In his book, “The Five Thousand Year Leap”, Cleon Skousen describes our form of government as a three-headed eagle with each head representing a branch of our government; the judicial, executive and legislative branches. This separation of powers is nothing new. We’ve learned it from our youth, although most really don’t understand the details.

However, he carries the symbol a little further and describes simply and powerfully another principle of our government. He states that the two wings represent two forces at work in the government – the wing of problem solving and the wing of conservation. The wing of problem solving is the wing of compassion and seeing to the needs of the people. The wing of conservation is responsible for care of resources and individual freedoms. These two powers must be kept in balance in order for our form of government to operate successfully. Skousen gives the example of wing #1 wanting to solve all problems regardless of cost. If wing #2 cannot convince wing #1 to take a more realistic approach then the government swings towards tyranny. Anarchy lies at the opposite end of the spectrum.

These principles are so simply stated and understood. Share them with your friends and neighbors. Share them with people on the bus. Hand out pictures of the three headed eagle in the street and we will all rejoice in this simple knowledge.

(The Five Thousand Year Leap, Clean Skousen, p. 24-26)

Update

I built an interactive demo that illustrates how this concept works.