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One hot, sunny 4th of July I found myself at a barbeque chatting with an old Texas hill man in overalls on a hot summer day and he casually mentioned that he had been at Iwo Jima, but that I couldn’t understand what that meant. I blithely nodded in acknowledgement, in keeping with the casual nature of the conversation. He suddenly stopped and became deeply personal in a way that I had never experienced in conversation with a casual stranger. He looked me squarely in the eye, and said very slowly: “No, you are not hearing me. You really do not understand. No one who has not been in battle can know how horrible it is.”
This newsletter is dedicated to him and everyone like him who has experienced the horror of war.
FLOW is about to launch “Peace Through Commerce,” a sustained campaign to help the world understand how commerce can provide a foundation for lasting peace. In the 2005 Fraser Institute Report on the Economic Freedom of the World, political Scientist Erik Gartzke of Columbia University reports the results of his research showing that economic freedom is fifty times more effective at reducing violence than is democracy. Economic freedom is crucial for a flourishing, peaceful, commercial society. How do we support economic freedom and thereby foster peace on earth?
First we must understand what economic freedom is and where it is most needed. Economic freedom, as measured by The Fraser Institute in their economic freedom index, consists of five components:
- Size of Government: Expenditures, Taxes, and Enterprises
- Legal Structure and Security of Property Rights
- Access to Sound Money
- Freedom to Trade Internationally
- Regulation of Credit, Labor, and Business
The developing world is where economic freedom is most needed.
It is important to realize just how economically choked the developing world is. For instance, although Scandinavia nations are sometimes described as “socialist,” in fact Scandinavia has more economic freedom than the entire developing world except for Oman and the UAE (and we should not count Dubai as “developing” anymore). If the entire developing world was merely as free market as Scandinavia the world would be far more prosperous, and thereby peaceful, world.
The absence of economic freedom in Africa, in particular, has resulted in chronic war. (See my A href=" http://www.flowproject.org/Downloads/A-Million-Paths-to-Peace.pdf"> “A Million Paths to Peace” for the socialist roots of this catastrophe). Whatever one thinks of the U.S.-Iraq war, with respect to global death counts it is a sideshow. More people have died in African wars in the last fifty years than in the rest of the world combined. The deadliest war since WW II took place in the Congo, 1998-2002. As one website reports, “If this scale of destruction and fighting was in Europe, then people would be calling it World War III with the entire world rushing to report, provide aid, mediate and otherwise try to diffuse the situation.” The attention that was rightly paid to the genocides in Darfur and Rwanda, though in both cases too little too late, have only called our attention to a small fraction of the horrifying death and destruction that continue to take place in Africa.
What can we do? We can educate others concerning the importance of economic freedom in promoting prosperity and peace and, we can launch and support enterprises that are engaged in global trade, and we can resist proposals to limit economic freedom here and abroad.
It is a sad irony that some of those who seek global peace are hostile to global capitalism. As Global Witness points out, many dictators and thugs in Africa obtain financing through resource extraction industries such as timber, oil, and diamonds. The fact that corporations payoff dictators and thugs in order to continue to operate does not for that reason prove that even those corporations are necessarily in the wrong. It is even more emphatically a mistake then to conclude that all global capitalism is in the wrong.
Joseph Stiglitz, the one Nobel laureate economist known as a critic of globalization, specifically criticized the heavy-handed policies of the IMF and World Bank, not of global trade per se. In his recent work he is emphatically in favor of globalization, with the proviso that the developed world should open their borders to trade before forcing the developing world to do so. Similarly Oxfam and Bono have called for the developed world to unilaterally reduce trade barriers in order to reduce global poverty and to promote healthy, peaceful communities. Informed people rightly support globalization in some fashion. FLOW’s Peace through Commerce program will illuminate the clear connection between prosperity and peace, and celebrate the importance of trade to the cause of peace.
In this case, intellectual clarity is paramount to fostering peace. Two hundred and thirty years ago a group of American colonists were engaged in similarly serious intellectual work in mid-summer, and we all should be grateful to them for the peace and prosperity we enjoy.
On July 4th, 1826, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both passed away. They had both been ill for sometime, and yet both had a passion for Independence Day and a keen sense of its historical importance. When the document had originally been accepted on July 2nd, 1776, Adams wrote to his wife Abigail:
"The second day of July 1776 will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival."
Although we celebrate the 4th, Adams was essentially correct. Jefferson and Adams kept their hearts beating through their final illnesses just so their weary spirits could celebrate one more 4th of July.
The founding of our democracy is rightly celebrated each 4th of July. This year, celebrate peace by celebrating the founding of our free enterprise system as well.
Peace on earth, and goodwill to all,
Michael Strong
CEO & Chief Visionary Officer
FLOW, Inc.
Please contact us at contact@flowidealism.org with ideas, insights, and inspiration.
P.S. FLOW co-founder John Mackey and Whole Foods Market continue to expand the definition of conscious capitalism and exemplify FLOW principles in action. Visit John's blog at Whole Foods for insights into where Whole Foods is heading, under John's leadership.
P.P.S. This month’s Member Platform, by FLOW researcher Will Gudeman, reports on his experiences trying to develop rule of law as a Peace Corp volunteer in East Timor. His “on the ground” account shows some of the challenges we face in reality as we talk about these abstractions.
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