“The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal.

They weren’t only equal before God and the law.

They were equal every which way.

Nobody was smarter than anybody else.

Nobody was better looking than anybody else.

Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.

All this equality was due to the 211th,

212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution,

and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.”

 

——Kurt Vonnegut

 

 

What will our great-grandchildren inherit, and how will we explain it to them? A new era is upon us. Many in the New Age movement believe it will start in 2012—that an Aquarian wisdom, equality and prosperity for all are just ahead. The more down-to-earth, “left-brained” (or “unenlightened”) among us see that as unfounded, but struggle to explain and especially solve the economic, political and societal crises we face. A religious right sees economic downturn and the threat of worse ahead as fulfillment of prophecy and a natural result of modern immorality, while futurists, trend analysts and scenario planners remove constants from their formulas and boldly predict . . . change.

 

This author has no access to a crystal ball to see what’s ahead. Perhaps the best forecast so far has been Strauss’ and Howe’s The Fourth Turning, which projected that these crises were just around the corner and put into print very 9/11-like and economic crises predictions before they were generally evident. Based on their research and his own, Harry S. Dent has provided astoundingly accurate stock market predictions. But this book isn’t an outline for the future of our society in general.

 

This book does address one rising reality in the world—the return of aristocratic rule in the United States. While this trend is not limited to North America (indeed it may well be the challenge to every nation in the 21^st Century), it was the fledgling United States that first and most definitively put the ruling aristocratic class out of power for nearly two centuries.

 

Of course, aristocracy still existed—but its monopoly on power was busted. And it lasted!

 

For the United States to now fall back under the lash of ristocratic rule is a tragedy greater than any penned by Shakespeare, and it signals to the rest of the world that the era of freedom is limited; change is upon us.

 

There are many battlefields where aristocracy and freedom clash—from government and economy to media, family, immigration, community, entertainment, business, finance, religion, art, travel, law, investment, construction, technology, design, and the list goes on. But nowhere is the battle greater than in education. I speak here not of schools, budgets, educational laws, legislatures, administrations, or curricula—few of these have much to with learning anyway. But the learning a student obtains—or doesn’t obtain—will in large part determine his/her future. Please note the word, “learning,” not degree, credential, graduation, or school.

 

Class status in the future may be influenced by degrees, credentials and/or prestige, but it will certainly be determined by learning; or its lack.

 

More importantly, in a society which worships financial success above everything else, the greatest danger is that we’ll only have three types of people—

 

1. aristocrats

2. their agents and employees, and

3. dependents.

 

The other type of individual and family has been called many things—yeomen in British history, frontiersmen, cowboys, or mavericks in American lore, and also pioneers, adventurers, land owners and shopkeepers.

 

More recent terms include entrepreneurs, leaders, disruptive innovators, outliers and anomalies. Americans tend to wear such labels with pride. It is an interesting linguistical question to consider if perhaps the American English is more replete with such terms than the British nomenclature, and if such terms are considered derogatory. It is, after all, what the Revolution was about: either live to work for aristocrats or live to build for oneself and one’s posterity. And if the British tended to look down on such cheekiness, other European and Asian nations had few positive names for such people—if they had any at all.

 

It was not always so. Before the “civilization” of Europe, when clans and tribes prevailed, the term “frank” (meaning “free man”) was so culturally significant that its derivatives are still found representing the currency of several nations and the very name of France, its language and its people.

 

In spite of, or rather because of, the aristocratic paternalism that existed in Georgian England, Jefferson was a proponent of a nation of independents—owners of their own farms, shops or trade, and the idea that such independents would keep America free. Hamilton argued that a nation of dependents—people working as employees for others—would make a better America, with more wealth in a ruling class. He had previously taken the opposite position while helping to write The Federalist Papers, but he subsequently felt an aristocracy would be needed to successfully compete with, and remain independent of, Europe. Of course, history reflects that the majority of Americans favored Jefferson’s approach, and an idealistic system free of upper-class rule was established. The American Founders created an educational model that purposed to bring up all youth with aristocratic education, and their “classless” model lasted longer than any other in written history.

 

Today we live in a different system, an aristocracy. There are, in our aristocracy, the following types of people:

 

• Aristocrats

• Their agents

• Employees of the agents

• Non-employee dependents

• Owners

 

It is upon this last group—the owners—that America was built and became great. If it is to become great again, two things must happen. The owners must again lead, and a significant number of the citizens must again become owners. This is a matter of education, pure and simple—but not necessarily formal education. The learning must occur, however, or we will pass on to our children an aristocracy, where no one—not even the rulers—is free.

 

So, to state it succinctly: our generation will either create an aristocracy or freedom. This book is about this battle, and how freedom can win. Today, freedom is desperately disadvantaged. It will take several miracles for freedom to triumph.

 

To facilitate just such miracles is the other focus objective of this book. Many of these “miracles” were born into your homes in recent years—or soon will be. This book is dedicated to the parents who embrace the long-term reality of allowing these miracles the additional miracle of a superb, great, world-class leadership education.

 

Either aristocracy or freedom will win the world in the years ahead. So this is very personal! Which side are you on? Which side were your children born to support and engage? Will you help them?

 

Our grandchildren will live their lives within the context and ramifications of this choice—free, or stuck in whatever level of an aristocracy (and all levels are lamentable) they inherit or achieve. While the message of fear is to “get ahead” in aristocratic terms, the call of leadership is to help build a world that is free. The era of aristocracy is coming . . . unless a new generation of leaders arises.

 

 

 

Oliver DeMille is the founder and former president of George Wythe College and presently serves as Chancellor of the University. He is the author of A Thomas Jefferson Education and co-author of A Thomas Jefferson Education Home Companion and Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning. The pre-print manuscript of Dr. DeMille's most recent book, The Coming Aristocracy, is available free of charge in downloadable e-book format from TJEdOnline.com.