America 3.0

Marta and James Enstrom hosted the American Freedom Alliance Literary Café this month. The featured author was James Bennett, consultant, entrepreneur, a fellow of the Economic Policy Centre, and an adjunct fellow of the Centennial Institute in Colorado. He was co-founder of two private space transportation companies and other technological ventures. He has written extensively on technology, culture and society. He spoke about his most recent book, “America 3.0: Rebooting American Prosperity in the 21st Century” – Why America’s Greatest Days Are Yet to Come”.

Bennett began by explaining what America 1.0 and 2.0 were. In America 1.0 people supported themselves with family farms and small businesses. This world was replaced by America 2.0 that was an industrialized world of big business, big unions and big cities. The transition from 1.0 to 2.0 was tumultuous and the transition to 3.0 will be as well, however, Bennett believes we will survive as we have in the past. He believes 3.0 will bring tremendous productivity, technological advances and a limited government.

Bennett pointed out that the 20’s were a period of moral decline but that we returned to our moral foundation during WWII when we were united to defend God and country. Bennett believes 3.0 will be the age of technology which will lead to decentralization, individualism and entrepreneurialism. 3D printing will change how we do business. Self driving cars will allow you to call up a car when you need one rather than own one. Crowd funding will change the way people fund new businesses and entertainment projects. He said there will be $20 throw away satellite phones that will connect 3rd world countries to the Anglosphere. Technology will bring us the means to do things we never dreamed of.

Bennett said the worst thing this administration did was give control of the internet to the United Nations. However, he said entrepreneurs will find ways around any restrictions governments place on it.

Bennett feels the Left’s agenda (socialism/communism) is already coming apart. We have the example of socialistic policies not working. We have 50 years of the War on Poverty to see while we spent more than $20 Trillion, the poverty rate is the same and it’s implementation has destroyed families. Before the war on poverty the percentage of babies born out of wedlock to low income families was about 25-30% and now is about 75%. It doesn’t work and people are realizing it.

Bennett likened the Left to the “Ghost Shirt Dancers”. When Indians were moved on to reservations, those who refused to accept defeat, put on shirts decorated with signs that were supposed to make them bullet proof and they danced and chanted about being invincible. Soldiers came in and shot them and that ended their invincibility. Bennett believes the Left is doing their Ghost Shirt Dance.

Speaking about the threat of Islam in America, Bennett said they are making demands because we have opened the door to allow them to, but if we said no, he believes, they would back down. He said we should include in the oath new citizens take that they must obey no other law than American law and that the penalty be revoking their citizenship and sending them home. If we then enforced it, they would stop demanding Sharia law.

Bennett explained that before Ellis Island, we had no immigrant requirements to assimilate or speak our language. After President McKinley was assassinated by an unassimilated immigrant, we decided to change our policy. We put American flags in every classroom, recited the Pledge of Allegiance and taught civics. We required the new immigrants to learn English and assimilate. The policy of multiculturalism has reversed all of that. Europe has declared multiculturalism a failure and we need to do the same.

Bennett said we could easily secure our border and we must. But we must elect a President willing to do it. He also said, rather than fund, yet another, Republican candidate, we should be funding magazines with a conservative voice, movies, books, comic books…….a conservative version of the Simpsons.

When asked how he could be so optimistic, Bennett said giving into pessimism is a self-fulfilling prophecy. By being optimistic, at least, you have a chance of bringing about what you desire.