INFLUENCE

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Influence and Seasons – Opinion

 

A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on. Ideas have endurance beyond death” President John F. Kennedy

Residents and business leaders alike have pointed out to our team that Myrtle Beach is ripe for a new season.   New seasons transition us from the status quo into new voices of influence.  Those we have assumed “forever”  authorities on all things relevant to our world suddenly become obsolete.

High-profile recent national cases of reference to this point include Bill O’Reilly and former President Barack Obama.  Each had a season of high influence.  Each is now relegated to watching events from just out of the spotlight.

INFLUENCE AND SYSTEMS

Personalities do wax and wane with influence,  however, systems hold on to influence until those systems are undermined, replaced, or transitioned into more integrated newer systems.  Donald Trump is just learning this.  He won the presidency, however, the bureaucratic state systems in place for past decades were not on board with the changes he wanted to make.   Systemic levels of bureaucratic government will need to be replaced from the State Department to the IRS, to the FBI, to the Supreme Court, etc if President Trump wishes to create the type of America he wants to imprint for lasting systemic influence.

Myrtle Beach City Politicians

The same is true with Myrtle Beach.  While insiders are concerned that the likes of John Rhodes, Wayne Gray, Mike Lowder and Randal Wallace may not be able to win re-election this coming November,  a massive system of influence has been put in place that runs from the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber through city government, into the county and throughout the State of S.C.   This local “system of influence” took decades to assemble.   This system will resist any effort to minimize its level of influence.

IDEAS ARE EXPENSIVE

A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on. Ideas have endurance beyond death” President John F. Kennedy

This quote by President Kennedy is powerful.  Ideas are expensive, however.   Ideas are expensive because the best ones often interrupt an existing “system of influence”.  That “system of influence” will want to quickly derail or undermine any new idea that may cost that system the financial gains it achieves from how it currently operates in the existing status quo.  Some easy examples of interruptive ideas include:  The automobile did away with the horse and buggy, electric light killed the candle industry for home lighting, cell phones did away with landline phones, Uber interrupted the taxi industry,  and streaming TV led to cord cutting which interrupted the cable industry.  Each industry’s existing system of influence worked fiercely to undermine and limit the influence of the new and emerging interruptive model.

Great ideas always win the day, however, even if at a great political expense in their formative years.  Great ideas assume their own seasons of influence.

 

SEASONS AND INFLUENCE

Most historians cannot point out a specific shift date for seasons of influence until long after they have passed.   Seasons of influence are a real dynamic, however.  It is clear that the just previous season in Myrtle Beach that ran from 1969 to 2015 is now coming to a complete close.  This season peaked in 2009 with the promise of a TDF (tourist tax) that leaders proclaimed would bring about unheralded growth in the city of Myrtle Beach.  The concept was a taxing model for  “marketing expenditures” in a season when technology had primarily shifted away from marketing and into brand engagement.

The concept was dated upon arrival.  As such,  the communities that focused on their brand image:  North Myrtle Beach, Surfside, Garden City Beach, and Pawleys Island leveraged the benefits of this new “season of brand”,  while the city of Myrtle Beach saw little benefit.  Sadly,  the city of Myrtle Beach exclusively paid the high price for that taxation while the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber used those tax dollars to largely drive hordes of tourists to neighboring towns.

NEW LEADERS – NEW SEASONS

While MyrtleBeachSC.com can not predict who our new leaders will be, we can tell our readers, a fresh group of new faces will step forward who are empowered with an innate ability to navigate the changes of this new season.  We can boldly state this because it has always been and will always be.

We can also boldly state that the current system of influence will work to discredit and limit the scope of any influence these new leaders may seek as they transition into next.   We all can expect current leadership to attempt to create a climate of fear associated with any new changes.  Why?:  There are over $30 million in annual tax subsidies at risk for those who have previously held full influence.  Bad ideas, working for the benefit of the few,  and unfulfilled promises squandered most all chances that those who held previous influence have of holding on to power.

LASTING INFLUENCE

History only holds up a handful of people who have held lasting influence.  Most all of those who still are considered to have achieved the highest levels of influence paid with their own lives for that noble reputation.  As to American influence, the likes of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King quickly come to mind.  Jefferson died pennilessly, Washington struggled through Valley Forge, Lincoln and King were assassinated.  None made the pursuit of financial comfort their primary ambitions.

Of all the people I consider to have the held the highest level of lasting influence,  however, one person, in particular, stands above all others.

This is the person of Jesus Christ.  I believe Christ is supreme for one reason primarily.   He left us with an internal system of influence that carries on to this day.

History records in John, Chapter 20:  And with that, he [Christ] breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

New ideas are most often inspired ideas.  It is as if those ideas came through us as a conduit rather than something we, ourselves, invented.

It is this interruptive “Inspiration” that the colluded status quo does not comprehend and often despises.  Inspiration literally means the Spirit within us.

This system of influence has been blowing up existing colluded institutions from the beginnings of what is called the common era.  From the Roman Empire, to the protestant reformation, to the American revolution, to the ending of American slavery right through World War II inspired leaders have stepped forward.

Those who are filled with this type of inspiration inspire all of us.   Myrtle Beach is ripe for just such leadership and for just such a new and bright future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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