A Thought for the Week  

Offered by David Apollo

How might one architect government to nurture Liberty. And keep it up!

Up front, I probably need to remind readers that ConserveLiberty is not political, even though it may take on topics that many others may regard as political.

And, ConserveLiberty does not advocate for anything other than The One Thing - the conservation of the liberty to be what one is "built to be." That profoundly "radical" (meaning: root) advocacy is actually of rather weak import practically. Why?

The only thing we can ever Be is what we have been built to be. "Natural Law" is never violated within the realm of All That Is ... whether it be a subatomic particle, a photon, a molecule, an animal (such as a human,) a star, a black hole, even the Big Bang (if it occurred, or will). We all only Are what we are.

That said, it turns out that today, 17 September, is Constitution Day in the United States. And it was on this day that a system of government was established that defined the "~final" initial framework under which the U.S. would govern itself. While the "united states" declared themselves independent of Britain in 1776, and eventually won a war achieving independence, and ruled themselves as 13 colonies cooperating with one another, the actual U.S. Constitution representing how all the states in the "union" agreed to be governed was not written until 17 September, 1787. It was ratified in 1788, and came into force 4 March, 1789.

The U.S. Constitution was not an easy document to draft and assemble such that all the colonies would agree to abide by it. Politics back then was just as complicated (and corrupt!) then as it is now. After all, we are built to prioritize advantages to ourselves, and don't prioritize the perspectives of others.

For a species that is built to be Self-Reliant (and all species evolve that way, as those that don't fairly quickly go extinct, and have, and will), the priorities of Another is Another's own business. "I'll take care of my own, thank you."

And so, it took years to come up with a Constitution. There were hundreds of drafts, hundreds of contributors, thousands of negotiations. Etc. And, we got what we got. While most at the time agreed that it was not anywhere near what any wanted to sign up to, most also agreed that it very well may have been the best that humans, built as we all are, could come up with.

I won't describe the contents, meaning, or intent of that document. After all, ConserveLiberty doesn't want to appear to be advocating for anything (other than The One Thing). On the other hand, we offer the following three bullets as an overall descriptor of what it wanted to insure. Among other things, what they wanted to insure was To Prevent (or postpone):

• tyranny of the majority
• tyranny of government
• tyranny of people over another unchecked.

For additional perspective regarding how radical this position was, [Click here]. ← Important

Importantly, what had been created was NOT a Democracy. Intentionally not a Democracy. What had been created was a Republic.
[Click here] for a better understanding of the difference between the two, and the intentions of The Founders.

Why is all this important?

Because the intention was to ConserveLiberty. And to create a nation where liberty, while not as pervasive as ideally intended, would continue to "perfect itself." To form a more Perfect Union. And it did, although there have been extraordinary hardships as well. Over time, slaves were liberated, various demographics gained civil rights on par (equal) with each other, and the nation prospered more economically than anywhere else on the planet. Economic prosperity and the freedom to choose for yourself what you wish to purchase or pursue (within your own means) is essential for enabling increasing liberty for people to Be What They Are Built to Be.

At the risk of elaborating too much on what is intended to be a simple "Thought for The Week", it is worth recognizing that a democracy (which our republic leverages and is inevitably built on) does have its own risks. And these are risks to Liberty itself. In fact, our Founders understood the risks inherent in democracies, which is why they set the U.S. up as a republic with checks and balances and limitations.

Firstly, our lawmakers themselves are human, and only can be. And as human, are very much subject to corruption (meaning, very simply, looking out for themselves over others, to such an extent that "doing the best thing for others" (which is what they are elected to do) may inevitably take a lower priority to "doing the best thing for themselves." In its most "economic" form, that may manifest itself as directing money or other assets to lawmakers who make laws that favor an interest (or oppose laws that would put interests at a disadvantage). Since having a responsibility of "lawmaker" in and of itself can put someone in a position to benefit themselves, "re-election" also can become more important to a politician than simply serving for a term and then returning to private life. Thus emerges the phenomenon of Crony Capitalism (and its cousin, "Crony Electoralism").

These Crony *s are a problem with democratically elected governments. Ironically though, democracies are a far greater preference to the alternatives - tyrannies.

Yet, paradoxically, tyrannies often get voted in (democratically) as socialist objectives are promised, even though socialists go right to tyranny once in. All of them have and do. And yet, they keep becoming popular, ahead of their failures.

We have that going on in the United States right now, at the time of this writing.

Such is the addictive power of "getting something for nothing", even though zero people have ever figured out credibly how to make it BOTH desirable AND sustainable.

Addiction and habituation work that way. In the abstract, for example, opioid addiction is enabled and acquired the same way. Always initiated with what are narrated (and often believed) to be the "best of intentions." And, once addiction has set in, generally the worst of results ... result.

So, then, with regard to this topic, what might ConserveLiberty advocate? Well, we advocate for improvement from whatever our status is today with regard to conserving and increasing our abilities to Be What We Are Built to Be.

Of course.

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Conserve Liberty. Stay the Course.

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