FOREWORD: The Great Experiments

by Rob Owen M.B.A.
President
The Freedom Doctrine Institute

From: The Freedom Doctrine – The Architecture for Global Freedom
by Robert R. Carkhuff, Ph.D., Bernard G. Berenson, Ph.D. and Associates

In the history of humankind, there have been three great movements in freedom for civilization and its people. Each constitutes a vital experiment in the realization of human potential.

The First Experiment—Ancient Greece

The first freedom movement was embodied in the government of Pericles in ancient Greece. Schooled in the writings of Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle, Pericles demonstrated that true democracy was possible. Although his demonstration was fatally flawed by the system of slavery upon which Greek democracy was based, it was an initial step toward a new view of government and citizenry. As such, it was The First Experiment in Freedom. And it was validated!

The Great Experiment—The United States

The second great movement was the American system, founded more than 200 years ago. Basing their ideas upon the work of European philosophers such as John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and David Hume, the founders of this system demonstrated that not only democratic governance was possible, but free enterprise economics as well.

Of course, the American system was also flawed by withholding full freedoms and rights from First Americans, women, blacks, and other marginalized peoples. However, this flaw was not a fatal one. Our founders were politically conscious enough to give us an amending instrument to enact changes in the movement toward full freedom: the U.S. Constitution. The equality of all "men" having been declared, it remained for the disenfranchised to seek and achieve their own civil and human rights through amendments to the Constitution.

Indeed, today the U.S. stands alone as the beacon of freedom in the world:

• Its 50 states, some of them larger than countries, live together peacefully and productively in the freest social system the world has ever known.
• Its 50 states, many of which would be among the most prosperous of countries, conduct the freest and most powerful wealth-generating economic system in the history of the world.
• The citizens of its 50 states are constitutionally the policymakers of the freest representative democratic governance of the most powerful nation in the history of the world.

The U.S. has truly demonstrated itself to be The Great Experiment. And it has been validated!

The Next Great Experiment—Free Global Society

Evolving in our times, the third freedom movement is represented by The Freedom Doctrine, which offers a futuristic vision of the global village and its marketplace. Informed by the spiraling achievements of the American experiment, The Freedom Doctrine points civilization toward an elevated and integrated global society based upon the fundamental proposition of Global Freedom: "All nations are created equal in their potential for freedom." The functions of such freedom include:

• Free and interdependent cultural relating,
• Entrepreneurially driven, free enterprise economics,
• Free and direct democratic governance.

The methods for achieving these Freedom Functions tell the story of The Freedom Doctrine.

We are thus called to engage in The Next Great Experiment—to build our people, our communities, all cultures, and all nations into an elevated, integrated, and interdependent global society. This is The Freedom Doctrine, and it will be validated again and again.

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