News With Views | August 19 2012 | Thanks, Minty
[Note: This is article 3 of a four part series. You can read part 1 here, part 2 here. and Part 3. The original article explaining the differences between Actives and Passives is here.]
Active investors innovate… they are the independent business owners of the world. Passives build on the creative energies of the Active group. Passive investors like things “big” because big is safer than small. Actives are risk managers; Passives are risk avoiders who use the words “risk taking” rather than “risk management.” Actives are conservative; Passives are liberal.
In the fall of 1970, Henry Kissinger made a secret trip to China. Nixon met with the Chinese communists in 1972 to discuss international trade (and to give them intelligence information about the Soviet Union). American economic stability began to be dependent upon and controlled by international, not national, markets. A new phenomenon emerged: the military-industrial complex. Change was in the wind and change is disliked by those with low-risk management skills (Passives).
In 1960, traditional social values were rejected by Hippies and Yippies … a fitting end to a Passive cycle. A drug culture emerged and the Active cycle began that very year. When we move into an active cycle, we almost always have an economic base change (never when going from Active to Passive). In 1960, we moved from an industrial/manufacturing base to technology, information, and service. In the late 1980s, George Herbert Walker Bush began talking about a “New World Order.” Americans didn’t like it and he lost his Presidential bid for re-election.
Traditional political values were questioned. Previously unheard of demonstrations against America’s military and political involvement in the Vietnam War – a war started by Passives and ended by Actives – were almost daily occurrences. Non-traditional civil rights for minorities caused rebellion in our streets. Those who fought in Vietnam were spat upon by Passives as they returned from their military service. Passives ran away to Canada. Active citizens inherited in 1960 a government grown too big, too arrogant, and too motivated by power to control.