The Arrow of Fear in the Quiver of Control

by Dr. James W. Jackson

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

I’m sick and tired of being made afraid. 

When it comes to the issue of controlling the hearts and minds of the people, there are several lethal arrows in the quiver of control that have been effectively used throughout history. None is more lethal and none used more often than the arrow of fear. In fact, it is the one essential arrow for the politician’s success. If you can get into the head and heart of the constituent, and establish the spirit of fear, you have at the same instant established the spirit of dependency. Abdication welcomes control . . . all in the name of protection and peace of mind. 

While traveling in Zimbabwe, I experienced the many times President Mugabe dispatched his military and police units to race through the city streets in the middle of the night with sirens blaring, lights flashing, and horns honking to strike fear in the hearts of the sleepy citizens. The frightened citizens would awaken thinking, “Oh, it’s awful, and scary, and dangerous out there, and I do hope that our president will take care of us.” 

Hitler’s confidant, Herman Goering, claimed, “Naturally, the common people don’t want war neither in Russia nor England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” 

I recall from the 1950s and 1960s my very first awareness of a leader’s control by fear. Newsreels showed President Abdel Nasser of Egypt sounding all the alarms in Cairo, rousing all the people out of their beds and into the streets for defense drills, saying the British and French were coming to kill them because he had taken control of the Suez Canal. The next night he would order the people out of bed and into their defense positions because President Qasim of Iraq, or the troops from Saudi Arabia or North Yemen were on their way to kill them. Nasser kept the people of Egypt in a continual state of fear and confusion. And they loved him and supported him for it because he was the only one who could take care of them. Ironically, to quell them and gain their confidence, he promised them universal health care, subsidized housing, building of vocational schools, and minimum wages. Nasser came closer to unifying the Arab world than anyone in recent history, and fear was his sharpest arrow. 

In any one given day media reports can swamp you with fears of individual loss of net worth through increased taxation, coming hyper-inflation, loss of freedom on the internet, nuclear bombs from Iran or North Korea, government’s inability to pay social security, military pensions or Medicare, death panels for those over seventy-five, epidemics, natural and man-made disasters, bank failures, further loss of liberties, loss of electrical and communication grid systems, failure of our money system, foreign intrusion or radical domestic upheavals, increase in killer diseases, and on and on . . . . Most fears are based on some percentage of truth, so at best, we deal with half truths. The problem with our species is that we usually glom onto the wrong half. And once we begin to let fears terrify us, the quality of our personal life diminishes. Seneca said, “Where fear is, happiness is not.” If we allow our minds to become focused on fears — created by whomever — those fears will choose our destiny, because fear is the enemy of logic and effectively robs the mind of all its powers of reasoning and acting. 

So, what’s to be done? If it is a legitimate concern and you can do something about it, then do it. If you need to vote, then vote. If you need to protest, then protest. But, don’t let the fear possess you. Let go of the fear. You need not be made afraid any more. Dale Carnegie used to say, “Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” 

From what I observe, there seems to be a positive correlation between the amount of fear that possesses me and how unusually concerned I am about myself. I find that I am less apt to be made afraid if I can get my thoughts off myself and I start concentrating on helping someone else become better off. That just may be one reason why our fifteen thousand volunteers at Project C.U.R.E. are such a happy lot. They have discovered that as you focus your attention on helping other people become better off, even if they are on the other side of the world, the super-imposed fears that were once yours seem to lose their grip and start slipping in their influence over you. 

I don’t want to be made afraid anymore! Fear is the darkroom where negatives are developed, and I no longer need to be a part of that picture!

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

Speechless

by Dr. James W. Jackson

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


You don’t always have to communicate by talking if you are transparent enough to let people see the love that is in your heart.

One of the most proud and impressive episodes that occurred in Project C.U.R.E.’s history of helping needy hospitals around the world took place in the country of Ukraine. I began traveling to Ukraine shortly after the collapse of the old Soviet Union. By 1996, Project C.U.R.E. was not only helping to change the health care system in Kiev and smaller cities, like Zitomer, but also, in the university city of Vinnitsa. In addition to donating hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of medical goods into the Pirogov Medical University in Vinnitsa, we had also donated and shipped over eighteen tons of medical library books to the university’s library. With that gift they could boast of having the finest English language medical library in all Eastern Europe.

I returned to the old Soviet Union and to Ukraine in September, 1996, with Dr. Mark Johnson and several other wonderful people from Vanderbilt University. It was Dr. Johnson’s first venture away from the sophisticated hospitals of Nashville, Tennessee and the Vanderbilt Medical Community. He was young, but had already gained a great deal of respect in the medical community as an urologist. In addition to the donated medical goods brought to Vinnitsa by Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Johnson spent his own money to purchase urological items that he intended to leave at the university when he returned to the U.S.

Dr. Johnson's mission was to find and train the medical university’s finest urology and obstetrics/gynecology surgeons and professors. He would instruct them in the use of the advanced techniques, and then leave the high‑tech instruments for them. They would be the first in the whole area of the old Soviet Union to be trained in how to use the equipment and perform the procedures.

The targeted university doctors and a few nurses were approached and invited to a meeting at 10:30 the next morning in a consultation room near the operating theaters. A Ukrainian translator agreed to be there to interpret for us. At 10:30 we had all gathered in the room . . . everyone that is except the translator. We quickly burned up the few known Russian and English words of greeting as we introduced ourselves to each other. But, still there was no translator. All were glancing at their watches. These were very busy people.

Then Dr. Johnson did a brilliant thing. He said nothing, but smiled and took the laparoscope and the cystoscope out of their storage cases, along with some containers of capsules, and carefully placed them on the conference table. Next, he took out a black felt pen and some paper and started drawing pictures. The doctors and nurses looked around at each other and smiled at this creative young doctor who wanted to share with them so much that he was not going to let a little thing like a spoken language get in the way of their communicating. The doctors and nurses closed in tightly around Dr. Johnson so they could better see what he was drawing. Now, they were talking the same language, body language.

In the old Soviet Union they were experiencing a lot of problems with gynecological oncology, urinary incontinence, cysts, uterus bleeding, bladder and kidney infections, and also, dysfunctional prostates in males. Up to that time, the only surgical method available was highly invasive surgery. And in Ukraine those procedures were fairly archaic and crude.

As Dr. Johnson proceeded with his art class the physicians began to chatter. Some could not keep their hands off the scopes that were on the table. With the scopes and some pictures, Dr. Johnson began to demonstrate the new concept of minimally invasive diagnostics and surgery. Some of the surgeons had either read a little about the procedures or had seen pictures in medical journals. But this was the first time they had someone explain to them the use of the instruments . . . especially with the unique method of not employing words. They knew well their own problems and recognized quickly the advantages of decreased blood loss, decreased pain, less chance of infection from the surgery, and shorter stays in the hospital.

Dr. Johnson ended up spending most of the day with the university doctors. As you can imagine, by that time they had translators galore! Their delight could hardly be contained when they realized that the new equipment would be left with them for the future. They begged Dr. Johnson to join them in the operating theater the next morning, where they would have him operate on their patients and allow them to further experience the use of the scopes. They even invited him to dinner that evening to celebrate their new friendship.

The next morning we all put on our scrubs and went into the operating theater. Dr. Johnson’s new friends placed on his head the typical tall, Russian stovepipe surgical hat indicating their love and respect for him. Most visitors to their university hospital, who experienced the situation where the translator failed to show up, would have just packed up and headed back to the hotel. But Dr. Johnson’s care and concern for them compelled him to set aside the necessity of communicating with words. He became transparent enough to allow the doctors and nurses to see into his heart and respect him for his willingness to bypass the need to use words.

I wonder, how many times in the past my communications would have been far more effective had I just stopped the flow of words, proceeded with my task, and been transparent enough to let others see the intent of my heart?

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

Cultural Economics

by Dr. James W. Jackson

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

Global transformation, national transformation, corporate transformation, and even personal transformation take place at the intersection of Culture and Economics.
(Dr. James W. Jackson,  "THE HAPPIEST MAN IN THE WORLD: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist”)

I am a Cultural Economist, and I am compelled to make this obvious announcement: People have something to do with economics! There is a temptation to view the study of economics as a complicated and intimidating hodgepodge of charts and graphs used by corporations and governments to manipulate the consumers and persuade the voters. However, the study of economics is a valuable interdisciplinary study, and it is sad to see that so many educational institutions have dropped the teaching of the subject to our students.

Traditional economics concerns itself with the process of how we efficiently allocate and manage our resources of land, labor, capital, and the entrepreneur, and how we choose to organize the production of goods and services. We take our collected data and apply it to chosen charts or matrices so that we can project our conclusions into the future on the basic assumption that future reality will be an extension of past reality. It is easy to visualize the iconic economist with his wire-rimmed glasses observing something taking place in the real world . . . then retreating to his study to research if that which he has observed could actually work in theory.

But, it is good for us to remember that economics is all about people. It is the people with their emotions of love, joy, surprise, anger, sadness, and fear who make up cultures. And it is cultures that affect economics. And, likewise, economics affects cultures. Wherever you find the clashing of culture and economics, you will find the process of transformation taking place. For example:

Global: Observe what is happening in Greece. Rioting is taking place in the streets since May, 2010. The violent protests are over unemployment, inflation, corruption, the national debt crisis, and implementation of austerity measures. In Greece and elsewhere around the world Global Transformation is taking place at the intersection of culture and economics.

National: A quick comparison of the issues represented within the U.S. by the Occupy Wall Street group and the Tea Party group will reveal the extent of the national transformation presently taking place. Occupy Wall Street is a protest movement employing civil disobedience to support their demands for wealth redistribution through “opposing cutbacks and austerity of any kind,” and eliminating corporate influence of the financial services sector over the government. The Tea Party opposes continued excessive spending and waste, U.S. national debt levels, excessive taxation, and it demands government adherence to the Constitution.

Corporate and Individual: Change at the corporate, and the individual level as well, takes place at the intersection of culture and economics. Wherever the components of the culture, e.g., traditions, institutions, families, and individuals intersect with components of economics, e.g., resources, labor, capital, and the entrepreneur . . . that’s where change takes place.

We all stand at the curbside of that intersection. Each of us participates in the flow of history as it passes through that intersection. At that intersection we actually become the “change agents” of history.

Cultural Economics is the branch of economics that concerns itself with the relationship of culture to economic outcomes. It studies how various aspects of societal cultures interact with economic events, behaviors, and conditions. A given culture will influence our political systems, traditions, religious beliefs, our formation of institutions, and even our value ascribed to individuals. And, conversely, economic philosophies and systems have the power to affect and shape our cultures.

Economics is not a “Dismal Science” as Thomas Carlyle referred to it in his essay written in 1849. It is an exciting adventure when the studies of economics and culture are combined. It can open our eyes to the understanding of motives, methods, behaviors, successes, and failures regarding the stewardship of our world’s resources and human endeavors. Perceptions and persuasions sway even our purchasing patterns. Our economic environment has the flexibility of metamorphosis in reaction to current events and preferences. That makes the study of Cultural Economics an exciting study.

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

Poverty

by Dr. James W. Jackson

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

"It is a shameful day, indeed, when we discover that by our own, or our government's behavior, we have contributed to keeping people in the bondage of poverty."

Poverty is a tragically slippery word. It can be massaged and bent around to validate almost any point you would like to make, e.g. “If we would just stop practicing poverty we would not have any poor people,” or Martin Fisher’s ill-advised comment, “The great doctors all got their education off dirt pavements and poverty – not marble floors and foundations,” or H. Rapp

Brown’s famous quote, “You see, the poverty programs for the last 5 years have been buy-off programs.”

The English word poverty came from the Anglo-Norman povert, and originally from the Latin pauper, meaning "poor." It does have something to do with the lack of certain possessions to meet basic human needs. Groups like United Nations and The World Bank try to delineate further with categories of Absolute Poverty and Relative Poverty and varying degrees of standards of living. Book shelves and web-site pages are packed full of theories and opinions as to the origins, descriptions, causes of perpetuation, results, and proposed cures for the phenomenon of poverty.

This essay can’t tackle in 600 or fewer words the entire subjects of wealth and poverty. But I do want to take the space here to report what I have personally seen and experienced over the past thirty-five years since my first involvement in international travel and economic consulting. Specifically, I want to pass on the differences I have observed between the countries that experience relative wealth vs. the countries that experience relative poverty. I have traveled in more than 150 countries, and a large number of the countries I revisited many times. I have had the opportunity to become personal friends with Ministers of Finance, Ministers of Health, Presidents, Prime Ministers and Kings, and have had the privilege to speak at many of the Universities in the developing countries. The topic of economics is a hot subject and evokes instant questions and discussion wherever given a chance.

It has become evident to me that the countries that pursue the following practices are wealthy or are becoming wealthy, while those countries that do not pursue these practices are poor or are becoming poor:

• Government is willing to allow the people to break the cycle of poverty. As Ronald Reagan once said, “Poverty is a career for lots of well-paid people.” The inevitable consequence of poverty is dependence. As in the case of subsistence farming, it is a great temptation to the leaders of developing countries to allow the people to remain poor and dependent. Ease of governance comes with poor people who spend all their energy and time on daily survival. They are not problematic to the government, but the country remains poor.

• The people are given the right to hold and freely exchange private property. Private ownership of resources includes the rights of exclusive use and rights of transfer.

• Individuals are free to agree, free to enter into voluntary agreements and contracts with each other. 

• The Rule of Law is established and applied equally to all involved. Making agreements and contracts assumes there will be a third party objective resource to enforce the fulfillment of the contracts. Contracts are meaningless if they aren’t enforced.

• Individuals are free to fail. Everyone in the transaction must be better off or the deal will fail. If the deal is successful, wealth is created. If the deal fails, the individuals must learn why it failed and discover what will make it successful.

• An understanding that the pursuit of an individual’s best interest is not necessarily greed, i.e., pursuit of self-interest is different than selfishness.

• Rejection of the zero sum mentality. When one person gets a piece of pie it is not at the expense of another person’s not getting a piece. Successful transactions create wealth. People create successful business transactions. Just because someone creates new wealth does not mean that someone else ends up with less. Wealth creation springs from people who are allowed to freely participate in business transactions.

In order to break the cycle of poverty in a developing country, income must be produced. Income can only be created when resources are used to produce goods and services needed by the people. Countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, and China, who now understand and encourage that concept, are increasing their wealth. Those countries that do not allow such practices, like Zimbabwe, Mauritania, and Cuba, remain in poverty.

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

Making Great Out of Little

by Dr. James W. Jackson

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

"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little." (Edmond Burke)

Millie was a devoted nurse in the Emergency Room of one of Denver's finest hospitals. She had experienced the raw trauma and stress of fighting to pull helpless victims back from the brink of death. She had also been there to help comfort the anxious and frightened family members who helplessly waited for some indication of hope from the hospital emergency staff.  

Millie's husband, Dave, was a successful physical therapist. He also knew pain, and had spent his career helping hurting humans regain ease and comfort. Their occupations had been satisfying to them over the years because they knew they were helping other people become better off. But the closer they got to retirement age the more excited they got about the future. One day they would be finished with the success of their daily jobs and be free to pursue things they hoped would be of even greater significance. Their list of things to pursue grew longer by the day.

After they retired, Millie and Dave tried several standard post-retirement jobs. None worked out like they had expected. Then, their daughter-in-law suggested they visit Project C.U.R.E. She had volunteered there and understood that with all the international connections and exciting projects going on, surely that would be the place for significant adventure. Besides, it had everything to do with medical involvement, and that would be right down their alley.

Millie first ventured out to Project C.U.R.E. by herself. But the warehouse guy didn't show up for their appointment to show her around. The ethereal dream for significance began to float away with the clouds. But on the second try they connected, and Millie was introduced to Project C.U.R.E. Millie is a bright lady, and the moment she stepped foot inside the warehouse "she got it!" She saw the millions of dollars worth of donated medical goods on the racks ready to be sent out to the needy hospitals around the world. She knew that in the past the hospital where she had worked had discarded vast amounts of medical goods, as were overstocked medical goods of the manufacturers and wholesalers. Here was an organization aggressively recapturing those goods, sorting them, inventorying them, and distributing those goods to hospitals and clinics in every part of the world where they had no current supplies and no adequate pieces of medical equipment . . . even emergency rooms that had nothing at all! Her heart was captured.

The warehouse fellow told her he needed help simplifying the sorting guides to help the many warehouse volunteers more easily sort the thousands of items being inventoried. That's when she recruited husband Dave. Later, they were given the challenge to take the forklifts and rearrange certain areas of the warehouse to make the loading and shipping process easier. Dave and Millie saw that they were needed and that they were making a huge difference in how the entire operation functioned. Very quickly they caught the significance of how each piece of the donated medical goods could make the difference between life and death in some patient on the other side of the world. People would be receiving life- saving goods and would never even know Dave and Millie Truitt, or ever be able to tell them, "thank you."    

Today, Dave and Millie Truitt oversee the staging, loading, and shipping of the huge ocean-going cargo containers headed out to over 125 needy countries of the world. They have faithfully been at their jobs at Project C.U.R.E. for over 12 years. They are full-time, non- paid volunteers who drive over an hour travel time in order to show up and excitedly go to work.

Dave and Millie Truitt are true heroes to me. They did not make the mistake of doing nothing just because they could only do a little. They took what appeared to be just a little job and made it into a great and significant, life changing accomplishment!

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