article ii cycles

7/31/2019 Article II Cycles

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Part II

CYCLES OF A NATION CALLED AMERICA

By Marilyn MacGruder Barnewall

In a 2010 article titled APES: Active Passive Energy Syndrome,

http://www.newswithviews.com/Barnewall/marilyn139.htm I explained the two differentpersonality types that dominate American culture. Well, they dominate culture

everywhere, but my research applied the concept to America. It was a series of two articles

that explained why some of us are liberal and why some of us are conservative.

APES has definite application to American history. It has important connotations as to

what decisions we will make for the future, and why.

A brief overview of the two personality styles is:

1. An Active is a person who comes by wealth by actively managing the risk

of loss of ones own assets to achieve it. Those assets may be money, they may belifestyle, they may be a home and children, and they may be a job or profession. Wealth is

made up of many elements. The character of the person determines the decisions made in

life and the decisions made will characterize each person as either Active or Passive.

Thus, Actives are the shopkeepers of America, the independent business owners and the

inventors. They are the free enterprisers.

2. Passives are people who come by wealth by allowing others to manage risk

of loss for them. Rather than managing the risk of running their own businesses, theybecome part of a big corporation, for example. Thus, most teachers, professors, corporate

executives (yes, even Lee Iacocca he didnt lend/risk his own money to save Chrysler;he risked the money of taxpayers), bureaucrats, media types are Passives.

One good example of the differences between these two groups is their investment habits.

Actives invest in themselves in their ideas, in their businesses. Passives invest in the

stock market or their partnership with other CPAs and lawyers (Actives usually have theirown, independent practices). Passives create investment products that spread (rather than

manage) risk hedge funds and mutual funds (and life insurance).

Please remember the reference these explanations represent a brief overview, not an in-

depth explanation of a highly complex concept. Four pages of one sentence personality

descriptions accompany the research (two pages for each group).

Why am I revisiting this subject? Because most Americans feel the fight between one

group and the other; many consider it a fight between good and evil (and it is). Others

consider it a fight between political parties (and it is). Still others see it as a fight betweenfreedom and slavery (and it is).
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In truth, it is a fight between the preferred lifestyles of Actives (who are motivated by

control) and Passives (who are motivated by power). Actives want to control their own

destinies (which is why they invest the majority of assets in themselves something theycan control not the stock or bond markets). Security-motivated Passives invest in stocks

and bonds, insurance, hedge and mutual funds things controlled by others which spread

the potential risk of loss. Most people think power and control are the same things. Theyare not. Control is something one does behind ones own nose; power is something one

exercises behind the noses of others. For a more in-depth explanation, I suggest you read

the 2010 APES article.

A look at six Active/Passive energy cycles in American history offers good insight into

how each of these groups weave threads into a beautiful blanket resulting in a capitalist

country called America.

During the 1600s through the mid-1700s, our nation was known as British North America.

Diaries written by early American residents describe local economies as almost totally

dependent for survival upon agriculture.

There being little accommodation for visitors, tourism contributed a minuscule portion to

local economies. There was minimal trade with European nations, but no delivery systemexisted from one American community to another. Thus, until the mid-1760's, America

had village economies driven by agriculture.

In 1760, the colonies entered a state of unrest. They also entered their first economic cycle

driven by Active energies. Those energies motivated the Revolutionary War of the 1770's

that ended in 1781. A rag-tag group of Americas colonial soldiers defeated the mostdominant military in the world at that time.

Patrick Henrys cry of Give me liberty, or give me death, tells of a man motivated by themanagement of risk to achieve the moral objective of his right to self-destiny. His cry is

the theme song for Active/self investors. To freedom-loving people, there is nothing more

exciting than a positive possibility and the desire to make it a reality.

Prior to the Revolutionary War (which gathered momentum from 1760 until the infamous

tea party and resultant war over taxation without representation), the American economy

and its political structure was controlled by the Crown... by outside forces.

What kinds of people leave a secure, well-ordered society in Europe for the insecurity of

unsettled foreign shores? Part of the answer lies in the promise of land ownership and theright to self-destiny. The answer to the question? Actives, the risk managers of the world,

leave the security of a well-ordered society for the insecurities of building a new nation.

In the America of old, our ancestors had no control over laws passed to govern them.During the first fifty year cycle (1607/Jamestown to 1660), there were so few people on the

continent, so little wealth, so much disease and discomfort, the American colonists were

relatively free to pursue their own destinies. A difficult, high-risk destiny it was. There


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was no economic drive. There was no social agenda. There was no political

agenda. The agenda was survival. It was a high-risk environment -- but it offered land

and wealth to those who could tolerate and manage risk.

Settling a wild, undeveloped land attracted those with Active energy whose high tolerance

for risk management made them willing to wager their lives for freedom from religiouspersecution and the right to own their own land. There were other benefits and downsides

too.

They may have been taxed by the British Crown, their laws may have come from foreignsoil, but until the 1700's, there was not a great deal of interference from the British Kings

military in the lives of American settlers.

The nation was so young during this time it could not really be defined as having an

economic force with a primary drive. As I said, the primary drive was survival.

From 1660 to 1710, that changed. Wealth began to increase. Free enterprisers establishedmodes of transportation ... stage and shipping companies. Entrepreneurs built small inns

and hotels for travelers and tourists. Farms were plentiful. Shipping created an industry of

its own with foreign nations of the world.

Security and wealth attract ... what? The Passive energy group. By 1710, the risks of

survival on American soil were reduced as the risk-takers completed their jobs. Actives hadestablished a functional social base. Opportunities for the wealth of future generations by

land accumulation and the need for products and services in the new country were

broadened.

Those with a lower tolerance for risk, motivated by the security of being able to own land,were attracted to American shores. The immediate objective changed from the riskmanagement of establishing a workable social base and the daily life challenges involved

in doing so, to making things bigger and more secure. Remember, bigger is safer than

smaller and Passives are security-motivated people who like the security of big. Thus,

we can see from our own history (though it has been the same in all nations of the world)how Actives have a specific role to create and innovate and Passives have a specific role to

enlarge what Actives begin. There is a purpose for each group though Actives have no

respect for Passives and Passives fear where the risks being managed by the Active groupwill lead. They are not compatible groups. They werent then and they certainly are not

today. Perhaps they were never intended to be compatible but each has a purpose in a

capitalist free enterprise economy.

Members of the Passive energy group began to move from their homes in lands ruled by

monarchies to the new land. The thrust of this 1710 to 1760 fifty-year cycle was to secure

and stabilize what the founders of Jamestown and Plymouth had begun. It was dominatedby those who sought power, and by those who curried the favor of the powerful at that

time, it was still the King of England. Politics and the power that goes with governments

that exercise control over the people had begun.


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During the 1710 through 1760 fifty-year cycle, Passives brought stability and comfort to

the rough-hewn Active American society created from 1660 to 1710.

New Englanders traded freely among themselves as did the colonists who had settled

beyond the original Jamestown (or, James Cittie) colony. Thus, when the Active energycycle of 1760 began, Americas economy was driven by agriculture and was regional (no

longer village, or local) in nature. It was still ruled by a foreign monarch.

By 1760, individualistic Actives found themselves losing control of self-destiny. In 1773,the Boston Tea Party occurred. The Active cycle was a teenager. Three years later,

Americans began the fight to gain control of their own destinies. They understood the risk-

taking involved in forming a new nation. Citizens fought a war to change circumstancesdictated by the Crown. They willingly risked their lives, their property, and their wealth to

gain independence.

Some historians estimate the Revolutionary War was supported only by about forty percentof the people and was opposed by an equal number. Society today tends to be made up of

similar percentages of Actives and Passives... about forty-forty. The remaining twenty

percent are non-involved, non-political people who appear to have little drive, Active orPassive.

It is safe to say the period from 1760 through 1810 was dominated by the Active energygroup. Most of the founding fathers believed in risk management, (which is a totally

different concept than is risk elimination, the stated objective of socialism). Modern

Americans appear to have forgotten what motivated (and won) their freedom-loving (oftenself-gratifying) lifestyles. Risk management, not risk elimination, is the rock upon which

freedom is founded. The Revolutionary War was fought by conservatives with Activeenergy. Their reason for fighting it was to gain and maintain the rights of self-destiny.Passives who were loyal to the Crown did not support the war.

Our early patriots were willing to risk life and limb... provided they controlled the risks

taken (a trait among all Actives the reason in 2012 the Obama Administration is unableto get new jobs created; he wants to dictate the risks independent business owners will

take.. and they want none of it). As we neared the end of the fifty-year Passive cycle in

1860, industry and manufacturing, was in its infancy and was beginning to replaceagriculture as the driving economic force in Americas northern states. Agriculture

(particularly cotton) remained the strength of the south. The nations economy was still

regional, but the regions expanded in size as industry solidified its toehold.

Go to Part III

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