A Republic, if you can define it – Donnie Gebert
I was a military intelligence analyst, one with the fortune of a diverse experience that my own curiosity dragged me through. I am pretty good at it and decided one day to look into that whole government problem; inefficient and harmful with little accountability for either, a problem needing a solution. I will not pretend that my conclusions are remotely where I thought I’d end up. It was more a lesson in self reflection and empathy than problem solving. One’s own biases are the hardest to account for.
My understanding of a problem is that one person’s problem is another’s feature. To avoid this, a problem needs definition. That definition will reveal the nature of the problem and it’s own nature is used as the start point for it’s demise. Simple, until a root cause is not evident and the nature of the problem eludes.
In my research of the federal, state, and foreign constitutions, I found serious problems. This is not in a particular section but in the terms, concepts, and definitions base our understanding of the documents that are, supposedly, keeping this whole civilization thing from flying apart. So, allow me to field strip the macro concepts here and lay them on the table.
A direct democracy is, to my knowledge, not misunderstood by anyone. 51/49, winner take all voting paradigm. This is known for abuses of the minority and few places practice it.
A constitutional republic is what we are told we grow up in. The constitution is providing us with a republic, to ensure the rights of the minority are preserved.
These 2 terms have 5 overall concepts attached: social agency, voting, a constitution, a democracy, a republic. These 5 concepts are displayed in 4 terms. There are 40 combinations that these ideas can be assembled in; some of which are ridiculous. My point is the manner in which we learned these things, there were only 2 ideas presented. There is no ‘constitutional democracy’ or ‘direct republic’ discussion and I submit it is to limit our understanding, not enhance it.
If we are to mix and match some basic combinations, we’d have to delineate between that which is one thing versus the other and give each defining characteristics; each would have a different nature with different fraud/corruption surfaces. Let’s define terms.
Direct- you; self performed
Democracy- voting; often replaced with ‘social agency’; seemingly interchangeable with republic
Constitutional- that which is contained in a constitution; North Korea has a constitution, even if it is identical to the US, it is clear that the cards don’t fall that way; just an artifact, hopefully accurate
Social Agency- the peaceful exercise of self amid others doing the same
Republic- I have never experienced 2 definitions of this word alike; seemingly interchangeable with democracy; social agency implied, trumped up, and glorified without actually telling us what this does
The more I looked, the fuzzier a concept of a republic gets. The philosophy is ill defined at best and the mechanics, at least in modern American society at large, are wherever is in a constitution or at least that’s what the learned and unlearned alike seem to subscribe to. Not being one to put up with a bunch of lawyer-speak, I sat down and, from scratch, started building models by function, not by propaganda or cultural perspective.
To best describe this, let’s look at Rome. Land ownership was attached to social agency(skin in the game) and voting was not only the expression of that agency but also the method of conflict resolution. The Senate was a forum of debate, presentation, and where the conflicts were resolved. Suggesting that everyone carry their vote to Rome was a financial and logistical impossibility and not ever considered. Representation is born. This is not a philosophical or ideological description. This is the life they lived and a system that fit it.
So here we are, 2018. What’s changed, philosophically and pragmatically about ‘the system’ since inception? If you don’t count that it only functions at a massive deficit and kills a shit ton of people, not a whole lot. Many people will tell you this means that it has “stood the test of time”. Can we stop pretending? I submit the current crop of humans living here has a far more fanatical and less healthy devotion to the document than those who wrote it and that needs to cease.
In the process of writing the Constitution, the Articles of Confederation were not voted out. The were shit-canned and a new document was written. We’ve all seen what the lawyers did to it and Shakespeare would have no pity. How would one assemble a legal system without the financial, moral, and administrative choke holds on the population?
A republic is a group with legal equality between its members. That’s it. Any addition past that resolves conflict by _insert a mandate I chose here_ and defeats the legal equality. It’s a simple concept that has had so many moving parts bundled into it that most people attempting to figure it out will go do something rational.
We’ve been bullshitted so far into the weeds that civil is no longer part of society. Inept or disingenuous humans just hop on the bullshit wagon for a pension and get cozy before they solve their own employment issue. The servants are paid to not understand; let’s stop paying them. That’ll get there attention. How?
Free book here. That’s how. That may be a bold claim. Fine. This is the concept of zero applied to systems theory. If you didn’t understand that, free book. If you want lower or no taxation, free book. If you want politicians to be in a history book, free book. If you want to “kill all the lawyers” and #walkaway, f r e e book.
Donnie Gebert is a former military intelligence analyst who served in the US Army and Navy.
www.thenullhypothesisofpolitics.com
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Published at Fri, 18 Oct 2019 21:33:27 +0000
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