All
around the world, and throughout the span of human history, governments have always
grown into oppressive bureaucracies, transforming first into oligarchies until
they finally become aristocracies, meandering one way or another through
meritocracy, autocracy and plutocracy along the way.
This
is the natural entrenchment of political power, a pattern so prevalent it feel
like it is encoded in our collective DNA.
Governments
adopt standards and conventions, they pass laws that pretend to organize civic
power in ways that appear to be impersonal, indifferent and without expressed
favoritism for parties, or persons. All the while allowing real power to moves
in hidden channels, to flow between select individuals and secret societies that
are only concerned with the progress of their agenda, the accumulation and
concentration of wealth and power, access to markets, the distribution of food
and clean water.
Power
builds in this way until such a time comes that the powerful feel secure enough
in their position to wield their power nakedly, without concern for the
repercussions they might face from the people.
Fear
and suspicion, violence and alienation are the tools by which these governments
oppress, suppress, depress and repress the masses.
A
healthy society cannot be maintained in systems such as these, a healthy
society cannot be maintained in systems that are hostile and antagonistic to the
common people.
Nevertheless,
sick and unhealthy societies can endure for generations, centuries, even
millennia, becoming so normalized that the masses will even worship the unjust
structures of power with religious zeal, casting alternate ideologies and
efforts to liberate them as poisonous and destructive.
A
government of the people by the people and for the people, cannot live up to its
aspirations if the courts continue to treat corporations like people, when it
comes to such matters as the right to free speech, but will not hold
corporations and their boards of governance accountable for the crimes that the
same corporations commit.
Our
government purports to be a government of the people, committed to the
proposition that everyone is created equal, endowed with rights that are
inalienable, the foremost among them being; life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness.
Our
government cannot live up to these aspirations if the courts continue to treat the
dollars given (in the form of campaign donations) to politicians and political
parties, as constitutionally protected, and on the same level as the individual
right to free speech.
Our
government cannot live up to those aspirations if the courts continue to hold
that the individual’s freedom of speech does not guarantee the right of the
speaker to be heard, or that the right to vote does not guarantee that your
vote will be counted.
Our
government cannot live up to those aspirations so long as we continue to uphold
un-democratic norms.
In
order to live up to those aspirations we require a truly representative
democracy, and the full enfranchisement of all citizens.
We
are not free if our votes are disproportionately weighted, and if our
representation in congress is not equally apportioned according to the
population of those states.
We
require a commitment from the people and its government that any person within
the aegis of our power be protected by the rule of law whether they are a
citizen or not, whether they are within our national boundaries or not.
Wherever
our power is present, a commitment to our rule of law, our best ideals must be extended
also.
The
people, if they are to be free, must not merely be allowed to, but must be
empowered to challenge the legal and economic structures that are operative in
the social order.
The
citizenry will not be free unless it is educated well enough so that the
average person understands the language and structure of the law, the forms and
codes of its legal and political organizations.
This
cannot be the province of specialists alone, it must be accessible by every
citizen.
The
citizenry will not be free unless it is free to associate, to form collectives,
and to have they contribution they make to the fabric of society, to
manufacturing and industry recognized and protected by the law.
Owners
and workers must be equally represented before the bar of justice in regard to
the rights they possess concerning the product of their labor.
Everyone
who benefits from the public trust must contribute to it. Those who benefit
from our roads and bridges, our ports and shipping centers, our educated workforce
and the protection of our courts must pay for it.
We
all benefit from it, those who benefit most, must pay the most, progressively.
If
our society truly aspires to greatness the people must eliminate the secret,
hallowed channels of power, and take their destiny into their own hands.
The
people must be educated, empowered with access to information, and with the
critical analytical skills to employ it to their advantage.
Equality
and justice, our ability to apprehend truth itself depend on it.
