Ebb and Flow of History

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

Truth is marching on and will probably run right over your detour sign.

There seems to be a curious cadence to the ebb and flow of history. The sands on the beach just keep shifting. Sometimes the cultural charlatans and tyrants move in waves upon the shore and completely desecrate the beach. But after a while, another tide returns, sometimes in tsunami force, and washes out to sea the unsightly debris and restores the breathtaking beauty of the beach.

In 1999, I traveled to the devastated and culturally unglued country of Cambodia where their infamous leader Pol Pot had just died. Formerly, Cambodia had been called “the land of smiles,” but I didn’t see too many smiles. I had been invited to go and see if Project C.U.R.E. could help rebuild a health care delivery system that had been left in total shambles. Pol Pot, who took his presumptuous name from abbreviating the narcissistic phrase “politique potentielle,” had cheated the firing squad by dying before he could be brought to justice for his crimes against humanity.

Few countries in history had experienced the diabolical devastation and genocide that Cambodia had witnessed in such a short period of time. Over 25% of their population had been tortured and then slaughtered. Anyone who could read or write or held any cultural position was killed, and that included doctors and medical personnel. The official motto of the Khmer Rouge forces was “It is of no benefit to save you, it is no loss to kill you.” Pol Pot would say, “This is ‘Year Zero’ and society will be purged. Capitalism, Western culture, city life, religion, and all foreign influences will be extinguished in favor of peasant Communism. There is no further need for money or an economy. What is rotten must be removed. Whether you live or die is not of great significance.”

Pol Pot and his gang of thugs wanted to show China, Russia, North Korea, and the other communist-controlled countries of the world just how a purist Marxist-Leninist country ought to be run. He had watched the brutality of Stalin, and learned from the bloody Cultural Revolution of China where millions and millions of people were purged. Pol Pot decided to outdo them all and go down in communist history as having perfected the purist form of communism in the shortest amount of time. Only those who were farmers and willing to cooperate in a commune, or those who were serving as his brainwashed, deficient soldiers, were spared. Within four years, Pol Pot had murdered over two million of his own people. Eventually, over 4 million would die.

By the time I arrived, the onslaught was over. It was time to rebuild. Truth was marching on.

I had personally observed in my lifetime the cultural charlatans of this world briefly having full sway to carry out their godless experiments of cultural re-engineering with unchecked freedom to slaughter hundreds and millions of innocent lives in an effort to raise men to a level of God and lower decency to the level of dung. Hitler, Pol Pot, and Idi Amin had killed their millions, Stalin and Mao had killed their tens of millions, Kim Il Sung and other despots had drained the blood and talents of their countries in the name of cultural re-engineering. But, also in my lifetime, I had lived to see all of their experiments carried out to their fullest extents, and they had still miserably and utterly failed. The leaders were all dead . . . but Truth just kept marching on. Now, once again, I had been invited to a hurting country to help bring relief to a society that was continuing to pay the fiddler long after the dance had ended.

Today, Cambodia is again becoming “the land of smiles.” The virtues of kindness, justice and righteousness have not been eradicated from civilization. Today, many of the world’s countries are facing political challenges, yet others are blossoming with opportunity, potential, and success. That’s the good news!

There seems to be a curious cadence to the ebb and flow of history. The sands on the beach just keep shifting. Sometimes the cultural charlatans and tyrants move in waves upon the shore and completely desecrate the beach. But after a while, another tide returns, sometimes in tsunami force, and washes out to sea the unsightly debris and restores the breathtaking beauty of the beach.

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. 

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com