Written by: John Perkins, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Against all probability, late one November afternoon, I am interviewing the President of the United States. He is sitting directly across a small table from me. I lay before him a tapestry of today’s harrowing realities: climate change, income and racial inequality, wars in Europe and the Middle East, environmental destruction, starvation – and the many other crises we face today that are symptoms of a degenerative Death Economy.
I look across the table at him. “Mr. President,” I say. “These are very discouraging times.”
“So, you think what’s happening in the 2020s is discouraging, do you?” The president shakes his head sadly and then adds, “Try being the general of a rag tag army who’s charged with defeating the world’s biggest, best equipped, best trained military.”
[FOOTNOTE: I’m not talking with the 46th US President, or even the 45th. I’m talking to the first, George Washington. And to be completely candid, it is a portrait of him across the table from me. However, I’ve read so many books about him I feel like I sort of know the man and can imagine how he would look and sound during a conversation about the current state of affairs.]
“Sounds impossible,” I admit. “Like an impossible job.”
“Impossible!” He starts to laugh and abruptly catches himself in a way I know is his attempt to hide his infamous false teeth that are said to have been made from hippopotamus ivory or – more troubling – those of plantation slaves. He gives me a stern look. “What do you mean: Impossible?”
“Poor choice of words,” I confess. “Perhaps ‘against probability’ is a better way to put it.”
He pauses and massages his chin. “Have you not read history?”
I force a deferential smile. “I’m a history buff.”
“Then you should know that history is made by those who defy probability.”
“That makes sense,” I say. I think about this for a moment, but it doesn’t take long for me to recall an incident that established his reputation as a young officer serving the British army. “I’m aware that back in 1773 when most Americans thought the British were invincible, you talked about the Battle of the Monongahela about 20 years earlier, during the French and Indian War. You described how British General Braddock’s army, which was considered the best in the Americas and perhaps the entire British empire, was defeated by a much smaller band of French and Indians. Braddock and most of his officers and soldiers, more than a thousand in all, were killed or wounded, while the French and Indians lost less than a hundred.”
“Worst defeat in British history.”
“Exactly. And later, in 1773 as the idea of revolution was being debated, you said, ‘the British aren’t invincible. All we got to do is hide behind trees.’”
“I said that?”
“Something like that.”
“Hmm. . .” He scratches his head thoughtfully. “Yeah. Now I remember. We were marching in formation down a road our engineers had just built through the wilderness – 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’t even see them. They tore us apart, like you said. So, of course, when I became Commander in Chief during the Revolution. . .” He pauses and seems lost in thought. “Our lads hid behind trees and stone walls and picked off those lobster-backs who just stood in long red-coated lines like a bunch of dumb targets waiting to be shot.”
“You’d defied probability.” I glance down at my notes. “North Vietnam did something similar during the Vietnam War.
He stares blankly at me.
“Long story. A place in Asia, near China. The important point is the North Vietnamese, like you, defied probability, stood up to the largest, best equipped military in the world.”
He shrugs. “You know, we might never have won the Revolutionary War if the French hadn’t come in on our side. And that was something else that defied probability. I remember Ben Franklin was optimistic that he could convince the French to support us. But here I was still stuck in the French and Indian War mentality, thinking they were our enemies.”
“Ah hah.” I slide to the front of my chair. That’s exactly where I want this conversation to go. “Against all probability, enemies often join forces. A classic example is that after that war I mentioned earlier, World War II, America’s worst enemies, Germany and Japan, joined with us to fight a common enemy, the Soviet Union and Communism.”
“So...” He gives me a small tight-lipped smile, similar to the one portrayed on the dollar bill. “When you were telling me about your current problems in the 2020s, climate change, all the starvation in the world, the various wars, the horrible pollution people have caused, and the importance of ending the animosity between the United States and China, you were saying...” He squints, questioning me.
“I was emphasizing the fact that these two countries, the United States and China, together create nearly half the world’s economy and half the world’s air pollution, and if they can’t agree to work together to change that, to transform an economic system that is destroying itself ...”
“Wait a minute!” The president’s hand shoots up, stopping me. “What do you mean? That makes no sense. Economic systems create food, housing, clothes, everything people need.”
“That’s the way economies used to be, Mr. President. Unfortunately, things changed less than a century ago when economists, like Milton Friedman who won the 1976 Nobel Prize in Economics – like being promoted Commander in Chief of Economists – said that the only responsibility of business is to maximize short-term profits.”
“Really? Like the East India Company that caused so much American resentment and the reason my government set rules to take power away from monopolies.”
“Right. Those rules continued for nearly a hundred years. Anyway, let’s just say that Friedman and his cronies changed everyone’s ideas about success in business. The outcome has been an economy that now is consuming and polluting itself toward depleting in the short-term all the resources it needs for the long run. It’s destroying life on our planet. To transform this terribly destructive system into a regenerative, sustainable one, the United States and China must work together. A lot of people say that’ll never happen. Competition between our two governments is too strong and hostile.”
“Then you’ve got to convey the message that no one wins on a dead planet, 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’s time that he and his failed philosophy were buried. Make heroes of people who promote long term benefits for everyone – and the planet. History is made by those who defy probability.”
I give a playful salute to his portrait and turn to leave my study, feeling the timeless weight of his perspective—and my own renewed purpose.
John Perkins is a former chief economist who advised the World Bank, the United Nations, Fortune 500 corporations, and governments around the world. Now as a sought-after speaker and author of 11 books that have been on the New York Times bestseller list for more than 70 weeks, sold over 2 million copies, and are translated into more than 35 languages, he exposes the world of international intrigue and corruption bred by the empire building EHM strategy. His latest book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, 3rd Edition – China’s EHM Strategy; Ways to Stop the Global Takeover, continues his revelations and describes China’s highly effective and dangerous modifications to the EHM strategy. Learn more at John Perkins | Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, 3rd Edition.
John Perkins, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
John Perkins is a former chief economist who advised the World Bank, the United Nations, Fortune 500 corporations, and governments around the world. Now as a sought-after speaker and author of 11 books that have been on the New York Times bestseller list for more than 70 weeks, sold over 2 million copies, and are translated into more than 35 languages, he exposes the world of international intrigue and corruption and the EHM strategy that creates global empires. His latest book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, 3rd Edition – China’s EHM Strategy; Ways to Stop the Global Takeover, continues his revelations, describes China’s highly effective and dangerous modifications to the EHM strategy, and offers a plan for transforming a failing Death Economy into a regenerative, successful Life Economy. Learn more at johnperkins.org/economichitmanbook.
