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Against all probability, late one November afternoon, I find myself interviewing the President of the United States. He is sitting directly across a small table from me. I\u2019ve gotten him to agree to discuss the state of the world and a future that seems hopeless to many people. I lay before him a tapestry of today\u2019s harrowing realities: climate change, income and racial inequality, wars in Europe and the Middle East, environmental destruction, starvation \u2013 and the many other crises we face today that are symptoms of a degenerative Death Economy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I look across the table at him. \u201cMr. President,\u201d I say. \u201cThese are very discouraging times.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, you think what\u2019s happening now is discouraging, do you?\u201d The president shakes his head sadly and then adds, \u201cTry being the general of a rag tag army who\u2019s charged with defeating the world\u2019s biggest, best equipped, best trained military.\u201d<\/p>\n
[NOTE: I\u2019m not talking with the 46th US President, or even the 45th. I\u2019m talking to the first, George Washington. And to be completely candid, it\u2019s actually his portrait that sits across the table from me. However, I\u2019ve read so many books about him I feel like I sort of know the man \u2013 and can vividly imagine how he would look and sound during a conversation about the current state of affairs.]<\/p>\n
\u201cSounds impossible,\u201d I admit. \u201cLike an impossible job.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cImpossible!\u201d He starts to laugh and abruptly catches himself in a way I know is his attempt to hide his infamous false teeth<\/span><\/a>, rumored to have been made from hippopotamus ivory or \u2013 more troublingly \u2013 those of plantation slaves<\/span><\/a>. He fixes me with a stern gaze. \u201cWhat do you mean: Impossible?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPoor choice of words,\u201d I confess. \u201cPerhaps \u2018against probability\u2019 is a better way to put it.\u201d<\/p>\n He pauses and massages his chin. \u201cHave you not read history?\u201d<\/p>\n I force a deferential smile. \u201cI\u2019m a history buff.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThen surely, as a student of history, you must know that it is made by those who defy probability.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI see your point,\u201d I say, pausing for a moment to think. It doesn\u2019t take long for me to recall an incident that established his reputation as a young officer serving the British army. \u201cBack in 1773, when most Americans thought the British were invincible, you reflected on the Battle of the Monongahela, which had occurred 20 years earlier during the French and Indian War. You described how General Braddock\u2019s British forces, considered the best in the Americas and perhaps the entire British empire \u2013 in other words, most of the world \u2013 was defeated by a much smaller band of French and Indians. The British suffered massive losses, with over a thousand officers and soldiers killed or wounded, while the French and Indians lost less than a hundred.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIndeed, the worst defeat in British history.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cExactly. And later, in 1773 as the idea of revolution was being debated, you said, \u2018the British aren\u2019t invincible. All we\u2019ve got to do is hide behind trees.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDid I say that?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSomething like that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHmm. . .\u201d He scratches his head thoughtfully. \u201cI don\u2019t recall \u2013 not exactly.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI read it somewhere.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWell then, good for me. And, of course I should\u2019ve known, shouldn\u2019t I, after all I\u2019d experienced, being in the thick of that fray, right at Braddock\u2019s side. Lucky as hell to have escaped with my life. And what I said\u2014or what you say I said\u2014was true, was it not?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think so.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIndeed. It\u2019s coming back to me as if it were yesterday. We were marching in formation down a road our engineers had just cut through the wilderness \u2013 strict British military style, completely out in the open. Bright red coats and all. The French and Indians fired at us from the woods. We couldn\u2019t even see them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think Braddock referred to them as damn cowards.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOf course he would, wouldn\u2019t he? Hiding behind trees, eschewing the Gentleman\u2019s Code of open combat. You know.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cExactly. And it made an impression on you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, yes. Hellishly effective, it was. They tore us apart, like you said. Such experiences shape a man. So, of course, when I assumed the mantle of Commander in Chief during the Revolution. . .\u201d He pauses and seems lost in thought.<\/p>\n \u201cYou employed similar techniques.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n He stares at me. \u201cSeveral of our units did \u2013 Morgan\u2019s Rifles, Vermont\u2019s Green Mountain Boys, General Stark\u2019s militia from New Hampshire \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m from New Hampshire,\u201d I say, with perhaps a bit too much bravado.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI know,\u201d he replies, covering his false teeth with a hand and giving a small guffaw. \u201cThat\u2019s why I mentioned it.\u201d He coughs softly into his hand and lowers it. \u201cOur lads hid behind trees and stone walls\u2014and we picked off those lobster-backs standing in long red-coated lines like a bunch of sitting ducks waiting to be shot.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLike at the Monongahela.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPrecisely. One might\u2019ve thought they\u2019d have learned, wouldn\u2019t one?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, you\u2019d defied probability.\u201d I glance down at my notes. \u201cNorth Vietnam did something similar during the Vietnam War.\u201d<\/p>\n He gives me a quizzical look.<\/p>\n \u201cVietnam. Long story. It\u2019s a place in Asia, near China. The important point is the North Vietnamese, like you, defied probability, and stood up to the largest, best equipped military in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n He shrugs. \u201cYou know, we might never have won the Revolutionary War if the French hadn\u2019t joined up on our side. That was something else that defied probability. I remember Old Ben begging to go off to Paris. . .\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBenjamin Franklin, Mr. President?\u201d<\/p>\n He frowns \u201cOf course. Who else?\u201d<\/p>\n I bow my head slightly in acquiescence; then raise it to meet his eyes.<\/p>\n \u201cAnyway\u2014\u201d he continues, \u201cOld Ben was optimistic that he could gather French support. But here I was, still stuck in the French and Indian War mentality, thinking they were our enemies.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAh hah.\u201d I slide forward in my chair. That\u2019s exactly where I want this conversation to go. \u201cAgainst all probability, enemies often join forces. A classic example is that following the war I mentioned earlier, World War II, America\u2019s worst enemies, Germany and Japan, joined us to fight a common enemy, the Soviet Union and Communism, in what we called the Cold War.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA war in the Arctic? Brr. Valley Forge was cold enough for me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a different kind of cold. \u2018Cold\u2019 as in non-combative, sort of like the Boston Tea Party.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI never considered that an act of war.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter. Suffice it to say, as we have been saying, that history is made by those who challenge probability.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo. . .\u201d He gives me a measured, tight-lipped smile, similar to the one portrayed on the dollar bill. \u201cWhen you were telling me about your problems in the modern world\u2014climate change, all the starvation, the various wars, the horrible pollution people have caused, and the importance of ending the animosity between the United States and China, you were ultimately saying. . .\u201d He squints, questioning me.<\/p>\n \u201cI was emphasizing the fact that these two countries, the United States and China, together create nearly half the world\u2019s economy and half the world\u2019s air pollution. If they can\u2019t agree to work together to change that, to transform an economic system that is destroying itself. . .\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWait just a minute!\u201d The president\u2019s hand shoots forward, stopping me. \u201cWhat do you mean, \u2018an economic system that\u2019s destroying itself?\u2019 You made that claim before, but it still makes no sense. Economic systems create food, housing, clothes, all the things people need. How on earth can you make a statement like that?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the way economies used to be in your time, Mr. President. Unfortunately, things changed less than a century ago when economists, particularly one named Milton Friedman, who was very influential and won the 1976 Nobel Prize in Economics. . .\u201d<\/p>\n He shoots me another questioning look.<\/p>\n \u201cOh, yeah. I keep forgetting. The Nobel Prize is kind of like being promoted to Commander in Chief of Economists.\u201d<\/p>\n He nods, solemnly.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFriedman said that the only responsibility of business is to maximize short-term profits.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIs that so? Reminiscent, perhaps, of the East India Company that caused so much resentment among Americans and led my government to set rules taking power away from monopolies.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIndeed, those rules continued for nearly a hundred years. Anyway, let\u2019s just say that Friedman and his cronies changed humanity\u2019s ideas about success in business. The outcome? An economy that, in its pursuit of short-term gain, is consuming its own vital resources and destroying life on our planet.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy God! That\u2019s sheer madness.\u201d<\/p>\n I can\u2019t help laughing.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s funny?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSorry, Mr. President. Not funny at all. Yes, it is sheer madness\u2014and yet it\u2019s what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n He lifts his hands heavenward. \u201cGod help you.\u201d\u00a0 His eyes seem to grow distant. He visibly shakes himself, adding, \u201cBut you were speaking of China and the United States.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYes. In order to transform this terribly destructive system into a regenerative, sustainable one \u2013 like the one you had in your time \u2013 the United States and China must work together to turn things around. And yet, they are locked in a competition that seems headed toward more destruction, possibly even war.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSounds like the only sane thing is for them to join forces \u2013 if only to solve this problem that threatens them \u2013 you \u2013 both.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI agree, but many say that\u2019ll never happen. Competition between our two governments is too strong and hostile.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHogwash. Like you said earlier, adversaries have always come together to fight a common enemy. In my time, the French were my enemies, America\u2019s enemies, during the French and Indian War. But they \u2013 the French \u2013 joined us less than two decades later to fight our common enemy, England.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo, would you agree that people who claim China and the US will never come together to solve these problems. . .\u201d I trail off.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t understand history.\u201d He claps his hands together.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHistory is made by those who defy probability.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cUndoubtedly,\u201d he says, his brows burrowing in thought. \u201cIt\u2019s all about transforming perceptions. Just as I, along with colleagues, like Tom Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and John and Samuel Adams, had to persuade the colonists of British vulnerability, you and your friends must convince people \u2013 both in America and China \u2013 that their perception has to change.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAny ideas, Mr. President?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYour nations, America and China, are locked in fierce competition. And you are each destroying life on the planet. Correct?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, yes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThen you\u2019ve got to convey the message that it\u2019s a crazy competition. No one wins on a dead planet. You\u2019ve got to change the perception of what it means to be successful. Bury the ideas of that man who was the Commander in Chief of Economists. It\u2019s time that he and his failed philosophy were discarded.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAbandoning the goal of maximizing short-term profits and materialism.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor God\u2019s sake, change that goal to a rational one. Make heroes of people who promote long term benefits for everyone \u2013 and the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBrilliant.\u201d I smile at him. \u201cOf course, that\u2019s against all probability.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u201d He returns my smile with his own tight-lipped one. \u201cAnd history is made by those who defy probability.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n I give a playful salute to his portrait and turn to leave my study, feeling the timeless weight of his perspective\u2014and my own renewed purpose.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Against all probability, late one November afternoon, I find myself interviewing the President of the United States. He is sitting directly across a small table from me. I\u2019ve gotten him to agree to discuss the state of the world and a future that seems hopeless to many people. I lay before him a tapestry of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12022],"tags":[5727,3201,15114,4949,9149,9148],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-74701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activist","tag-interview","tag-john","tag-perkins","tag-president","tag-states","tag-united"],"yoast_head":"\n