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Democracy: So Much For The Afterglow
Saw this on the way home from work.
It happens to be at an abandoned bank across the street from the Arlington Fox’n’Hound we gather at regularly.
It got me thinking about the state of the union, civil disobedience, anarchy, and the failures of every form of government we as men have created to control the daily madness of our lives.
As a Philosophy Major I spend a lot of time reflecting on human nature, human societies and anthropology, and especially the evolution of the way we govern ourselves. It seems to me that democracy is on its’ last legs. Not to knock it, it is the best system we’ve come up with so far, and it has served its’ purpose well and got us a little further along than we were before. But it is a system that absolutely corrupts in practice, in all except for the most hardline of True Believers.
What is next? We are daily choked with innumerable and incomprehensible laws that no one person could ever possibly quantify, that tell us how we are required to live our lives. Idealistically, I would propose a government with but one law: Do nothing that harms another person. As long as this was followed, anything would be allowed. It would be the next step in our evolution. I don’t necessarily think we’re far enough along to handle it, and it certainly presents as many problems as it solves. This is just genesis. The start.
Breaking the one rule would result in a tailor fit punishment to the severity of it. There would be no monetary pain and suffering court cases, it would simply be harsher punishment to the perpetrator.
Now, obviously I’m just spitballing here, so feel free to point out some follies or better yet, elaborate on it and improve it, or other aspects of it. Or blow me away with something completely original. We’re failing as a species by refusing to take personal responsibility. In this system we would all be accountable for whatever choices we make. If we ended up hurting someone, it would be proof that we had acted against what we should have known to be prudent, and would be therefore seeing the failure of common sense called out as such. Is this possible? Is it just a new Marxism on paper, sounds great, but the human animal would never be able to acclimate to it?
In this theoretical system how would the change be instigated? Large scale revolution is out in todays world, no one is going to stand up and overthrow the White House. People are so obsessed with looking at their cell phones they don’t ever stop and think about anything, it’s just a bunch of mindless pseudo conversations that puts us technologically forward while intellectual retarding us two steps back. This would have to be something bad, something that wouldn’t push us forward, but instead step us back. Perhaps the EMP of Snake Pliskin; something that wiped out communications so that people were unable to communicate with an unregulated wide spread massive population. Maybe through the weapons systems hacking capabilities of anonymous hacker terrorists, attempting to destroy the very system that they use to find glory for their unknown selves?
Is society right when you can’t even recite a quarter of the laws you’re supposed to be following on a normal day? Maybe it’s simple. Maybe life can be simple.
I may be a dick, but I am concerned about humans as a species. I’d like to eventually leave this world in a little bit better shape than I found it in.
No, this isn’t an assignment I’m asking you guys to help me with; I’m taking this semester off. If you could reinvent society, what would you do? Even more importantly, how would you do it? Put some thought into it and get back to me. I’ll be here.
Fuck it. Hitting submit. That's what I've been thinking about.
It happens to be at an abandoned bank across the street from the Arlington Fox’n’Hound we gather at regularly.
It got me thinking about the state of the union, civil disobedience, anarchy, and the failures of every form of government we as men have created to control the daily madness of our lives.
As a Philosophy Major I spend a lot of time reflecting on human nature, human societies and anthropology, and especially the evolution of the way we govern ourselves. It seems to me that democracy is on its’ last legs. Not to knock it, it is the best system we’ve come up with so far, and it has served its’ purpose well and got us a little further along than we were before. But it is a system that absolutely corrupts in practice, in all except for the most hardline of True Believers.
What is next? We are daily choked with innumerable and incomprehensible laws that no one person could ever possibly quantify, that tell us how we are required to live our lives. Idealistically, I would propose a government with but one law: Do nothing that harms another person. As long as this was followed, anything would be allowed. It would be the next step in our evolution. I don’t necessarily think we’re far enough along to handle it, and it certainly presents as many problems as it solves. This is just genesis. The start.
Breaking the one rule would result in a tailor fit punishment to the severity of it. There would be no monetary pain and suffering court cases, it would simply be harsher punishment to the perpetrator.
Now, obviously I’m just spitballing here, so feel free to point out some follies or better yet, elaborate on it and improve it, or other aspects of it. Or blow me away with something completely original. We’re failing as a species by refusing to take personal responsibility. In this system we would all be accountable for whatever choices we make. If we ended up hurting someone, it would be proof that we had acted against what we should have known to be prudent, and would be therefore seeing the failure of common sense called out as such. Is this possible? Is it just a new Marxism on paper, sounds great, but the human animal would never be able to acclimate to it?
In this theoretical system how would the change be instigated? Large scale revolution is out in todays world, no one is going to stand up and overthrow the White House. People are so obsessed with looking at their cell phones they don’t ever stop and think about anything, it’s just a bunch of mindless pseudo conversations that puts us technologically forward while intellectual retarding us two steps back. This would have to be something bad, something that wouldn’t push us forward, but instead step us back. Perhaps the EMP of Snake Pliskin; something that wiped out communications so that people were unable to communicate with an unregulated wide spread massive population. Maybe through the weapons systems hacking capabilities of anonymous hacker terrorists, attempting to destroy the very system that they use to find glory for their unknown selves?
Is society right when you can’t even recite a quarter of the laws you’re supposed to be following on a normal day? Maybe it’s simple. Maybe life can be simple.
I may be a dick, but I am concerned about humans as a species. I’d like to eventually leave this world in a little bit better shape than I found it in.
No, this isn’t an assignment I’m asking you guys to help me with; I’m taking this semester off. If you could reinvent society, what would you do? Even more importantly, how would you do it? Put some thought into it and get back to me. I’ll be here.
Fuck it. Hitting submit. That's what I've been thinking about.
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