Key Lessons from My Interview with Dr. Ben Carson
Opportunity zones.
Those wonderful confluences of action, investment, and altruism leading to opportunities for so many were the subjects that kickstarted my conversation with Dr. Ben Carson. From there, we engaged in a journey during which Dr. Carson spoke on subjects as varied as the nature of power in political circles, the importance of the United States as the globe’s leading force being a key theme, and the division we see today within our great nations.
The interview was a fascinating 45-minute discussion in which Dr. Carson shared his philosophies on the nature of power and leadership. These are the lessons I gleaned from that conversation that I wish to share with you now.
Communities Thrive When Investors Have Skin in the Game
" It was Thomas Jefferson who said it is immoral to borrow money from future generations. "
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This singular quote underpins Dr. Carson’s view on what the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) Opportunity Zones program is intended to achieve. When he left as HUD’s secretary, Dr. Carson pointed out that this program had already helped to lift one million Americans out of poverty – their lives undergoing a remarkable transformation in the process.
To understand how, it’s important to note Dr. Carson’s explanation of these zones and how they encourage investment into underserved areas because those who invest have active skin in the game. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was the genesis of these opportunity zones, as they provided the ability for investors to use their unrealized capital gains to invest directly into the areas that would become opportunity zones. Though many called the act a boondoggle that solely served the rich, Dr. Carson saw it as a way to encourage those who have to help those who have not:
" Newsflash – rich people are going to get richer anyway. Competency works. So, in fact, if you can find a way to get them to take the money that they are going to be investing anyway, and invest it in the areas that are traditionally economically neglected, that is a win-win situation. "
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A “win-win” is certainly what the law achieved. In August 2022, the Council of Economic Advisers released a report anticipating that the passing of the act would lead to $100 billion in private capital flowing into opportunity zones over the next decade. In the two years before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the figure was already at $75 billion, with that investment also serving to create 500,000 new jobs in these previously underserved zones.
The lesson here is not just that those who have skin in the game – such as an active investment in an opportunity zone – are liable to care about the result of that investment and see it through to success. Dr. Carson also harkens back to the above Jefferson quote, highlighting that many of the systems we have in place now cause the United States to load debt onto the people who come behind us.
" That’s enough to make me think that maybe we should put some kind of limit on our leaders who are elected in terms of their age. Maybe we should have more people who actually have skin in the game. Who are still going to be alive 5 or 10 years later. "
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What we do today has a significant impact on future generations, so perhaps it’s wise to place the power to generate that impact into the hands of those who will be around to feel it when it happens.
The Nature of Power and Wisdom in Political Circles
Power.
Does it truly come as a result of a politician having 50 years of networking under their belt? A half-century of learning – gaining institutional knowledge in the process – to attain a position of power through wisdom. Or does it come from something else? Dr. Carson falls firmly into the category of those who believe that wisdom doesn’t necessarily result in power, at least in the context of the United States.
" It takes wisdom, and there’s a significant lack of that. I discovered this in Washington D.C. – I knew already – but it became readily apparent working there. "
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Wisdom does not come from having a PhD or undergoing formal education. You don’t need either to figure out what makes sense, as Dr. Carson pointed out with the Afghanistan situation. Why would you withdraw military forces knowing that there are hostile people all around who could terribly affect the lives of the Americans who were left behind in the country? It’s a valid question, with Dr. Carson highlighting that anybody with a modicum of sense could see that was a poor idea, yet people who have that decision-making capability are in power.
What is the lesson to glean from this? Dr. Carson states it clearly:
“I can’t emphasize strongly enough for people to become active participants in the political process. Know who it is that you’re voting for, and know what their policies are and what their record is.”
Responsibility is the key to encouraging wisdom in office, not engaging in “cult of personality” politics in which you mark a ballot in favor of the person whose name you most recognize.
The Damage Constitutional Reversal Causes
As magnificent as the American Constitution may be, it’s simply words on a piece of paper if you fail to follow it. Specifically, the three branches of government, the balance of power, and the separation of powers enshrined in that document work beautifully.
As long as they are respected and followed.
" If you cast it aside, you start moving toward a dominant division…and they start making the laws and they start enforcing the laws. This is exactly what the founders were trying to get away from. "
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Yet, it feels like the United States is moving in the opposite direction, flying in the face of the founders as it hurtles toward a system that seemingly centralizes control in a single element of government. State legislatures abdicate power to the federal government time and time again, with Congress constantly failing to get good bills passed into law. A federalism model persists, despite the 10th Amendment specifying that anything not noted in the Constitution is for the state to control.
“We’ve reversed that now.”
Overcoming the bane of federalism does not require some remarkable new idea. It’s far simpler than that – revert to the wisdom of the founding fathers and we find our solution.
The Puppet on a String and the Importance of the U.S. as the World’s Dominant Power
We referenced the situation in Afghanistan earlier. To place that into context, the United States withdrew its military when there were still between 10,000 and 15,000 American citizens in the country. That’s notwithstanding the many Afgans who helped the U.S. in that region who rightly feel a sense of abandonment due to such a rash decision.
There’s a fracturing taking place – an erosion of the relationships between us and our allies that became so grave that even our NATO cohorts expressed concern over our country’s leadership status.
Dr. Carson shares that concern:
" I think most are very concerned about it. And yet, we don’t have a particularly good mechanism to take care of it except to wait for another three years or so to try to change it. "
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That statement brought the nature of true power into a harsh light. Who truly has the power in the United States – the President or the person behind the scenes pulling the President’s strings? Former President Barrack Obama certainly understands this dynamic, as he once said that the only thing better than being President is being the one who controls the President behind the scenes. That seems to be the case in the United States. A country with a puppet President who clearly has cognitive issues, yet has been cajoled into a position that places enormous stress upon him.
As Dr. Carson points out, President Biden refuses to take the Montreal Cognitive Assessment.
He has said no to the Minnesota Mini, and God forbid he’s asked to count down from 100 in increments of seven each time. Would he even be capable?
Dr. Carson didn’t intend these questions to be a slur on President Biden’s abilities so much as an extension of the statements made earlier about how it’s so important for those in power to have skin in the game.
The United States is the barrier. The world’s foremost defense against the passions of the malevolent souls, the despotic leaders, who have visions for a world far removed from the one that we now call home. A puppet on a string – controlled by those behind the scenes – is not whom we can rely upon to maintain the United States as the force that prevents these entities from crushing all who come before them. Perhaps Dr. Carson puts it best:
" If you think the world is going to be reasonable without the United States being the dominant power, I think you’ve got a surprise coming. "
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A cutting of the cord of control is necessary, both to salve the wounds of the fractures already created and to re-establish the United States as the overseer of the world at large.
Herd Immunity, the COVID Situation, and Benefit to Risk
Given the timing of my conversation with Dr. Carson, it was only natural that the conversation would veer toward the COVID-19 pandemic. It was ever-present in life – a pervasive source of discourse – and frankly a topic that came with a lot of baggage attached.
During that conversation, which took in hydroxychloroquine and the claims that anything other than the vaccine eventually offered was “Witch Doctor Medicine,” Dr. Carson explained the mechanisms of control lying behind the concept of achieving herd immunity through the vaccine.
“In order to be able to push the vaccine through and get an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), there cannot be an alternative.”
That alone is an affront to diversity of thought – the main driver behind creating an environment in which innovation and entrepreneurship prosper. Yet we were told that none of the alternatives could possibly work. The vaccine was the only way, propagating this idea that there was only one solution to such a multi-faceted problem.
A solution of which we should all be wary.
Dr. Carson expresses his concern that COVID-19 is going to be with us for many, many years, despite herd immunity having been achieved. But more worryingly, there’s an aspect of control behind the reason why COVID-19 won’t disappear:
" It doesn’t cause a lot of problems, but it’ll still be there. And it will be available for use as an excuse to dominate people’s lives if we’re not careful "
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To elaborate, Dr. Carson doesn’t believe that vaccines aren’t useful. Far from it – they’re especially useful for the elderly who are vulnerable and have comorbidities. However, he also points out the lack of benefit to risk analysis that appears to have been conducted on the vaccine. There was no diversity of thought employed in the COVID-19 vaccine’s deployment. It was the sole solution – one that ignored the possibility of others existing.
So where lies the lesson?
Division arises when we don’t encourage diversity of thought.
Dr. Carson ably demonstrates this when the topic is history. There should be no need for an African-American History Month, Dr. Carson argues, because the contributions of African-Americans should be part of our standard history textbooks. Every child should know that Louis Latimer – Thomas Edison’s right-hand man – was the one who came up with the concept of a filament that allows a lightbulb to work. We shouldn’t have to go to an African-American history book to discover the store of Elijah McCoy, the man responsible for developing the automatic lubrication system that made the Industrial Revolution possible.
Diversity of thought, opinion, knowledge, and contribution should be celebrated:
" Those are the things that skyrocketed us to the top. We make a big mistake when we allow people to divide us on the basis of particularly superficial characteristics that don’t really mean anything. "
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The COVID-19 vaccination situation presented us with a situation in which diversity of thought was marginalized, rather than celebrated. There is just one solution – no room for any others – and division is the result.
Smart People Working Together Achieve Wonders
Let’s head back in time to 1987. It was in this year that Dr. Carson performed the very first cranial ophiuchus procedure. It was a remarkable achievement – the procedure involved separating conjoined twins who were connected at the head, with Dr. Carson successfully untangling a single fused brain to enable these twins to enjoy separate lives.
It was an extremely dangerous procedure, with Dr. Carson explaining why:
“They were joined at the back of the head – something we call occipital craniopagus – and such twins had never been separated before with both surviving because they share a common “drainage” system. “
Huge volumes of blood flow to the back of the head, with even the simple act of poking a hole in that area creating huge risks for both twins. In considering a solution to this challenge, Dr. Carson relied on prayer – not necessarily to show him the way, but to lead him toward the wisdom that could make the procedure possible.
That led to conversations with the Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital and the concept of using hypothermic arrest to cool the human body to such a point that the heart stops pumping blood. That concept set Dr. Carson on the path to the wisdom he needed, yet it was only part of the solution.
The other was to surround himself with intelligent people who were capable of working together toward a common goal:
The head neural nurse would have me come to her office, lie down on the couch, and close my eyes. I’d tell her what instrument I needed, and she complied using a booklet that had all of the instruments.
I’m reminded of the great Nelson Mandela quote when I hear this story:
" None of us, acting alone, can achieve success. "
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To succeed in such a complex endeavor requires collaboration and ingenuity. The welcoming of diversity of thought clears the way on the path to true wisdom. Therein lies the lesson. Any well-functioning organization – be it a surgical team, business, or government – requires those in that organization to take advantage of the gifts that each member has. The Mandela quote above essentially paraphrases Jesus’s words:
" A house divided against itself cannot stand. "
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Allowing the seeds of division to be planted, to take root in our national psyche, destroys the foundation of the United States.
A Tale of Two Americas and Ruminations on Faith
Speaking of division allowed us to discuss further this concept that we – the citizens of the United States – are being pulled in different directions, two tectonic plates under tension creating a chasm in which cooperation cannot exist. What is the answer to this quandary? It is purely religious? Must we turn back to God to close the divide? Or is there something more that’s happening?
Dr. Carson invites us to consider a simpler question, at least in theory: What made us great?
He recounts the tale of Alexis de Tocqueville, who traveled to the United States in 1831 seeking answers. Like many Europeans, he had a fascination with this fledgling nation – just barely 50 years old at that point – that was already competing with countries that had prospered for centuries. Analysis of this phenomenon was de Tocqueville’s purpose, leading him to examine America’s legislative, judicial, and educational systems. Yet it was in the pulpit that he found the true reason behind early America’s success, as Dr. Carson explains:
“He said he was most impressed by the fiery sermons that came out of the pulpits of America. That provided the moral basis for the people of America, and that inspired them so that they were able to defeat the most powerful empire on the face of the Earth.”
"America was great because America was good. Ceasing to be good meant she would cease to be great."
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Perhaps de Tocqueville was right on target, and to become great again – in the eyes of both the world at large and the divided within our nation – we must first focus on reattaining “good.”
Our True Goal Is to Find the Logical Center
One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Those words from the Pledge of Allegiance are idealistic in their scope but had been made reality by an America that existed almost two centuries before our own. Yet, Dr. Carson believes that the United States can become indivisible again because God has it all under control.
During our discussion, he recounted a tale he’s told many times about a chemistry test he took in medical school. Nearing the end of his first year in college, Dr. Carson was failing freshman chemistry – a cardinal sin of collegiate life because failing chemistry meant there was no path to medical school.
There was a ray of light.
The night before that final exam, Dr. Carson’s professor said that anybody who was failing the course would receive double credit on the exam, just to give them some last hope before they failed. Dr. Carson had hope – perhaps he could somehow read through the thick medical textbook sitting on his desk during the night, memorizing just enough of it to pass the exam.
Instead, he fell asleep, his head buried in a book that he hadn’t yet fully comprehended.
While sleeping, Dr. Carson had a dream so vivid he could almost feel the nebulous triggers that would help him solve the specific chemistry problems he would face. Awakening early in the morning, he looked up every problem he’d dreamed about, later finding that the problems in the real test were the exact same problems about which he’d dreamt.
That story solidified Dr. Carson’s fate, but it was also a signal to him to start taking his studies more seriously. To dedicate himself to his cause, without doubt, safe in the knowledge that his Lord was watching over him:
“I said, Lord…never gonna have to do that again. I’m going to start being a much more serious student. And He didn’t have to do it again. “
The lesson Dr. Carson derives from this story is that we must all recognize that this nation of ours is a blessing, both to us and the rest of the world. He’s going to let us out. Release us from the division that threatens to claim us.
However, he won’t do it alone.
It’s up to us to live up to what that blessing truly means. Right or left – no matter who is in control – there can be no temptation to never allow the ideas of the “other” again. Through faith, acceptance of the diversity of ideas, and collaboration, we can find the logical center that will deliver liberty and justice for all.
