This was written in June but posted on my blog called (ironically) "One Thousand Words" so I could post short or shocking pieces. This particular post is about our present government corruption, self-defeating behavior, elitism, and skewing of the truth. I called it a "slap pack." Comments are added in a different font.
Posted on June 16, 2018
This is a slap-pack. Write each on a card. Slap them on the table and think about them singly or bunched, whether you are alone or with others. Feel free to add more. They are for discussion more than for implementation. I will add more as I think of them.
1. Every regulation or administrative decision MUST be in line with the Constitution. This will be enforced. Ignoring enforcement is defined formally as violation. (It's important to recognize that redefining words is often the same as rewriting law. This is not the same as "originalism", which is assuming that we can know now what the founders thought they were writing. This is particularly problematic after the dramatic change brought about by technology.)
2. No millionaire, billionaire, trillionaire, et al may run for government office. Some form of regulation is needed for persons and corporations that exceed some high limit. (The power of money to overwhelm the will of the people is strong. Now that monetary data has made it so easy to launder money, that can "locate" records to ungoverned places, that erase physical boundaries, and can be hidden by autocrats from the people of their own countries, has undercut the whole meaning of money as value. At the same time the digital power to record and transmit money has made much criminal behavior detectable.)
3. "Corporations" -- the idea that an institution or business is like a person -- are a fantasy idea and are declared null and void. (This is part of what has converted corporations from a business strategy to a gambling machine based on buying chances for success, which is a lottery that encourages greed rather than consideration of value.)
4. As basic requirements for civilization, the separation of families is banned. But a careful definition of "family" is necessary. (To put so much emphasis on genetics is a distortion of reality. It neglects adoption, fostering, extent and kind of social relationships, and emotional commitment to high ideals of relationship whether or not approved by the government in print.)
5. Label all diversions and set them aside. Use the propaganda education we used to teach decades ago. (Such as glittering generalities, straw man, obsessing about authors, and so on.)
6. No high school diploma should be awarded without basic citizen education. ( The version below adds "planetary" citizenship, which must inevitably address climate and other destruction of the world.)
7. Anyone with mafia connections should be immediately dismissed from office. Since this will remove their usefulness to covert forces, they may be killed. (The government will not kill anyone. Nor will it indulge in assassination in other countries.)
8. Rethink the relationship between religion and government in terms of accommodating families (preventing abuse, adequate shelter and food for everyone, access to education, commitment to ownership and responsibility). ( It is rather high-flown to say this, but what the government and many citizens think are convictions and beliefs of individuals are actually institutional formalized rules and principles. Institutions are not mystical or supernatural and can only be confronted as earthly institutions with hierarchies and bureaucracies.)
9. Provide health care for everyone. In places with long distances, put the clinics on wheels. ( Pharma profiteering, experimenting, jockeying for dominance, have corrupted what was once for the larger good. We need to get back to that idea.)
10. Support alternatives to capitalism and make capitalism values responsible to the people, not just a matter of gambling. ( It is too easy to game the system of gambling and shares and escape from responsibility. People now defend Trump's shenanigans by saying, "I don't care because my investments are thriving." This neglects the idea that the United States of America is a giant corporation with the goal of protecting us all, not making money for a percentage of citizens.)
These ten ideas are incomplete, need to be rethought, and even un-doable, but they are a start. What follows are additional thoughts.
1. No lawyer may run for any legislature.
2. In terms of age, the floor will be whatever is the relevant state's age for voting and the ceiling will be the federal age one qualifies for Social Security retirement benefits. No exceptions.
3. No high school diploma in the US will be granted without a class in citizenship, including planetary developments. (This is impossible at present because education standards are governed by the state, not the federal government.) Basic law concepts should be included.
4. No one may run for office without a "test" for computer/internet concepts. Keyboarding is not a part of that since not all computers run on typing, Most essential are the basic assumptions about confidentiality.
5. Invent a new body advising whatever government is in place. This body would be senior veteran legislators with a mechanism for public access. Their duties should probably be defined by themselves, but it would be a way to reflexively analyze what happens.
These reflections are minor compared to what seems necessary: the redefinition of what is a nation (considering that there are mega-swaths of the world that are ungoverned). We are startled to realize that Presidents think they can unilaterally withdraw the United States from all Treaties and Alliances. So far no one has succeeded in abrogating treaties with dominated peoples like the indigenous of any place (including Hawaiian and Alaskan citizens) but other agreements, particularly among nations who are normally in friendly alliance, or trade agreements, have been challenged.
Lately our politics have been based on rivalry, aggrievances, and difference. The case for finding the common causes, the long game we are all playing for survival, the greater good for all life and the conservation of scarce resources, are being neglected.
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