The Big Answer

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The Amazon blurb says that

Humanity started small. Where did we get the idea big is better? The establishment promote big business, big government or big culture, more often than not, all three. In Small is Powerful: Why the Era of Big Government, Big Business and Big Culture is Over, Adam Lent reveals how our faith in big was manufactured in the 1900s – by a group of powerful business leaders, politicians and thinkers –and gripped the collective imagination throughout the twentieth century. But the notion that vast concentrations of power should reside in the state, in corporations, or the church has failed to create a stable, fairer world.

Millions of U.S. citizens are setting up their own small businesses

In Small is Powerful: Why the Era of Big Government, Big Business and Big Culture is Over, Lent challenges this failure of imagination and asks us to consider a world where ownership, power and resources are dispersed on a smaller scale, in a way that is better for everyone. He explores the roots of the 'small revolution' in the 1970s, and demonstrates how, contrary to received wisdom, this movement is intensifying today. Millions are setting up their own small businesses; political and social change is increasingly delivered by grassroots initiatives; and people are making their own decisions about how to live their lives.

David and Goliath—illustrating the advantages of small power over big power in business, culture, and government

Small is Powerful: Why the Era of Big Government, Big Business and Big Culture is Over delivers an informed and impassioned plea to stand up and fight for the fairer, wealthier and more stable world we want. It is an impassioned plea for 'smallists' everywhere to stand up and be counted.

As Luke Johnson says, "Sheer size is no longer an overwhelming advantage in many commercial matters. Economies of scale don’t act as huge barriers to entry in the way they once did. Disruptive new firms are challenging the old oligopolies across an ever-expanding array of industries — from the media to supermarkets to banking and beyond. In many sectors, like brewing and utilities, there are defensive mergers leading to ever-greater concentration among the monoliths. But I think these lumbering giants will still lose share and dominance. In many sectors it is cheaper than ever for upstarts to enter, and consumers are no longer as loyal to mega-brands and faceless corporations as they once were."

As Lent says, "I have spent my career working in smaller, dynamic companies: I could not bear the idea of working for a faceless multinational, infested with office politics and mainly concerned with managing decline. I hope in the years to come such monstrosities are broken up and that hundreds of more agile, innovative offshoots spring up instead. Books like Small is Powerful: Why the Era of Big Government, Big Business and Big Culture is Over help to encourage these trends by reminding readers that they do have the wherewithal to determine their own future.

"Part of this book explores the history of this battle between big and small power. It reveals how despite the power of Zwingli and Martin Luther’s uprising, big power fought back and re-established itself in the form of the absolute monarchies of the 17th and 18th centuries.

This is where big power led in Europe—to the absolute monarchies of the 17th and 18th centuries

"With freedom stifled in Europe, the flame of small power could only be kept alive in distant American colonies. There the principles behind the uprising against the Catholic Church became much more developed and ambitious, moving beyond religion to encompass economics, politics, and culture."

Ultimately, this small power revolution led to dissatisfaction with big power bullies in England picking on the American colonies and the resultant American revolution of 1776

Ultimately, this small power revolution led to dissatisfaction with big power bullies in England picking on the American colonies and the resultant American revolution of 1776.

Adam Lent is the Director of the RSA's Action and Research Centre or ARC. The RSA encourages creativity in business, education and public services and is world famous for its RSA Animate series. ARC publishes over forty reports a year, hundreds of blogs and tests numerous innovations for the RSA.

Our nation's actions are making the Founders turn over in their graves

Before joining the RSA, Adam was Head of Economics at the UK's Trades Union Congress. That job might lead you to think that Adam has a history as a left-leaning activist, political adviser and writer. You wouldn't be wrong but since the 2008 Crash, he has found himself increasingly frustrated by all points on the political spectrum. It was that frustration that led him to start the research for Small is Powerful: Why the Era of Big Government, Big Business and Big Culture is Over.

Adam writes a widely read blog for the RSA and has written (and ghost written) many newspaper, on-line and journal articles over the years on everything from the future of coal to the very slow death of political parties.

Why socialism? To gain power and wealth for the leaders as it removes power and wealth from the populace! Perhaps you are seeing what Kamala Harris' insane laugh is REALLY about!

The central characteristic of all socialism is failure. Then why do leaders keep choosing it? The answer is ugly: To gain power and wealth for the leaders as it removes power and wealth from the populace! Perhaps you are seeing what Kamala Harris' insane laugh is REALLY about!

Leaders in a fascist takeover (disguised as social justice) live like kings—which was the plan all along, regardless of their 'for the people' lies

As we mentioned, the notion that vast concentrations of power should reside in the state, in corporations, or the church has failed to create a stable, fairer world. Quite the reverse. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

When the Church had vast concentrations of power, they exploited it in the Crusades to acquire territory and more power. They abused people with torture and sexual abuse for no legitimate reason. Why? Because they could.

When the Church had vast concentrations of power, they exploited it in the Crusades to acquire territory and more power. They abused people with torture and sexual abuse for no legitimate reason. Why? Because they could

When corporations had vast concentrations of power, they exploited it to acquire smaller companies to expand their power. They would undersell competitors at a loss in order to force them out of business. An example of unfair practices is giving away a service for free so that those who sold a similar service would go bankrupt. Then the monster company would suddenly appear and buy the rights to your product for a pittance. Another unfair arrangement is when they pretend to want to buy a software product from you, but end up studying it and making their own version, giving you nothing.

Another unfair arrangement is when they pretend to want to buy a software product from you, but end up studying it and making their own version, giving you nothing

When governments have vast concentrations of power, they exploit these to gain even more power. All tyrannies do this stuff: Venezuela, China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, etc. The radical Leftist elites in the USA have captured the media, the colleges, the Justice Department, the Intelligence services and—for now—the Executive administration, and the Military. They are dead set on turning our democracy into a Marxist tyranny while telling their followers that they are creating a socialist democracy. Many democracies have turned into a tyranny overnight when the voters are conned into voting for a "socialist" party candidate. When they wake up in a tyranny where one cannot vote to reverse the damage because there is no voting allowed, they try to rebel, but those that try are gunned down. All of a sudden the snatching of our guns starts to make sense. The end result is citizens without rights, guns, votes, or property, and a lot of miserable citizens who are poor and a few liberal elites who live like kings, like in Venezuela.

This palace is where the Venezuelan leaders live, while the common people starve in slums, enduring hyperinflation (53,798,500% between 2016 and April 2019), escalating hunger, disease, crime and mortality rates, and mass emigration

Hitler declared that "every activity and every need of every individual will be regulated by the collectivity represented by the party" and that "there are no longer any free realms in which the individual belongs to himself." The utopianist collectivity in the warped minds of the radical leftists of 2021 plan to have us trade in our rights and individualism and freedom for being "taken care of" by a socialist state which knows how you should live much better than you do. You can label Hitler left or right, but neither he nor the radical liberal elites are interested in you having a mind of your own with your own opinions. To him, Naziism was right thinking and everything else was heresy. The liberal narrative represents what Orwell's 1984 would call rightthink while everything else is wrongthink, which the liberal fascist Thought Police intend to detect and abolish. You can see this in how radical leftists treat conservative thinking and First Amendment rights. This is an ugly portent of what is to come.

The first appearance of modern totalitarianism in the Western world wasn't in Italy or Germany. It was in the United States of America in the early 1900s. Political prisoners by the thousands were harassed, beaten. spied upon, and thrown in jail simply for expressing private opinions

"Nearly a hundred thousand government propaganda agents were sent out among the people to whip up support for the Woodrow Wilson (a leader of the Progressive Movement) regime (1913-1921) and its WWI: college professors imposed loyalty oaths on their colleagues: nearly a quarter-million goons were given legal authority to intimidate and beat slackers and dissenters: and leading artists and writers dedicated their crafts to proselytizing for the government." This is a democracy? And right then (1917), the oligarchy took over control of the newspapers. See Freedom of the Press—an American Delusion, Propaganda and Media Control, Second Edition: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda.

Democrats, the left-wing media, and big tech are conspiring to install a fascist dictatorship in America—they want absolute control of all thought

In Small is Powerful: Why the Era of Big Government, Big Business and Big Culture is Over, Adam Lent shows what went wrong with the whole bigness thing—spawned last century. The Chinese are trying the bigness thing. So far it has led them to oppress their people, extinguish rights and freedoms in China, run a concentration camp for disfavored minorities, and challenge the USA to a nuclear war over Tiawan because Xi is too big for his britches! It is a good book and we recommend it.