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Freedom Faq
SCOPE OF DOCUMENT .
Question: Is it time to consider upgrading a vital, but failing, moribund
operating
system, one that predates even the vacuum tube
UNIVAC
, drafting intelligible,
unambiguous supporting documentation, and adding a revision modifier after the
heading - some relevant ID string integer to accurately reflect the degree of
systemic enhancements since the system's initial stable release, like, 1.01
for
minor or 1.1, for more substantial upgrade modifications?
After a quick nutation from Washington DC to Woodhaven Blvd, American
Constitution 2.0 sounds about right.
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NEED FOR THIS DOCUMENT.
Question: Imagine public affairs continuing unmodified into the new millennium
with politicians assuming administrative powers of root and exercising total
control
over every facet of our lives, tampering at will with the system's inner
workings,
distorting data flows to reflect personal bias, and in general, presenting a
serious
menace to the natural development of a free people?
The accumulation at the system's core of antediluvian ideologues animated by
factional enmity and the impulse to beat the masses into submission, in love
with
money above all things, feeding entire lifetimes at the public tit, reveal a
self
evident need for system-wide revision.
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DEFINITIONS:
<Script>
Function SortSociety()
newpoor&disenfranchised = `wethepeople / 14kmodemusers'
//-->
</SCRIPT>
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CONVENTIONS REQUIRING REDEFINITION.
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REVISION HISTORY.
The framers of American Constitution 1.0 had access to the same historical
references available to us today, less about 200 years worth, or 4% of recorded
history. The horripilating rush of technology and corresponding birth of the
Internet
has occurred during this 4% rising clock tick.
Over the course of 2,500 years, Greek culture (the quintessential free people
and
their extraordinary society) seeped into human consciousness becoming a sort of
political Talmud: succeeding generations learnt the ancient language, studied
the
documents, wrote unique scholarly interpretations, and kept the ancient text a
living
body of work, hence externalizing an ideal passing from mind to mind.
The Greeks believed the community of thought was stronger then any individual thinker - ideas were best hatched in a thousand minds, rationalized in public debate and the most reasonable, the most alluring, and often the most adventurous, adapted in concert as public policy. Aristotle put it this way,
"
...the mass of the people ought to be sovereign, rather then the best
of the few.... For it is possible that the many, no one of whom taken
singly is a sound man, may yet, taken all together, be better then the
few, not individually but collectively .... For even where there are
many people, each has some share of virtue and practical wisdom;
and when they are brought together, just as in the mass they become
as it were one man with many pairs of feet and hands and many
senses, so also do they become one in regard to character and
intelligence."
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GLOBAL VALUES
The American framers, while aspiring to classical freedom populated a vast
hostile
wilderness, the broad geographic dispersion made gathering the entire community
in one place for continuous political activity impractical. But a working
model of
political freedom permeated the woods, hills and valleys alongside the European
immigrants. While Native American society had not progressed beyond Stone Age
technology, they were every bit the equal of the Greeks in the art of politics;
of
maintaining personal freedom within cohesive family units and extended
communities, and Native Americans had solved the problem of self rule by a free
people dispersed over great distances. Free speech and public debate were
staples
of their society. Leaders were elected, distinguished by their eloquence,
character
and wisdom. The leaders then traveled to regional and national meeting places
(the
main council hall in North America is still extant, an Iroquois longhouse just
south
of Syracuse, NY.)
To achieve the personal liberty they deeply yearned, designers of the American
political system ported Athenian Greek ideals to the Onondaga council fire, and
in
the transition melded mythical ideals of freedom gleaned from books with the
actual
Iroquois working model. Because the frontiersmen inherently disdained the
Redmen, they transposed a Roman republican face (classic Iroquois culture bears
an uncanny resemblance to the culture of early Rome) on everything extracted
from
Native Americans, and attempted to shape a Republic from a hazy image thousands
of years in the past. But, they were practical enough to assimilate the working
model of a free society operating under their very noses.
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LOCAL VALUES
At any rate, the system has had more then 200 years of operational run time, and
many believe it a religious relic - to change one word of documentation will
doom
us to hell. Actually, those paragons of virtue, eloquence, character and wisdom
once elected by the Iroquois, have, over the past two centuries, degenerated
into a
pack of ambiloquent petty-foggers,
catch'd in knotted law
, who long since figured
out how to tilt the system in their favor. (Representative government did not
serve
Native Americans any better then the modern day system serves us. A common
method of seizing Indian land was to get the representatives drunk enough to
sign
away tribal property rights; variants of this technique are still in vogue.)
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BANDWIDTH CONSIDERATIONS . Bandwidth (Internet transmission power) over telephone lines and through the airways has surpassed the level needed to provide every household in the nation with a two button device - a red button marked NAY , and a green button marked YEA . We can now rule ourselves from a hundred-million livingroom armchair thrones.
Everything the framers of
American Constitution 1.0
wrote, argued and believed
in indicates they would have harnessed today's technology to the fullest
potential
without hesitation. They were a race of adventurers impatient for freedom and
gain, rugged individualists with absolute faith in their own power to shape
destiny.
Argument and grueling debate were not over whether to rule themselves - which
was an absolute conviction, but how to control the men they must by necessity
cede
their powers to. They did not trust, nor particularly want representative
government, pure democracy was unattainable - they had no choice. We do.
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CODE MODIFICATIONS
As much old coding as possible must be retained to facilitate a smooth
plug and
play
upgrade, minimize the learning curve, and maximize backward compatibility.
System analysts and implementors should restrict their designs to a single
module
of the existing program,
the interface between the general public and the
government:
city councils, state legislatures, the House of Representatives.
While it is tempting to tweak the remaining modules (executive branches,
judiciaries, and senates) the greatest degree of reliability is optimal; an
improvement
by program revision within a single element, not a complete product replacement
of
radical new design, is best.
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HOW TO INSTALL No nation has been ruled by ordinary people since the time of the Greeks, so it is unclear exactly what to expect if this were to occur. Perhaps, nothing in history has been so maligned, scorned and scoffed at as the nature of the people - called the vulgus, the rabble, the mob, the great unwashed. In truth, universal education, another Greek ideal, was never fully realized until the 4% rising clock tick. Millions upon millions of newspapers are sold every day in this country, add millions of magazines and books, every television and radio station carries several hours of news, some offer nothing but news - news has become a national mania. The public, if nothing else, is highly educated, well informed and perfectly capable of running their own affairs. In the past, historians drew assumptions from literary samplings about the nature of the people. Today, the Internet phenomenon presents a yardstick for more accurate measurement. The Internet, only a few years old, is rapidly evolving into a worldwide community with commercial strips, academic campuses, entertainment areas, collectives, exclusive societies, exotic back alleys, and stolid middle class neighborhoods; overall, it is an open, fascinating and friendly place, too young for government regulation to have set in. The variety of merchandise available for sale is equaled only by the amount of free stuff heaped on web travelers. Never before in the history of the world has so many people given away so much of themselves freely, without reservation, as tokens of friendship, and labors of love. The Internet presents a snapshot of mankind as he looks this instant; not merely a statistical sampling of human nature, but its actual extension. Bonhommie is alive and living on the web, for generosity, and the ambition to elevate society are undeniably prominent traits of today's public. Fear of being ruled by the common man is unfounded. Fear instead continued rule by surrogates when there is no longer a need, continued pouring of strong medicine down our throats to cure lose morals, continued overtaxing to fatten private wallets, continued support for a privileged class that learnt how to manipulate, continued treatment like callow youth with benevolent uncles handling their affairs.
Well, we're all grown up now, and it's time to sign over the patrimony.
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© 2000 Joseph Tiraco
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