The “Eagle” is the three-headed eagle that the founders conceived as representative of our federal government, with each of the heads corresponding to the three branches: legislative (the middle head, facing forward, two eyes are House and Senate), judicial and executive (each facing inward toward the legislature). “Centering” refers to a sense of balance of the federal government’s power over its citizens along a continuum that ranges, at each extreme, from anarchy (no federal power, oversight or intrusion) to tyranny (no individual liberty, total government rule).
In my maiden post on 31 October I mentioned that my take on “The 5,000 Year Leap” book (See caveat regarding the “About the ‘Leap’ Book” below) was that it made the structure of the founder’s federal government easy for the layperson reader to get their head around, and is also quite inspiring. When the founder’s two party system functions as it was designed, it displays an amazing elegance and efficiency for something so massive in scope.
The two parties were: the left wing of the eagle, Jefferson’s “problem-solving” party, which functioned to perpetually identify unfulfilled societal needs; and the right wing was Adams’ “conservation” party, which functioned to analyze the programs that the problem-solving party identified, and perpetually monitor two things: first, how these programs would impact the nation’s fiscal resources; and second, whether the programs would compromise or diminish the individual liberty of the citizens. “If both of these wings fulfill their assigned function, the eagle will fly straighter and higher than any civilization in the history of the world. But if either of these wings [ceases to function effectively, for whatever reason] the American eagle will drift toward anarchy or tyranny.” (p.26)
The author goes on to lay out two scenarios that expose a breakdown in the effectiveness of the system–not a flaw in its design. If the problem-solving party “becomes infatuated with the idea of solving all of the problems of the nation, regardless of the cost,” and the conservation party “fails to bring its power into play to sober the problem-solvers with a more realistic approach, the eagle will spin off toward [tyranny]. On the other hand, if [the problem-solving wing] fails to see the problems which need solving and [the conservation wing] becomes inflexible in its course of not solving problems simply to save money, or not disturb the status quo, then the machinery of government loses its credibility and the eagle drifts toward [anarchy].” (Ibid.)
You, the reader, will have your own sensibility as to whether these insights strike you as prescient descriptors of our time, harbingers of a time not far down the road, or only potentially interesting and modestly applicable–as ours is a different time with different issues.
About “The 5,000 Year Leap”
This blogger recognizes that the “Leap” book is not without its noted detractors, as some reviewers suggest the author lacks substantive credentials and exaggerates the sense and extent to which the framer’s built the republic on Judeo-Christian principles. Some reviewers blanche at anything that is endorsed by the radio & television personality who wrote the forward for the most recent edition–whom I shall not name, as this blog is deliberately not about any single media personality nor any single modern day politician. The beginning and the end of my utilization of “Leap” is in the three-headed eagle illustration, which is outlined in “About the Name” on this blog.
The look & feel, as well as the content of this blog is really appealing! I like the departure from so much of the rhetoric, vitriol, and blather of most other political-leaning discussion, asking me as a reader instead to focus back on first principles and their logical application on the topics filling much of today’s “news outlets”. Thanks for taking the time to write these provoking columns and I highly recommend book-marking this blog to other readers.
[...] process documentation and helped us understand how to document processes. In the second workshop Mr. Dale Westervelt spoke about process thinking and the need to having an overall picture of the various [...]