76 Fitts: Oh, I think they are. Farrell: I think they are, too, but they are not getting the play. Fitts: Dr. Michael Linton was on The Solari Report. I had him go through the life of Bach for us because he’s a real Bach scholar. He has started a music company that is publishing people who are writing this kind of music, and it’s beautiful. His website is linked up and you can do a search on Solari.com for Dr. Michael Linton. Farrell: That is the good thing the internet will provide us and modern technology will provide us if people seize on the opportunity that it gives for artistic creation. Fitts: Right. They don’t need large mar- kets to support their work. Farrell: They don’t. I have a good friend in West Hollywood who is an artist. He painted a picture on my wall. He paints modernistic impressionist art, and some of it is absolutely stunning. He started a website, and I hope that more people like him will start doing this sort of thing because we are starved for it. Fitts: Right, and you pointed out in one of the last quarters that this is a real entre- preneurial venture to satisfy this. We need food for the soul, and we need artistic entrepreneurs to provide it. Another thing that is always inspiring and has been inspiring for many, many decades now is that I know the economics can work. We don’t have an economic problem; we have a political problem. It can’t be solved with economics, and it can’t be solved with information systems. There are many tools that can help us solve it, but we have to face and deal with the real political problem. Farrell: First things first: Read the Con- stitution. Fitts: The Constitution is very inspir- ing. If you sit down and read the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution, you will be truly inspired. Talk about high culture! You will be inspired. Farrell: And read the Federalist Papers and the Antifederalist Papers. Absolutely read all of this, it’s crucial. Fitts: One thing that I wanted to say is that I feel as if I’m watching the rest of America go through the process that I went through in 1996 to 2000. I went through a process where everything in my life changed, and everything was turned upside down. So I went through the s-curve, and it was very amazing. If I could give advice to people, I would say that one of my favorite scriptures is, “Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof.” When you’re dealing with this much uncertainty, this much change, people around you are dealing with it, too. So many of the things that you count on suddenly fall away. What you have to do is operate by faith. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for but not seen.” That is why the ability to create a picture of where we are going – and we need high culture to help us create that picture – is important. Whether it’s the Constitution or the different writings of the Founding Fathers or scripture or the great artists or high culture, all of these things can help us paint a picture of what is possible. What you need is be able to hold that picture, and then not worry about the day to day details because you need to keep turtling forward towards that picture. Farrell: The other part of that is: Don’t fall for the grand abstractions. We are not called to love mankind; we are called to love our neighbor. The whole perspective is always local. We’re not supposed to think in terms of collectives. Fitts: Exactly, it’s real and it’s intimate. Farrell: It’s person-to-person and what you can do locally. That is the key. Everybody wants peace in the world, but the first thing you need to have, is peace in your heart and in your family. That is where you start and it’s not the grand abstractions. Fitts: I had a friend who had a bumper sticker that said, “Peace in this world, and let it start with me.” I always tell the story of the Vermont farmer who is standing by the road when a city slicker stops by. Have you heard me tell this story? Farrell: I don’t think so. Fitts: The city slicker says, “Excuse me, sir. I’m lost. I’m trying to get to town. Can you tell me how to get there?” The farmer said, “No problem. Go down this road three see’s, take a right, go two see’s, and take a left, and go one see, and you will be in town.” The city slicker said, “That’s great, but can you tell me what a ‘see’ is?” The farmer said, “A ‘see’ is when you can see as far as you can see. That is one ‘see’.” When I was running Hamilton Securities or when I was on Wall Street, I had a ten- year plan, a five-year plan, and a one-year plan. I had a plan for me, for my business, and for everything else. I had goals, and they were in writing. Then I went into a Puzzle Palace process where there was no law, there were no rules, and everything was crazy. It would get topsy-turvy every day. When you accelerate up an s-curve with this kind of change, that is what it is like. The first thing that I had to do was say, “I need goals, but I don’t know what my goals are. My business has been destroyed, my plans have been destroyed.” I went to church one day, and my co-pas- tor stood up and she was screaming at us. We were about 4,000, in attendance and she said, “Honey, you don’t need a man. You don’t need a car. You don’t need a house. You need to get in the right rela- tionship with the Lord.” It was as if an explosion went off in my head. I said, “That’s my goal.” So now I have a goal that doesn’t depend on what is happening in this world. I only have to stay in alignment given whatever is happening. It’s in the same way a boat has to stay in balance and head in the right direction. That took care of the goal problem, but then I realized that I didn’t need five, ten, and 20-year plans. I needed a picture of where I wanted to go. I needed the vision. VI. News Trends & Stories with Dr. Joseph Farrell