Don’t read The Tyranny of Dead Ideas: Letting Go of the Old Ways of Thinking to Unleash a New Prosperity if you’re seriously entrenched or otherwise fully invested in the “way things work”. You won’t like what Matt Miller has to say. It’s revolutionary.

The Tyranny of Dead Ideas: Letting Go of the Old Ways of Thinking to Unleash a New Prosperity proposes that not only does this set of ideas way past their prime hold us back from experiencing prosperity and indeed, happiness – but by holding on to them, giving them endless mouth-to-mouth in a vain attempt at resuscitating them, we are creating an extremely dangerous financial, social and psychological situation for America.

On the other hand, if you’re tired of “staying the course” as our mothership, the U.S.A., sinks deeper and deeper beneath the waves of conventional wisdom, than this book is a MUST read for you.

The most frightening messages The Tyranny of Dead Ideas imparts are the simple truths – you know the ones our political and business leaders shield us po’ citizens from, on the basis that little old us “can’t handle the truth”. In actuality it is our “leaders” who can’t handle the truth, heck the rest of us are primed for a healthy dose of CHANGE aren’t we? The truths are basically this – the world is a vastly different place than it was in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. And its about time we stop trying to live in the past, touting Miller’s dead ideas and praying for a miracle – it ain’t coming.

In the book, Miller proposes the following notions as “dead” ideas (brace yourself):

1. Our kids will earn more than we do
2. Free trade is good – no matter who it hurts
3. Your company should take care of you when you’re sick and old
4. Taxes hurt the economy (actually I have no beef with paying more taxes – provided the money is not squandered away)
5. Schools are best handled on a local level
6. Money follows merit (suppress a big laugh here – we already knew THIS idea was dead didn’t we?)

Miller deftly explains the origins of each idea – how it came to be written in stone, why it is no longer viable, and also how it needs to change in order to ensure the future of this country and its citizens. He also proposes a series of “Tomorrow’s Destined Ideas” which reads like a useful, do-able instruction manual that every elected politician ought to have a copy of.

But its not just the politicos that have to start to rearrange their thinking – it is all of us. This just isn’t the post WWII boom time anymore. We have to look at the world differently. Technology, globalization, the world is shrinking fast and our – at times – overfed American egos are running out of room.

I recommend reading The Tyranny of Dead Ideas: Letting Go of the Old Ways of Thinking to Unleash a New Prosperity – in fact, I recommend everyone over 20 years old read this book. It will help to understand why as a nation we are suffocating under our own weight, what we can – all of us – do about it, and why we have to start doing things differently right now. Read it to know why this set of dead ideas – some of which define us as Americans – must be put to rest in order to save our country. You may not like what you read, but it will arguably be the cold, hard truth.