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Constructing the ideal government?
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by seanr: [QB] I would not generally consider myself a socialist, and I am most definately not a communist (as practiced by Russia, Cuba, etc.). Democratic centralism has proven to be a complete failure, rule of the philospher-kings doesn't work by any stretch of the imagination. [IMG]http://flare.solareclipse.net/wink.gif[/IMG] What I do consider myself as is a democrat in the truest sense. Not in the sense the most americans think of (if you asked me which party I prefer, on half the issues, I'd say Republican), but rather in the sense that I believe that every person should have direct equal input into the government. The technology now exists for every person to be able to stay informed and actively participate in a truely democratic government. The internet is, of course, going to be a key part of any truely democratic process, because it has the unique ability to take power away from special interests behind closed doors and bring it back to the people for which government is really supposed to be working. Candidates can directly contact constituents via email and cmapaigns can be conducted over the internet far cheaper than has ever been possible before. Education is the other key. Students need to be far better educated than they are now. First off, a far more creative approach needs to be taken twoards teaching history. History is not a list of names and dates, but rather a tapestry of events, ideas, goals, and beleifs that have dramatic influences on each other and daily life. Kids need to be taught not what happened, but why it happened. They need to be inspired to find creative solutions for problems that take into account the why of history. We can make hate crime laws all we want, for example, but we cannot change a thing unless we understand the root cause of the problem and change the forces that create the symptoms we hear about on the news every day. That kind of proactive approach is completely missing from education and government alike. I believe that government probably functions best as a representative system because of its size and the nature and amount of work being tackled, however, constituents should have more control over their representatives. Campaign financing needs to be removed from the loop altogether, replaced by free access to media outlets, which will be made significantly easier by the internet. For that to work, the so called digital devide needs to be bridged, through free, easy access to public terminals in libraries, schools, and government offices (this can now be accomplished with incredibly cheap internet appliances). We must also break the incumbancy issue. Without corporate involvement, political duty should return to the concept of temporary civil service. It may even be possible to have one house of congress actually drafted, rather than voted. Technology might enable them to work almost exclusively from their home towns, perhaps without even leaving their normal job (absence from their job becomes a sticky issue, but should be workable, I think). These are just a few of my thoughts; I'd rather encourage you to post your own, than go on at length with my own thoughts, as many of you may have better ideas and more creative solutions than I have, being so blinded by my own casual but constant examination of the american political system. The other side to this is the economic system, for which I have very few ideas. It has become clear to me that our system is breaking down in many ways, but I have yet to see any real solution, and I surmise that something complately radical and different from any previous economic system would be needed to promote the interests of the inidivual above all else. That is my goal, I think; to make the individual the focus of the system. Each person has a right to be heard, and a right to be involved in te ongoing creation of a system that will improve their entire lives. Each individual has a right to choose a profession and a lifestyle that is beneficial to them without harming others, and has a right to the tools necessary to acheive that goal. I think money might have to be removed from the system entirely for any of it to work, but it will have to be replaced with a better incentive. Wealth will have to be replaced in life as the primary purpose with the will to better onesself and those around one. To re-use an [i]under[/i]used cliche, success must become measured by everyone in society not by how much you collected for yourself, but by how many people were made better by your presence. That basic value system must be engineered into [i]every[/i] aspect of society. What we should strive to do is create something that comes as close to accomplishing that goal as we possibly can, and we should publish it every place we can. I think people would be pleasantly shocked to see a group of (for the most part) teens and college aged artists working on such a forward thinking concept. If you'll forgive me for continually waxing philosophic and perhaps even wasting bandwidth, [IMG]http://flare.solareclipse.net/wink.gif[/IMG] I think that is something we can and should strive to accomplish, for no other reasons than the knowledge that we have created something meaningfull and the shear challenge of the endeavour. I leave you now with a pair of quotes from someone who is perhaps one of the greatest orators of the last fifty years (though maybe not the best Attorney General [IMG]http://flare.solareclipse.net/wink.gif[/IMG]): "The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of bold projects and new ideas. Rather, it will belong to those who can blend passion, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the great enterprises and ideals of American society." -- Robert F. Kennedy "Some people see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not?" -- Robert F. Kennedy [/QB][/QUOTE]
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