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    Former Guinness World Record Holder for largest book signing ever, Orrin Woodward is a NY Times bestselling author of And Justice For All along with RESOLVED & coauthor of LeaderShift and Launching a Leadership Revolution. His books have sold over one million copies in the financial, leadership and liberty fields. RESOLVED: 13 Resolutions For LIFE made the Top 100 All-Time Best Leadership Books and the 13 Resolutions are the framework for the top selling Mental Fitness Challenge personal development program.

    Orrin made the Top 20 Inc. Magazine Leadership list & has co-founded two multi-million dollar leadership companies. Currently, he serves as the Chairman of the Board of the LIFE. He has a B.S. degree from GMI-EMI (now Kettering University) in manufacturing systems engineering. He holds four U.S. patents, and won an exclusive National Technical Benchmarking Award.

    This blog is an Alltop selection and ranked in HR's Top 100 Blogs for Management & Leadership.

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How Do the Six Duties and Five Laws Interact?

Posted by Orrin Woodward on September 17, 2013

When I look back on my life, one of the things that I am so thankful for today is my training in systems thinking as a Manufacturing Systems Engineer at GMI-EMI (now Kettering University). This mindset of seeing the world from a systems perspective has been invaluable to me personally and professionally. In RESOLVED, I shared an entire chapter on systems thinking, but now will share systems thinking as it relates to the Six Duties of Society and the Five Laws of Decline. This material is so exciting to me, because I believe I have pinpointed how every society I have studied cycled through the “rise and fall” story. For only when we understand why something occurs can we make the changes needed to stop it.

LIFE Leadership applies the same principles to one’s life. For only when someone understands why he is not getting the results he desires can he make the needed changes to produce the right results. Here is part of the chapter on the SDS and FLD interactions within society.

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Knocking Down the Berlin Wall

Knocking Down the Berlin Wall

Government, accordingly, must be strong enough to restrain the strong from exploiting the weak within society to ensure justice for all, fulfilling the SDS. However, government, even though it is society’s delegated agent for justice, must be watched and restrained. For negligence will lead to the exploiters gaining control of the government’s “monopoly of force,” activating the FLD by redirecting government into an agent of injustice through the systematic exploitation of society. The exploiters do not intend to destroy society, for a long life of the host ensures more plunder for the parasites. However, the greater the unchecked exploitation becomes, the greater the reduction in production of society as the exploited resist the unjust exploitation. For society’s members, if they cannot legally stop the exploitation, will, at a minimum, refuse to produce above what they are allowed to keep. In other words, the SDS and FLD counteract one another, for the FLD thrives in injustice and the SDS prospers in justice. Therefore, when government protects the inalienable rights of its members by performing its delegated assignment of justice, society will rise; however, when government is either too powerless to ensure justice or, worse yet, becomes the agent of injustice, society begins to fall. Indeed, one could compare the SDS to an airplane, lifting society upward and the FLD to gravity, forcing the plane to fall. Thankfully for society, just like a plane can overcome gravity, the SDS can overcome the FLD when society applies the proper policies.

Nonetheless, for an airplane to stay in the air, there must be a refueling plan; otherwise the plane will fall when it runs out of power. In a similar fashion, a society can “rise”, but it must also designs checks to prevent the parasitic FLD; otherwise the society will fall when the FLD consumes the production of the SDS. Ideally, with an understanding of the negative symbiosis between the SDS and FLD, today’s political leaders could radically change the position of the Power Pendulum within society by ensuring justice for its members. For just as the laws of nature are predictable, so too are the laws of human nature when studied systematically within society. Although each person is unique and will respond in his own way to various stimulus, in mass, human nature is surprisingly predictable. Consequently, society can be studied to identify the systemic response of its members to specific government policies. If society allows the FLD to increase, people react, in mass, in specific patterns that will become clear when we examine the six case-studies. For now, its important to understand that society’s responses to the systemic processes and interactions of the SDS and FLD are predictable. Indeed, just as aeronautical engineers, through comprehending the laws of nature, design airplanes for flight; so too can political scientists, through comprehending human nature, design policies for society’s rise.

Interestingly, the systemic effects of the SDS and FLD interactions have been remarkably consistent within Western Societies. This indicates that, similar to scientist predicting responses in the laws of nature, the systemic reactions of human beings to government policies can be consistently predicted. For the application of human nature to predict societal events isn’t a new concept. For instance, insurance companies have, for centuries, made predictions based upon human nature. Has anyone noticed that when car drivers apply for insurance, the insurance companies assess different rates based upon the insured’s age and family status? But how can they possible do this without evaluating a person’s actual driving abilities? Just because, in other words, one driver is an 18 year old doesn’t necessarily mean he is a poorer driver than a married 35 year old driver with children. Statistically, however, for drivers in mass, the average 18 year old is simply a higher risk than the average 35 year old. Consequently, the insurance rates are adjusted accordingly with an impressive degree of accuracy. Warren Buffet, in fact, once remarked, “there is no such thing as bad insurance, only bad rates.”  Man, in other words, as an individual, is unpredictable, but when studied in mass, he is extremely predictable. Insurance companies, in sum, have utilized the laws of human nature to predict mass behavior for centuries; likewise, why aren’t societal leaders using the same methods to enhance the SDS and check the FLD within society?  For although it may be difficult to forecast how each individual will respond to a specific policy, society, in mass, will respond to the SDS and FLD with astonishing consistency based upon justice or injustice of the policy proposed.

Through the systematic study of the SDS and FLD, political leaders can better comprehend how their legislation affects these crucial systems and adjust accordingly. The political leaders main objective is to ensure all legislation enhances the SDS without initiating the FLD. To rephrase Buffet’s dictum for political purposes, “There is no such thing as bad society, only bad policies.” Government, in other words, becomes bad when its “monopoly of force” is used to plunder the people rather than ensure justice for all. Unfortunately, when the SDS is fulfilled and society prospers, the FLD temptation, for those who rule the government’s “monopoly of force,” to use it as a hammer of exploitation becomes increasingly difficult to resist. Society, as a result, must set up the proper checks on governmental power or it will fall victim to the FLD. In effect, the unchecked FLD produces a class of plunderers (the state) within society who sponge off the producers. This parasitic condition worsens until the flourishing FLD eventually destroys the SDS. The producers, sick of the few siphoning off the many’s wealth by the thriving FLD, refuse to produce anymore, killing the SDS as poverty replaces prosperity. This, in fact, is exactly how the Soviet bloc collapsed just a few decades ago. 

23 Responses to “How Do the Six Duties and Five Laws Interact?”

  1. Chad Waters said

    Hi Orrin,

    Again a book that will help society as we get everyone educated to the facts of the broken system. Today in society it just seems like we have different levels of corruption starting from an employee stealing time (which they perceive as innocent) right up to what every level of government cheats. Its sad really when you can sit with every person ask questions ay and they can’t see how they are corrupt or have been. Education and not lowering the bar on personal morals is going to go a long way in changing society. I know this may not be exactly what this chapter is all about but in whole every level of society is broken.

    Time for a change.
    God Bless

  2. matt mielke said

    Great article Orrin. I see how the FLD led to the collapse of the Soviet Union and neighboring communist countries, but that example seems to fall on one end of the pendulum. But there are many countries that seem to have adopted a “middle-of-the road” approach in which it’s not bad enough to make change and the people seem to be quite content. DO the FLD always lead to collapse, or can societies find a balance just above collapse where they are not maximizing productivity yet comfortable enough not to fight for change?

    • Orrin Woodward said

      Matt, it will always fall with exploitation because exploiters can never get enough. I refer you to America’s national debt. This cannot continue indefinitely and the problem with exploiters is they care more for their own gain than they do society’s health. thanks, Orrin

      • Matt makes a great point. But, you have to realize that when we talk about societies that collapse, for example Rome, it took a few hundred years. Many European governments have only been around a few decades. It’s taken the US over 200 years to get to where it is now. My point is, just give it time, and the FLD will always cause the collapse if not checked (so far, about 100% as I can see).

  3. Richard Kroll Jr. said

    Orrin, I really like the airplane analogy as it applies to the Five Laws of Decline (FLD) and the Six Duties of Society (SDS). I also liked the admonition for political scientists to design policies for society’s benefit (SDS) by comprehending human nature (FLD). Great article!

  4. Wendi Witkowski said

    Orrin, Thanks for sharing parts of your upcoming book. This is so deep and thought provoking. I am so glad I am part of the Life community that is striving to educate and make a difference. We need to reach those that society is making dependent on them and give them a way to excel and learn. The LIFE community is the answer on changing the tide by helping one family at a time.

  5. I’m loving this-can’t wait to read the whole book. I love being apart of the LIFE business. The education is top notch. I love politics and history,but I was never really good at holding a conversation about it. Thanks for doing the research.
    All my best,
    God bless

  6. Jim Martin said

    Holy cow! The last paragraph you have written hear makes me look at what’s going on in our country right now!
    When we see politicians proposing 55% tax on the people who produce to feed the ones who don’t produce the FLD are happening and we need to teach the SDS fast! We all that are part on the LIFE organization know this needs to be taken to the masses ASAP. Thanks for the post and looking forward to applying the SDS and help the people of the United States of America take control back and the elected officails work for us.

  7. Great stuff!

  8. Titi Woki said

    Orrin – Thanks for sharing these ideas! They have been so helpful for me in trying to understand how society in general ought to function and what is currently going wrong with it! I am thankful that LIFE is a solutions based company! We can make a difference by sharing these truths with others! I can’t wait for the new book!
    Titi

  9. Jason Dames said

    I love the analogy of the gravity and the plane as well Orrin!! I had never thought of the laws of human nature in that way!! thx

  10. Rob Robson said

    Amazing content Orrin! Thanks so much!

  11. Les Johnson said

    One of the best ways to to put the brakes on the FLD is to review what is broken and revise the checks and balances that no longer are adequate to restrain the ruling class(politicians). One of the best proposals I have seen is the approach in Mark Levin’s new book, The Liberty Amendments. Very well thought out and there is a movement afoot to implement these amendments to the Constitution.

  12. Bobby Roopchand said

    Great article! Seems like we have some work ahead of us. Lets get too it!

  13. Bill Newton said

    Orrin,
    Much talk about what our congress, senate, and president should do. I talked to a state representative yesterday while he was on his way to Cody Wy. to a coal energy session (for 1 week). They wanted to come up with a way to reduce government interference / tax, with coal usage. Obama has done about 1000 executive orders since occupying the presidency. Most all of the executive orders are costing the tax payers money. None of the 1000 new taxes (executive orders) were approved by the congress. The president is circumventing his constitutional powers, as the congress stands by with their hands in their pockets. Any action the congress does to move an agenda in any direction, will be neutered by a new executive order. My comment to the state representative was, to bring the executive orders before the supreme court, and impeach the president for violating his use of taxing the citizens. Anything less than that is just a chess game, while they waste our money.
    Bill Newton

  14. Steve Duba said

    Thanks Orrin. You said it in the book Leadershift. When we put the control on the ability to tax,only then can we talk about limited government. The LIFE organization will be at the forefront in this educational change in the current in the pool. WE WILL,UNTIL..
    God Bless You….

  15. Keith Sieracki said

    Thanks Orrin! it sound like if you have a society that allows citizens to learn can understand policies that contribute to the FLD then that citizen is empowered to resist these policies at any level of government.

  16. robert wilcox said

    Wow! Great blog Orrin thank you for taking the time to input some aspects of your book! I cannot wait to get ahold of it and to hand it out!

  17. Steve Meixner said

    Orrin, Keep it coming! This is great stuff. I believe you are Educating a lot of good people. Our country my have a chance at last. Thank You,
    Steve

  18. Scott Russell said

    Great Blog and looking so forward to the book.

  19. Matt Foote said

    Another great article Orrin. I cannot wait to get my hands on this book in its entirety. I love the airplane example and the constant struggle between the SDS and the FLD. For the plane to keep flying it needs a constant source of fuel, and that is what Life Leadership is; A constant source of the right information and the encouragement to apply it in our lives and share that same opportunity with those we love. I love being a part of this organization.

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