This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Matt Lohmeier. You may have heard of Matt as he has been in the news over the last year when he wrote a book and spoke out about the dangers of marxism and its effect on people’s lives, especially the military. He was a lieutenant colonel in command of a space-based missile warning squadron for the United States Space Force and was subsequently terminated after writing the book and speaking out.
While Matt’s story has been controversial politically – politics is not why I asked him to be on the show. No matter who you are or what you believe, at some point in your life you will need to take a stand to defend your principles and in today’s day and age with seemingly endless twitter mobs and cancel culture rampant, that is not an easy, no, an almost impossible thing to do. I want to explore what compelled Matt to take his stand and use his lessons learned to help you for when it’s your turn.
And lastly, while I know Matt has deep concerns about marxism and its danger to the American way of life – I think there is something that is even more dangerous and that is the loss of entrepreneurs. We are going to explore all this and more in this episode.
www.MatthewLohmeier.com
Book: Irresistible Revolution
The views that Matt expresses are his views and not those of the military. Matt has served in the military for over 15 years and has been a fighter pilot logging over 1200 hours with F15s and other planes. Most recently, he was in command of a space unit in the Space Force. During 2020, as he saw what was happening in the culture and the woke culture, he recognized the seeds of marxism behind a lot of it. And he saw how much it was polarizing society. He recognized many of the talking points of marxism from his studies in the military and on his own.
At the 5:30 mark, Matt talks about the oppressor vs. oppressed mantra from Marx and the Communist Manifesto and started to see it being brought into and impacting the military. There were trainings being done in the military that re-enforced marxist principles. He saw it as his duty to speak up and wrote his book the Irresistible Revolution. He was fired a week later.
What was the catalyst that compelled you to take your stand?
- The military service member shoulders and important and large burden in that they have to be and remain un-political.
- Politics until recently have remained out of the military, but things have become much more politized.
- This started to create a climate in the military that stifled free speech and made service members fearful. It created a climate that hampered innovation and started to infringe on the oath he took to defend the Constitution.
- Matt believes that integrity and preservation of the individual and their rights and freedoms is paramount and could not let those things be infringed upon.
Can you explain why marxism is such a danger to the American way of life, entrepreneurs, and the individual?
- At the 13 min mark, Matt talks about the founding philosophy of the US with a focus on the individual and their natural rights vs. marxism’s goal of collectivism and removing the worth of the individual and instilling that worth in a group instead.
- Marxism can only survive by making everyone a victim and calling for violent force to overthrow the system and creating a collective run state that owns the means of production and is control or all – no private property, no natural rights, no entrepreneurship, etc.
- It destroys the individual and their potential.
- The principles the underpin the founding of the country are what have unleashed the potential of mankind and given them the freedom to reach it, especially for entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs are great at using logic and reason to succeed, but as a whole, society runs more on emotion – how do we get back to using logic and reason as a society to better manage the emotional reactions so many have in today’s world?
- There is emotionally induced illogic and the influence of emotion on the ability to think critically is important to understand. This has been studied and it has been proven, the more emotion, the more the ability to think clearly is diminished.
- At the 25 min mark, Matt explains this throughout history using examples and how we can get back to logic/reason and better tap into the entrepreneurial side of ourselves.
- Pay attention to rhetoric. For example, equality vs. equity. People have the right to be free of discrimination or roadblocks to equal opportunity. But equity means forced equality of outcomes, not opportunity. This is totalitarian. It ends up in inequality and discrimination of one group over another.
- If the state has to ensure outcomes, it chooses what people get and forcibly takes from others. It becomes a large authoritarian/totalitarian lust for power state.
Entrepreneurs are the biggest line of defense. Everything stems from entrepreneurship. To take an idea from nothing and do what has to be done to create something around it that creates benefits for others that impacts their lives and the lives of others. Capitalism and the principles of the US unleash this. What an incredible opportunity we have at our fingertips every day that most do not have.
What should entrepreneurs be doing to share and show the success of entrepreneurship and capitalism?
- You are a leader – whether leading a large or small group, or just impacting one person for your sphere of influence.
- You must do all you can to foster the creative impulse and spirit of entrepreneurship and keep forces that would destroy it away.
- Leaders influence culture and impact culture – this can be positive or negative.
- Dialogue is a good thing, but context in which dialogue unfolds is important.
- You must share ideas and the logical reasons for them, but not force ideas on people and lead out of fear.
- Everyone is uniquely situated to bring something to a team – discussion and free thinking is critical to a great culture and you as a leader must foster the kind of climate that can allow this and allow for disagreement without punishment.
What advice would you give someone to get over the hump and take the stand they know they need to take?
- Some things are worth falling on your sword over and other things just aren’t.
- You have to determine whether the issue you think you need stand on is really worth it.
- If so, you need to study and learn about the issue very well and be very well versed in it. You must understand it.
- You also must weigh the cost(s).
- The book Ordinary Men is an example of what can happen if a stand is not taken.
- Matt judged the issue to be worth the cost and it was important to speak up early before things became worse.
Final thoughts?
- The loss of entrepreneurship is a devastating blow to America and Marxist ideology directly threatens that. These are issues that should not be partisan.
Best Quote: The loss of entrepreneurship is a devastating blow to America and Marxist ideology directly threatens that.
Matt's Misfit 3:
- Be authentic. Speak the truth. It will enhance your life personally and professionally and speaking the truth is courage which is desperately needed.
- Determine your aim and pursue it vigorously by prioritizing your life consistent with that aim.
- Learn constantly, but don’t be ever learning and never come to the knowledge of the truth of things. Seek truth to reason appropriately and use logic based on sound principles.
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