The need to always be learning and to have an open mind is shown in an essay by Fernando del Pino Calvo-Sotelo titled “The Five Experiments: a short essay”
Fernando del Pino Calvo-Sotelo is one of the sons of the late Rafael del Pino y Moreno, founder of the Spanish construction company Ferrovial. He has been involved in managing the family fortune since 1998.
“The Five Experiments” is based on a speech by Del Pino in June 2015 on what he believed to be “a multi-generational decline of the Western civilization”. His essay can be found at https://magallanesvalue.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/The-Five-Experiments.pdf
It is a very thoughtful commentary on five aspects of national life that “are now taken for granted as if they were not experiments but an immutable reality, an axiomatic truth that cannot be changed.”
They have been adopted at face value in the West as though they are obviously good and right in the West, when in fact a humble, honest reflection will have to consider them as “experiments” whose validity should be subject to Winston Churchill’s caution that “however beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”
The Five Experiments pointed out by Del Pino are:
- Universal suffrage and unlimited democracy with the conclusion that “never before in History has democracy been used on such a massive scale and never have majorities had so much unconstrained power.”
- Big Government & Welfare State with the comment: “Welfare states create the illusion that money grows on trees.”
- Gigantic indebtedness that starts with the statement: “Politicians first promise, then tax. When they run out of tax revenues, they borrow.”
- Crazy central bankers and fiat currency that continues from above with “when no lender in his right mind would lend them a single dime, powerholders just print.”
- Living without God with the observation “when power is not subject to a higher rule, those in power become gods, although not saint, infinitely merciful, just and good gods, but somber tyrants in waiting.”
As leaders we need to be acutely and critically aware of what is going on, not content with the superficial observation or explanation. The essay is well worth your time to read.
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