From Jim O'Brien
May 15, 2009
Hi Friend, Creative Destruction Do you ever get a nostalgic
feeling when you pass an older model classic car? Oh, for the good ole days
when a ’57 Chevy was the crowd stealer. But notice on hot days when your air
conditioner is running that the classic car probably has the windows down. That’s
probably because it doesn’t have air. One time in my life I drove
a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud, arguably the finest car made at the time. But even
people who own a Rolls are sometimes forced into distress sales and so it was
that I was given the opportunity to drive the car of my wildest dreams. The
year was 1970 and the car was 9 years old, not old by most standards. The rear
doors opened to detailed opulence from the Rosewood fold down cocktail bar to
the lambs wool carpet. The 15 minute drive included an explanation of the
varied features. Driving was another
experience, but not the one I had envisioned. It drove like an old truck, not
the dream car I was expecting. To be fair, this was before the days of
computerized suspensions, precision steering and a host of other improvements.
The steering wheel was almost as large as one of the giant tires. It didn’t
glide, it lumbered. Stopping the mammoth beast required an act of Congress. The
latest safety design was a padded dash. Even a Rolls becomes obsolete. Joseph Schumpeter was one of
the early economists who taught that a market driven economy improves products.
He believed national economies need a dynamic element to be successful which is
best exemplified when obsolete items are discarded and replaced by improved
versions. For example, today most
people expect much more from a car than could be delivered by anything made in
1961. For the sake of argument, let’s say the government had issued a decree
that said the 1961 automotive design had reached the pinnacle of technological
achievement. They were as good as any citizen would ever need and no more
improvements could be made. Had that happened we would still be driving cars
without air bags, seat belts, brakes that stop on a dime, or a myriad of
technical achievements that have taken place in the free market economy. Just
look at But all of this means that
the old must be eliminated. A pile of crushed cars gives mute testimony to the
reality of obsolescence. Somewhere on that pile is a 1961 Rolls Royce Silver
Cloud with genuine Rosewood paneling. But don’t despair. A pickup truck built
in the last 20 years, if only to transport cattle from one pasture to another,
is a superior engineering accomplishment to the car built to transport a king
50 years ago. And that advancement did not come through government decree. It
arose out of the spirit in man. God is the Creator but
creating also demands destruction. The old must make way for the new. When
Jesus was resurrected the Old Covenant was replaced by the new because the old
was growing old. “For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant,
no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the
people and said: The time is coming declares the Lord, when I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah…I will be their
God, and they will be my people…For I will forgive their wickedness and will
remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 8:7-8, 12) Getting something new
requires sweeping away the old. Jesus told the religious authorities of his
day, “”the There will be a big change
in the earth. The Apostle John wrote, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new
earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…” (Rev. 21:1) Think
about all the work that God put into creating the earth. Yet it will be
consumed in flames. (2 Peter 3:7) And he will light the match that will destroy
the earth he created. But this precedes the biggest improvement of all, the
coming of the Until next time,