than cogs in the capitalist corporate machine. I was appalled by this; everyone should live human, be a part of a community, and have the opportunity to create meaningful purpose with their lives.
Like many Americans of my generation I was raised with a staunch belief in individualism and a heavy suspicion of socialism, and this has made it very difficult for me to see (let alone accept) the spiritual poverty in which we live. It seems to me now that both extremes, left unchecked, are unhealthy for people and a society. Individualism, when taken too far, becomes just as inhibitive and draining as socialism, when taken too far. In India I saw not a repressive, mindless, social straightjacket but a supportive, thoughtful, cultural dynamism. In short, a diverse community that worked. Freedom and equality (the preservation of the individual) must be balanced by community and humanity (the integration of culture); these social poles work together to enhance the other, and either alone is not enough. I have been pretty much an independent cowboy maverick all my life, and I now realize that that most important thing for me is to become part of a meaningful community. A community not of mutual dependence, but of purposeful interdependence, created because it benefits everyone more than being just a collection of non-interfering individuals. A community that will endure and prosper after I myself am gone.
What if we Americans really were living in spiritual poverty? Economic poverty is easy to see and measure, if you know what to look for. What if spiritual poverty was just as easy to see, if we knew what to look for? What if loneliness wasn't a natural state of human existence, but instead a sign of a dying community? What if that ache we have to do something meaningful with our lives was an indicator that our humanitarian hunger wasn't being satisfied? These are the oft-heard concerns of my entire generation: I feel so alone sometimes, and I don't know what to do with my life. I have heard this refrain countless times from my friends... and expressed it in various ways myself.
Just for a moment, free your mind and consider a possibility. What if we could create a life and a world different than the one we live in now? What if we had the power to change our culture to meet our real spiritual needs, and we'd only forgotten how to do so? What if other cultures still retained the magic formula for personal fulfillment, that we had lost in our quest for material dominance? What if we could live our lives just a little bit differently, and it would result in a profound spiritual fulfillment as well as material security?
Quite often, as Americans, we tout our incredible material lifestyle as a sign of our success as a nation. And it's true: the United States is arguably the most productive, capable, scientifically advanced, and technologically proliferate nation on the planet. However, we often overlook our most valued asset: a strong and uncompromising commitment to civil rights. It is this collective political conscience that empowers and safeguards all our other endeavors; our material wealth is made possible because of this spiritual gem. Successful capitalism is enabled by civic freedom, not the other way around. The unflagging defense of liberty is the truest expression of the spiritual will of the American people. This is a good place to start a cultural transformation, because in this area at least our spirit is still strong. I wish to reawaken the nobility of the American people by challenging them to promote freedom in a new way: to proactively create One Free and Human World.
Introduction: I Have A Dream
What is the American Dream nowadays?
In a simpler time the United States was the Land of Opportunity and the American Dream was pretty straightforward. Work hard, be diligent, and you will be rewarded with a better life. Prior to free markets one's success necessarily came at another's expense, but capitalism offered a totally new paradigm. We could trade with one another in a voluntary win-win exchange where both of us benefitted. I can make a product and you can pay me more than it cost me to make; you can buy a product and can get more value from it than what you paid. Our collective situation improves, and we literally have created new wealth between us.
This dream of economic opportunity is still alive and well. In fact, I've lived it most of my life; I've created value for others and been rewarded for it. Yet, the pursuit of making money hasn't made me happy, not even close. What has fulfilled me has been genuinely connecting with others, finding ways to enrich their lives, being part of a community of like-minded people, and collectively solving large problems. This type of spiritual opportunity for growth is few and far between in our modern western society. The reasons for this are complex (decline of religious and social institutions, advent of smaller viable economic family units, rise of mobility and consequent loss of social stability, etc.) but the empirical observation is clear. As a society we have less opportunity for spiritual growth and purpose than we do for career growth and advancement, and as a consequence as a people we feel more isolated, aimless, and unhappy than other cultures with a stronger community aspect.
We need a grand vision of our age to help clarify our national identity and give us a greater purpose in life. Do you remember the space program? As a people we sent a man to the moon. Or polio and smallpox vaccinations? As a society we eliminated deadly viruses from the planet. Or World War II? As a nation we stood against fascist Nazi aggression and liberated the Jewish race from oppression. I mean, really think about it for a moment. Seriously. Collectively we have accomplished incredible things when our spiritual will was focused. We have demonstrated miraculous capability time and time again when we've heard a clarion call to serve. But our current generation has no clear, bold goal and faces no real threats. We want for nothing and our "wars" are jokes. We can casually create more wealth than the rest of the planet combined, and just as casually dismantle the armies of other nations in weeks. Our material prowess is unequalled, but our spiritual will is diffuse. We need a bold new American Dream to unite us as humans, to focus our efforts and enable us to create something greater and more durable than our individual selves. We need economy and spirit combined.
I propose the Living Freedom Mission as a new American Dream: To create One Free and Human World.
There are several possible forms that this mission could take. For a variety of reasons I suggest a massive and ongoing exchange program between free and third world countries. The scale of the mission would be visionary, the likes of which has never been seen before: tens of millions of people per year, each staying at least a year. However, don't be fooled by the size into thinking it is yet another "big thing" in the world that we can't influence. That grand scale ultimately boils down into something very manageable and human-scale: hosting one person in your house for a year, and visiting a foreign country for a year. We could make real in-roads into international policy by dealing with people face-to-face in a personal fashion. Such a program would have a great many benefits: cementing long-lasting peace, developing new consumer markets abroad, and exchanging cultural diversity. Moreover, there are two specific benefits to the third and free worlds.
For the third world, the major benefit is the getting on the fast track to economic development. Whatever other problems the United States may have, the reality is that we do have the magic formula for material wealth: freedom + equality + economic opportunity. Moreover, the LFM would guarantee that skills acquired during the exchange would return to their native country, unlike the "brain drain" that often occurs when foreign students get American educations and then stay in the free world. Those third world countries that participate in the LFM are going to be bootstrapped into economic affluence.
For the free world, the major benefit is a clarity and invigoration of spiritual purpose. For Americans in particular it would give us a chance to reconnect to the magic formula for personal fulfillment: spiritual opportunity + community + humanity. Moreover, the LFM would be a threefold expression of our noble nature as a people. First, it would reflect our commitment to civil liberty by helping to promote freedom. Second, it is the cultural analog of our win-win capitalist ideal: the voluntary exchange of culture such that both parties benefit. Third, it would make us into a new type of melting pot: a dynamic social crossroads where different cultures can meet and appreciate one another. Those free world countries that participate in the LFM are going to re-ignite the fiery creative will of their people.
One of America's most beloved and respected presidents, John F Kennedy, once said:
The best defense of liberty is a good offense. And by actively promoting freedom, equality, and opportunity abroad, we cultivate opportunity, community, and humanity in our own fair land.
And the free and human world? It is very simple, really. It is a place that combines the best that mankind currently has to offer. A place where Freedom is vigilantly protected and every man, woman, and child can safely breathe free from oppression and tyranny. A place where Equality breeds tolerance, acceptance, fairness, justice, and the appreciation of diversity. A place where Opportunity abounds, not only to improve the material standards of living but also spiritual quality of life. A place where Community is strong, people are connected, feel cherished, and are supported by one another. A place where Humanity is held as a virtue, we live happily, and our daily lives are filled with meaning and purpose.
We can create this here in the free world and there in the third world, but in the dream of the Living Freedom Mission, there are no first or free or third worlds anymore. There is only One Free and Human World. I believe this is a noble dream well worth pursuing. Let's consider how we could do so.
Thesis: Necessary Cultural Diversity
In the late 1980s there was a landmark study that centered around two
laboratories,
one in the US and the other in England; the English had perfected a laser
technique that the Americans were having trouble with. Clear documentation,
frequent communication, even visits by experienced English researchers
were all unable to reproduce working lasers in the US lab. But once the
American researchers went and observed the working English lab, they were
easily able to replicate the results on their own.
The study concluded two substantial points. First, "a working environment contains essentially incommunicable elements to those that have not worked in that environment." Second, that "two working environments with exactly the same function can contain numerous differences that prevent the exact transfer of methodology from one to the other." To paraphrase: first-hand experience of a working environment is the best learning method, and all working processes need to be reinterpreted for each specific environment.
These simple observations have a profound impact on the approach of the LFM. First, living free is the best method for practically undertanding freedom and civil rights. We can write books, create propaganda, air television shows, export consumer goods, etc. all we want, but this won't give foreign citizens the practical tools necessary to recreate freedom in their own countries. Just like those American researchers, they need to go to the working English lab to observe things firsthand. So, the best way to teach third world citizens about freedom is to have them live in the free world, the "working environment" of liberty.
Second, the same processes that work in the free world will not work elsewhere. The environment is different, the people are different, and the problems are different; therefore, the applied solution must be different. Native foreigners are the only people who can create the effective solutions to specific problems in their own countries (though of course, the free world can facilitate this process). Moreover, the solutions that they come up with that work in their countries may bear little resemblence to the ones that we've come up with that work in ours.
Thus, we cannot clone the United States culture abroad. And I don't mean this from a "moral is it right" perspective, I mean it in a "practical it won't work" sense. We have been making a grave mistake in trying to foist individualism, democracy, and capitalism onto other countries, because we've made the naive assumption that just because those solutions work here in the US they should work everywhere. Instead, we should be fostering freedom, equality, and opportunity and let foreign citizens come up with their own systems. A third world country may very well come up with a better practical expression of these ideals than we ourselves have come up with, and that we could learn from their example and not just they from ours.
Thus, the mechanism of the Living Freedom Mission is to empower foreign citizens with the capability to engender change on their own, by physically transplanting them to the free world where they can observe the working societies firsthand. We will plant specific ideological seeds (freedom, equality, and economic opportunity) and help them grow in the soil of foreign cultures. And should they produce a new and hardy strain, we will graft it back into our own society, creating an even sturdier hybrid.
Thesis: Have You Heard About The Revolution?
How does revolutionary social change occur? It needs several ingredients:
For example, consider Economic Freedom. In most countries the rise of capitalism has had a negative impact on social structure and is used as a tool of oppression by the wealthy. Even in the United States today there are many that could reasonably argue that undying corporations are too powerful and that private enterprise would better serve the public good. Capitalism tends to lead to a lopsided distribution of wealth, exploitation of the poor by the rich, and business interests overriding the public. And that's to say nothing of the concomitant decline of morality and spirituality. Why, a third world citizen might ask, would I want to sell myself into the material slavery that your Economic Freedom offers?
On the flip side, consider Spiritual Humanity. Part and parcel of the American Revolution was a rejection of class because of the emphasis on the inheritance (and abuse) of power rather than the merit (and performance) of leadership. Moreover, there are many who would say that personal incentive is the crux of the success of free markets; that people work for their own benefit and not for others. As a result, our culture places a heavy emphasis on the individual and on self-serving enterprise. Moreover, we have a grave suspicion of anything that looks like a social structure designed to take our money away from us. Why, a free world citizen might ask, would I want to sacrifice myself, my time, and my money on the altar of your Spiritual Humanity?
Tighten up response and endingBoth of these views are reasonable and need to be addressed if the LFM is to succeed. I do not propose that the LFM is a flawless solution to all the worlds ills; however, I do propound that it provides more concrete benefit than risks and cost combined. For example, for third world nations the overriding benefit is clear and pragamatic: an understanding of the economic systems prevalent in the free world will put them on a firm footing for trade and competition in the future. Any nation that refuses to acknowledge this economic reality will become more disadvantaged as time progresses; economic imperialism is already becoming a modern mode of conquest. If a third world nation avoids developing its own market potential for fear of economic slavery, it will for all intents and purposes guarantee that condition.
The benefit for free world nations is less compelling and more voluntary: a sense of purpose and fulfillment in line with our beliefs about civil liberty. In a very real way there is no material reason for the free world to act at all; every free person living today could live out their lives fat and happy with no need to rock the boat of status quo. I would argue that we get diminishing returns by spending our money to increase our standard of living; it is already so high that the benefits we get from it are vanishingly small. However, given that we are starved for spiritual purpose in the United States spending any time or money to participate in humanitarian efforts has significant psychological payback. Furthermore, actively participating in a grand program like the Living Freedom Mission reaps tremendous spiritual dividends. For a free world citizen humanitarianism is not a sacrifice; it is the sound purchase of purpose, meaning, fulfillment, and happiness for ourselves that also benefits others as well.
In the end result, Economic Freedom and Spiritual Humanity must stand on their own merit in order to be adopted, i.e. they must provide a tangible and real benefit to people relevant to the problems they face. That requires change from within, and the genuine belief that these ideas will actually solve their real problems. Thus, the method of the Living Freedom Mission is to create within third world citizens the desire for Economic Freedom and within free world citizens the desire for Spiritual Humanity, that is relevant to the current living conditions in their own respective countries.
How to do this? The best way to gain an appreciation of Economic Freedom is to live free, and the best way to gain an appreciation of Spiritual Humanity is to live human. These could be accomplished by an exchange program between free and third world nations; I believe that both have forgotten the tremendous value and effectiveness of their own people. A free and human people is the greatest resource any nation has. We comprehend by instructional education; we live by associative experience; and altogether, we learn best by living.
Thesis: International Benefits Plan
Expand section on benefits: social and personal on both sides Perhaps separate benefits from advantages?Given these premises, let us consider the utility of a large scale foreign exchange program. It has distinct benefits:
Moreover, there are many benefits to different sectors of society. Let's review some of the highlights:
Nations get a practical method to engender long-lasting peace. How likely is it that two countries would decide on violent aggression as opposed to peaceful negotiation when 10% of the populace personally knew one another? Furthermore, if there is significant marriage of missionaries to the local populace there is the greater chance that familial ties will encourage the peace process. Lastly, a greater cultural understanding prevents the easy "vilification" of other cultures; this demonification of "the enemy" is often a necessary prelude to war.
Corporations get opportunities to develop markets and brand loyalty. Active sponsorship and high profile participation in the LFM has enormous advertising and sales possibilities. How many companies get to brand themselves as patriotic and humanitarian at the same time? How many international corporations get to break into third world markets with the good-will of the local populace beforehand?
Business gets a shot in the arm of global proportions. The service industries around the LFM alone is enough to propel a new economic boom. How will the missionaries be transported? What programs will they participate in while they are here? Hell, the websites that coordinate this stuff alone will be a major business. Maybe the missionaries will want to host cultural activities in the US and a new form of entertainment / event will be created. Maybe a custom of gift giving among host families will arise that generates entirely novel industries. No matter what the details of the LFM might be, there will be tremendous opportunities for new business and new jobs.
Politicians get an unimpeachable platform to endorse. First, they can associate themselves with the ideals of Freedom, Equality, Opportunity, Community, and Humanity all in one shot. Second, they can promote a pro-active plan for peace and cultural interchange. Third, they can give realistic estimates on the benefit to the economy, to large corporations, and to employment. And these are just the benefits to free world politicians. Third world politicians endorsing the LFM gain immediate goodwill of first world nations, create a path for their citizens to learn about Economic Freedom, begin a useful cash flow by near term tourism, and lay the foundation for long-term economic development by the creation of local markets.
Citizens get a wide variety of benefits, most of which have already been mentioned.
Epilogue: Call For Help
There are over five billion people on this earth who have yet to live free.
The Living Freedom Mission has real potential for meaningful social change, not only in bringing freedom to the world but also in uniting free people. When I think about hosting a person and helping them understand freedom, it is a task I can grasp and know how to do. I need tangible ways that I can aid my fellow man. I also need to know my actions fulfill a purpose that I believe in, that my efforts are to a worthwhile end.
I would like to ask for your help and participation in the LFM. Right now the ideas need refinement, and any suggestions or observations that you might have would be appreciated. Here's a smattering of questions to get your creative juices flowing:
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Kim E Lumbard
P.S. Below I have sketched out a terse mission statement and summary of the Living Freedom Mission. Any feedback that you could provide would be greatly appreciated.
To proactively bring freedom, equality, opportunity,
community, and humanity to all people
To create One Free and Human World
More specifically, this means:
To clarify further:
Further Exploration
For those of you that are interested, a book that helped me clarify these
ideas is Escape from Freedom by Erich Fromm. He's wordy but has solid
insights that are relevant to modern men living in free societies.
Q Visa vs. J Visa vs. new VISA class Need alternate words for native foreigner. Foreign citizen? Other Freedom missions? Rotary Club? Personal diaries?
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