Our US Constitution seems to be out to lunch, as they say. Some scholars may wish to fiddle with it in order to make it work better. But I shan’t try that, as I am pretty sure it would be a waste of time.
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That’s because the current Constitution puts most of the job of governing in the hands of politicians, who are not now willing to do the right thing. During our almost three years of Covid pandemic, I have hardly seen a legislator, president, attorney general, or judge do what the Constitution clearly instructs.
Each of those persons had a responsibility to act, but they were either afraid to act, or they are “working for the wrong boss.” This has brought the nation to an extreme crisis. You might say all government functions have advertised themselves as “not working.” We used to know what lever we could push if we needed something (even as simple as calling the police to get help when a robber is breaking in), but now we doubt that the relevant person will fulfill his/her role.
For the moment, I’m pretending that all the persons outside the government are mentally normal as they were in the 20th century and that all the ones inside the government have gone somewhat nut or become malicious. I don’t actually know that “ordinary citizens” are mentally OK or that officials aren’t, but I am trying to set up a scheme here that asks, “What can be done when a once-ethical government either goes missing or turns mafia?”
So I offer a fresh look at the relationship between people and government by plotting to send a bunch of emigrants to Mars, where they will have a constitution but no government. In short, I am saying that if a particular government is hopeless, folks may have to try to survive by direct “play” with one another.
A Biological Constitution
For the purposes of this article, “Mars” has many of the qualities of planet Earth — trees, water, soil, animals that can be cooked for dinner, and so forth. Humans on Mars will have a life somewhat like the life they were used to on Earth. Their kids will have sibling rivalry. Some artists will have the urge to sculpt or write poetry. Bar-room brawls will be common. Some men will channel their fight urge into competitive sports. There will be sexual jealousy. All that stuff.
The first fleet to arrive at Mars (don’t ask me how they get there, van Alan’s belt being in the way) will expect to have so-called individual freedom. But imagine that they have not worked out how they will deal up there.
In 1630, when John Winthrop was en route to America from England with other pilgrims, who did not have a contract, he wrote the following advice.
“Now the onely way to avoyde this shipwracke and to provide for our posterity is to followe the Counsell of Micah, to doe Justly, to love mercy, to walke humbly with our God, for this end, wee must be knitt together in this worke as one man, wee must entertaine each other in brotherly Affeccion, wee must be willing to abridge our selves of our superfluities, for the supply of others necessities. [Greater good! Altruism!]
“Soe shall wee keepe the unitie of the spirit in the bond of peace, the Lord will be our God and delight to dwell among us…soe that wee shall see much more of his wisdome power goodnes and truthe then formerly wee have been eacquainted with. Therefore lett us choose life, that wee, and our Seede, may live; by obeyeing his voyce, and cleaveing to him, for hee is our life, and our prosperity.”
Wait! I think Winthrop has thereby saved me from composing a Constitution for Mars. He has got the gist from Micah, whose Book 6 is hereby quoted: “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
Imagine if we did our daily work in the midst of a just and merciful society where it was everyone’s duty (enforced, enforced) to treat all others with fairness, kindness, and humility. My oh my.
Enforcement
A friend who has read many of my articles told me the other day that the connecting thread in all my criticisms of our generation is the lack of enforcement of the Constitution against the powerful. This is clearly a big issue. By holding back, by being reticent about punishing wrongdoers if they have fancy titles, we commit the sin of impunity — that is, failure to punish.
Is this strictly a religious-type sin? No. It’s a federal crime! It got onto the books in 1948, thanks to Congress. (Ah, Congress. Remember Congress?) The wording at 18 USC 4 is:
“Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.”
Oughtta be a load of us paying fines or doing three years, eh? And instead, they concentrate on imprisoning Jan 6 protestors!
Now then, what I hope to expostulate is a way for humans to control their natural tendencies when these conflict with, say, the Golden Rule. The fact is, we do this all the time. All societies do it, as anthropologists found when they visited still-isolated tribes in the 19th century. With hardly any conscious effort, and certainly before writing was invented, groups of people knew the temptations: theft, violence, adultery, and lying. They labeled them the “don’t’s.”
Emotion
Go back earlier, and we find that, in evolutionary times, many of our dear emotions developed to guard our individual interests. One emotion — anger — pretty much covers the reaction we should have toward persons who do the don’ts. If they steal from us, hit us, philander with our mate, or deceive us, we should either hit them smack in the kisser or use an acceptable substitute.
Please, please, People, don’t develop the belief that impunity is the new normal. That’s suicidal for society. Of course, there have been many times in history when naughtiness got out of hand. I am quoting the biblical Micah, again, from Chapter 7, Verses 2-4 (English standard version, per biblehub.com):
“The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among mankind; they all lie in wait for blood, and each hunts the other with a net. Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well; the prince and the judge ask for a bribe, and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul; thus they weave it together. The best of them is like a brier, the most upright of them a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen, of your punishment, has come; now their confusion is at hand.”
Micah, too, has emotions. He is unhappy with such miserable human performance. If Micah were here right now and was asked to conceive of a Martian constitution, I wonder what he would say. Maybe he would say, as Russian defector Yuri Besemov said (thank you, Yuri), “Start with the 3-year-olds.” For at least two generations, we have not been bothering to tell children that there are don’ts and what to do about them. No wonder we’re in chaos!
Punishing Trudeau
I think we may be seeing a reawakening of the normal human emotion of anger when directed against someone who has tricked us and stolen from us. So far, most effort by Americans, including myself, has tended to the (rather foolish) effort to plead with officials to do the right thing. But today, I found a naughty cartoon made by Canadians about their leader.
It pretty much covers what Trudeau did wrong — he boasts about it — and then he gets his just deserts. (His “Justin deserts,” we might say). Please enjoy it, as I know you will:
I got it from the excellent “anti-vax” website, DrTrozzi.org. It runs for 3 minutes:
