Survival__ Structuring Prosperity for Yourself and the Nation - Charles George Smith [214]
We might summarize the three sources of feedback in U.S. governance thusly:
1. Rentier-Financial Power Elite (Plutocracy): These concentrations of power are roughly comparable to feudal fiefdoms that wield great authority over the State and enforce the loyalty of their technocrat minions.
2. Aristocracy: high-caste technocrats, policy mandarins, think-tank/State apparatchiks (the revolving door) and corporate/State cartel contractors/managers.
3. Citizenry, divided into two populations: those with the time, interest and will to become engaged in constructing a new intellectual framework of governance and those who do not. Both could be transformed by The Remnant, as the ideas of a New State percolate and eventually influence the unengaged and powerless.
We might also consider these historical conditions of revolution:
1. A profound crisis in the status quo leadership (the Elites no longer control events)
2. Rising hardships suffered by the productive class--often a collapse of purchasing power or the equivalent, an unbearable spike in the cost of living
3. A rise in social unrest and political engagement by previously disenfranchised and unengaged citizenry.
As noted before: No one can save us from ourselves except ourselves. We have enabled the capture of the government by Power Elites and passively allowed the Elites and the State to over-reach to the point of terminal instability.
When the central State defaults or otherwise implodes financially, we can devolve into hundreds of fiefdoms or establish a new American State.
It can be argued that small local governments are the ideal form of governance, but I would caution that global capital and other predatory forces would look upon the dissolution of a central State as a wonderful windfall to exploit. No small local government would be able to mount a defense of territory or financial integrity against highly concentrated capital and power.
Thus we can anticipate that while global capital will mourn the loss of its Federal fiefdoms, which enabled "one-stop shopping" for crony capitalism and profiteering banking, the emergence of small centers of governance will provide little barrier to the re-establishment of their dominance.
The advantages of a small, limited but active New American State accountable to its citizenry outweigh the risks of central governance. The Founding Fathers decided as much and we would be foolish to dismiss the wisdom of their choice.
Our goal, then, is to establish a new model of governance to replace the failed Savior State/Plutocracy partnership when it collapses into insolvency.
The New State requires no changes in the Constitution but rather a radical re-set to the Constitution. Though the Constitution does not limit concentrations of power or Elite/financial domination, it also does not limit the citizen's control of Elites, should they choose to do so.
The fundamental premise of the U.S. Constitution is simple:
It is not the government which gives limited rights to the citizenry, but the citizenry which gives limited rights to the government to protect the public trust and the citizenry's rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The principles guiding the establishment of the New American State are the same which guide households and communities/local government; as noted before, the principles are scale-invariant and can be applied to organizations of any size, in any era.
We might summarize the goals thusly:
1. Transparent, limited in scope and mandate; eschew global Empire.
2. Protective of its citizenry (and the public trust) rather than its Elites.
3. Cost-benefit based, i.e. only deploys its resources in extremely high-leverage (leveraging existing assets, solutions and skills) situations.
4. Regulatory goals: limit concentrations