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Forum Post: OccupyTheConstitution Introduction

Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 29, 2011, 4:02 p.m. EST by Nanook (172)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

This Forum post introduces a new component of Direct Democracy called the National Opinion Collection System (NOCS). This new system is discussed in more detail at http://A3society.org under the Government tab. An index of discussion topics can be found at http://A3society.org/OccupyTheConstitution-Index . All the topics posted and being discussed can be found by doing a Google search using the search term: site:occupywallst.org/forum/occupytheconstitution .

The first goal of the effort is to capture the current beliefs, feelings and history related to the FUNDAMENTAL concepts introduced by the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution ( http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html ). This is being done to prepare the 99% to rewrite the U.S. Constitution.

Why does the U.S. Constitution need to be rewritten? Here are few major reasons: 1. The world in which the Constitution was created is gone. Almost every aspect of human life has DRASTICALLY changed since the Constitution was created; 2. The fundamental terms used to express concepts in the Constitution were used in a very superficial way, often with meanings very different from current usage; 3. issues were included and approached in the Constitution based on the social needs and beliefs of the time. Most of those needs and beliefs have radically changed; 4. Many new issues have arisen that the Constitution didn’t anticipate; and 5. The Constitution did not provide sufficient provisions to prevent a COUP of the government by industry and the banks.

_1. DRASTIC CHANGE

The Constitution is in crisis because it was created for an obsolete society. ALL the fundamentals of society have drastically changed. But people are either in DENIAL about the changes or unable to understand them. Consider a few examples. In 1787, distance communication was done using paper and HORSES. Discussing a single point could take weeks for a letter to go from Maine to Virginia and a reply to return. Representatives were therefore needed to efficiently discuss issues. Today, we can hold live face to face discussions with colleagues around the world at low cost. In 1787, canals and bridges were built using HORSES for power ( just like in ancient Rome). Today, one person with a power shovel can move 300,000 pounds of rock in one scoop! In 1787, people believed luxury travel meant coaches moving 9 miles per hour pulled by HORSES. Aristocrats could even go by sailing ship across the ocean in mere months! Today, AVERAGE people can travel at almost the speed of sound to ANY point on the globe. In 1787, bowls, candles, chairs, cloth – everything – was made by hand. Today, automated productions lines can produce entire automobiles in 16 hours, with a labor requirement of 2.7 workers per vehicle per day (Toyota). Automation has replaced human labor.

1787 is used as a date for this comparison because that was the date of the Constitution. The point is, it was the environment of 1787 upon which the organizational foundations of the Constitution are based. The advances listed happened after that over “just” the last 100 years. But “modern” economic theory is still based on Adam Smith time scales and 1787 images of human labor for its idealized notion of the “GUIDING HAND” of capitalism.

Human population has now exceeded 7B. The sustainable carrying capacity of the earth, by current estimates, is about 2 to 3 B MAXIMUM. But we have already used up the easy resources. Warning statements are no longer about projections of shortages for a hundred years from now. We have now reached the time when the shortages were forecast to start. They are visible everywhere: drinkable water, aquifers for irrigation, many minerals, wood ( even China is out of wood ), soils, ocean fish, oil production, etc. In the process, we have polluted the earth, oceans and sky. Atmospheric pollution is warming the earth, which is moving the weather bands and causing severe draughts. The ice caps are melting. Insect pests are moving into new areas, and they are already resistant to every known insecticide. Medical supplies are showing shortages across the globe while severe plague diseases once thought eradicated are coming back resistant to every known form of antibiotic.

_2. SUPERFICIAL WORDS

The constitution starts off with what appears to be some clear and profound goals: “establish Justice... promote the GENERAL WELFARE... secure the BLESSINGS of Liberty...” These goals are presumed to address some basic assumptions which were listed in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are CREATED EQUAL, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain UNALIENABLE RIGHTS, that among these are LIFE, LIBERTY and the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government”. The problem is, these goals are either disregarded by the constitution, or the principles they address are not LOGICALLY sound to begin with. The result is that our government has failed to deliver on these promises.

For example, the principles we call “life” and “liberty are said to be UNALIENABLE. To drive home their “sanctity”, they are said to be “endowed by their Creator”. Yet the government absolves itself from upholding them all the time, and both jails citizens and executes them, while simultaneously claiming to hold the highest religious convictions. The Constitution states a primary goal of government is to “promote the general welfare”. Yet laws have been passed which allow banks and heads of industry to loot major industrial pension plans to enrich the wealth of bank and industry officials. Government leaders have been the worst enemy of worker safety, environmental protection and citizen rights, requiring grassroots citizen action like labor unions, “green” organizations and the ACLU to defend the public. The principles used to guide our union must be reinterpreted for the current world.

_3. INAPPROPRIATE ISSUES

The second amendment addresses the need for a well regulated MILITIA. Because there were people hostile to the early colonies able to attack without warning, militias were needed. Because of the technology and lack of formal armies at the time, this meant allowing citizens to keep firearms in their homes to form ad hoc militias. Related to this, the third amendment addresses quartering of soldiers in private homes during peacetime. These concepts are no longer relevant. So, when we try to interpret the words in current society, we get very confusing and adverse results.

_4. MISSING ISSUES

When the Constitution was written, there already were global corporations. They were involved in commodities trading like tea and furs. But each represented a very small impact on any citizen. The impact of the population and business on the environment was also small. This is not the case today. Large corporations like WalMart, McDonalds and Microsoft control availability and pricing of large portions of the goods people use across the country. The major banks control the financial interactions of large portions of the economy. There is a totally different dynamic, due to modern advertising, in the ability of corporations to influence elections. The immanent disaster of environmental collapse and resource depletion requires using sophisticated tools and methods the founders couldn’t even envision. The Constitution is therefore missing major provisions to define how modern business works and directions to protect the environment for the “general welfare”.

_5. THE INDUSTRIAL / FINANCIAL COUP OF THE GOVERNMENT

Western society is overflowing with STUFF! The new Global Aristocrats have filled their houses with great treasures. They have gathered to themselves more than 80% of the world’s wealth. YET, at their doorsteps are BILLIONS living in poverty and starvation. The same practices of greed that led to the French Revolution have occurred all over again.

Ironically, our founding founders were quite aware of this possibility. They spent a lot of effort discussing it, and put a clever 3 division separation of power structure in place to try to prevent it. What they couldn’t foresee was the technological changes which would occur, the rate that population would grow and cover the world, the power of an overwhelming money controlled media to polarize society, and the rapid consolidation of global power that would result.

In the U.S., the Constitution completely failed to prevent the coup of the U.S. Government by industry and banking executives which we are now subject to. These new aristocrats do not know how to feed or employ our people, nor do they feel they have any responsibility to do so. Unfortunately, our culture as a whole doesn’t either. Why? Because the complexity of modern society is no longer solvable using simple models from the past. It can no longer be done by humans giving political speeches, and then voting based on “common sense” or “intuition”. A RADICAL NEW FORM OF GOVERNMENT is needed. Hopefully, the National Opinion Collection System will gather the wisdom to allow this new form of government to be created.

The initial information gathering effort will be the OccupyWallSt.org/Forum . Specifically, look for a long series of original posts which start with the words: /OccupyTheConstitution. For example: OccupyWallst.org/forum/OccupyTheConstitution-DEMOCRACY. An index of sorts will be maintained at http://A3society.org/OccupyTheConstitution-Index To participate in this effort, just join in the discussion like you would for any other topic. To help make this new tool a great success, substantial input from the academic community is requested. Please support this effort. Add comments at http://occupywallst.org/forum/occupytheconstitution-national-opinion-collection-/ or contact me directly. My contact info can be found on http://A3society.org

Nanook

9 Comments

9 Comments


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[-] 1 points by bullfrogma (448) 11 years ago

<- looks very aroused.

[-] 1 points by RickLoll (1) 11 years ago

Instead of rehashing a centuries old system that periodically continues to cause the same problems, I propose a completely new approach. I have outlined to the last detail a new constitution, defined in my book "The Seven Concepts: A New Constitution By The Global Occupation And Economically Depressed", on Amzon. It is also a revolutionary new philosophy used to advance any field of knowledge, and absolve many contraditions we live in today. Rick Loll

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[-] 1 points by egarners (27) 12 years ago

BTW, Ron Paul is the one of the very few of our representatives that DOES honor his oath to OBEY and defend our Constitution consistently. That is why he is the ONLY one of the presidential contenders that makes a lick of sense.

If the Constitution had been followed for the last century, we wouldn't be in the mess we are in!

http://www.ratifyconstitution.com

[-] 1 points by egarners (27) 12 years ago

If your elected do NOT obey and protect the Constitution as their oath demands. what fool thinks that they would follow a new one?

The concepts within the original organic Constitution with it's Bill of Rights was to counteract human frailties like greed and lust for power of those that we place in government. With all the advances in technology, etc...... the human frailties haven't changed for thousands of years.

The federal government was never intended to be the basis for control of everything. That is why we have local, county, and state governments. The federal is supposed to be the insulation from tyranny.

Freedom works if you let it. Don't change the Constitution, just find those that will honor their oath to OBEY and protect it.

http://www.constitutionattacked.com

[-] 1 points by brightonsage (4494) 12 years ago

Which one, the one that says corporations are people and can buy candidates and laws to legitimize the theft and abuse of the people it was supposed to protect or the one that protected minorities from the tyranny of the majority (equal under the law)?

[-] 1 points by TIOUAISE (2526) 12 years ago

Thank you for laying out so clearly the reasons why THE U.S. CONSTITUTION NEEDS TO BE REWRITTEN.

And until it HAS been rewritten and submitted to a referendum, elections will be imo a huge waste of time and money.

The completely useless and meaningless 2012 elections should be postponed and replaced by a NATION-WIDE REFERENDUM to overhaul the present, corrupt-to-the-core political system.

Such a referendum would imo be VERY useful and meaningful. And the reason for demanding such a referendum would be that THE NATION IS IN A STATE OF CRISIS that threatens its very survival.

To me, that is THE DEMAND that OWS should focus on, and I think that the American people are so SICK of the two main parties - onlt 9% still have faith in Congress! - that they would actually WELCOME the possibility of overhauling the whole corrupt system in order to start anew.

I have a feeling that a strong majority of Americans would vote "YES" in a "REFERENDUM FOR A NEW AMERICA".

[-] 2 points by richardkentgates (3269) 12 years ago

I would vote no. You don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Secondly, the best way to ensure you don't have to worry about the impact of achieving a goal is to make it unobtainable. The results of the movements energy has been The Occupy Amendment and The NEED Act. That is just the first two. Be the tortoise.

[-] 0 points by Nanook (172) 12 years ago

I agree with your first point. However, not your unstated assumption: i.e. that the Constitution is a baby worth saving. That baby has drown long ago and the water is putrid and ridden with plague. I think we need to treat it with reverence and not just throw it out. It should be eulogized extensively to explain how it died and the diseases it caused and spread. It should then be given a proper burial.

I also agree with your second point. Any change we make should focus on incremental steps. This proposal agrees with that. It just puts in place a mechanism to establish the next 100 changes needed to follow the first two.

If you still don't agree about the problems with the Constitution, follow this thread as it evolves on the OWS forum site as well as on A3society.org

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[-] 1 points by ZenDogTroll (13032) from South Burlington, VT 12 years ago

William Findley of Philadelphia said calls for a new convention is a dissolution of the social contract. He said the United States has returned to a 'State of Nature'; one that is outside the law

Hugh Brackenridge of Princeton agrees.

this is just what the people see when their wells are polluted due to fracking, this is just what the people see when their own home values decline due to rampant foreclosure within their neighborhoods as a result of fraudulent lending practices, and hence:

  • this is what the people are calling for.