The Secular-America-is-Becoming-More-Decadent Narrative
Are secular elements of society any worse now compared to previous eras?
For over 5 decades we’ve heard how the 1960s was so damaging to American society. There are many reasons to be doubtful of such pronouncements or assessments. The secular-society-is-more-decadent-then-or-now narrative is too scripted and trite. The ringing of its supposed truth should even set off a tin-eared bullshit detector. Its dissonance is deafening, and definitely disconcerting. How were the anti-war demonstrations, riots caused by racists, summers of love, and checking out via LSD of the 1960s worse than the 1930s, when America sat on its isolation ass, and let the Nazis annihilate Jews and destroy Europe? Americans who quickly discern decadence have never been too aware of human suffering, and barely concern themselves with it.
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We went into Vietnam, other Asian nations, Caribbean and Middle East nations, and Central and South America on similar notions as Stalin and Hitler employed to infiltrate their neighbors and install puppet governments. Because people had more sex, took a lot of drugs, and protested a ridiculous dominos falling war and terrible skin color-coded segregation, they did more to destroy our nation than the 1950s of fomenting fear, fetishizing sexual denial, and hating on others? There is very little worth holding onto from that equal rights sleepy and White inbred creepy decade. It was the dullard’s lull before the storm of progress. People under the thumb of secular society always explode the bubble of the status quo, reality avoidance undertow. Getting caught off guard is the bane of a stodgy, stagnant, and suffocatingly repressive society.
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On the other hand, the American narrative of the last few decades has been government dysfunction and democratic debauchery. Any secular decadence pales in comparison. Yet this is not really a change in approach. America is still abandoning or destroying humanity, from Ukraine and Iraq to the desolation of urban and rural areas here. Okay, charities mount a valiant fight, but the private strategy is intentionally and consciously not a concerted effort. Such fragmentation means it will always be lacking, lagging, or missing when the shit hits the fan.
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The real decadence is how we, as a nation, dodge responsibility, except for those in our own distinct, narrow-casted clan. Therefore, an isolation of solutions is our tried, true, and tenuous remedy for most everything. We are kept from helping in a coordinated effort because we conflate government bureaucracy with a We The People managed and deployed democracy. We allow ourselves to be deceived, dumbed down, and dulled by ideological rigidity and political vapidity.
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Whatever is wrong with how we approach improving secular society has little to do with government getting it wrong. We, citizens, have gotten governing wrong by continually being half-assed about making government work as we need it to, and want it to. We allow opponents of We-The-People government to sow confusion and dispense delusion. Their Culture Wars are another name for stalling progress. Accusations of Political Correctness are just another way for opponents to whitewash the abuses still washing up from our past that we have never truly or fully processed and solved. Rather the trump card of American Exceptionalism is played. Playing that card opens a delusional trapdoor to the upside down version of a Currier and Ives’ snow-globe America, where ideas like national introspection and policy reassessment are buried under a deep drift of forgetful White supremacy dementia.
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The other side is reduced to Cancel Culture, and limited to laudable but infrequent protest, and electing ineffective politicians, because Americans have changed few governing system elements in the last 230 years. It is time We The People put our system into dry dock for a major overhaul. Actually, the system can keep running as it is, as we improve it. No need for a constitutional convention, which would be cataclysmically contentious, and employ the most politically pretentious. Rather than a political mosh pit of bluster and bloviation, we must develop our system ideals in a parallel process. I call this new system’s rules the Ideals Algorithm. Our new system would be developed as a shadow of the current one; each system element scaled up as feasible, and swapped in as the new system element proved its mettle.
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In this parallel or shadow government, every decision process would be public. We The People would have the final say in every part. The scale up process may take many forms. Imagine a few thousand Americans being involved in the first stage. Then as the system is scaled up, millions more Americans see its potential and join, and the next stage could be implemented. The Ideals Algorithm may come about in three stages. In the second stage it could be nearly finalized with maybe a few million Americans involved, with only a ratification process required. Similar to how the U.S. Constitution was put forward. Developing the most basic ideals — for a bad-precedent-scoured, and revised We The People constitution — should be done early to avoid a directionless policy and services development process.
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The We The People System does more than reimagine a constitution, updated for the 21st century, it is focused on making real, positive, and comprehensive change happen. It functions as a massive data compiler, and multifaceted coordinator, energizer, and implementer of hands-on, and on-the-ground, community to national solutions. It is both individualized and collective in its structure. How? The technological element provides connections to all, to the nation and every community, and for any one person, connections to everything. Why? Community and-or greater involvement is not for everyone, but no one should be excluded. Individuality is a problem when it denies the value and impact of the community. Conversely, communities should always recognize the value of the individual, and their individuality.
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Appealing to the widest range of views and influences without watering down a commitment to the success of everyone in our union is vital. Today we are limited by a 233 year-old technology. If we were to honor the most futuristic group of founders, we would update our approach to government management and implementation, erasing the burden and contradictions of odious precedents. Actually improving any part of secular society, and restructuring democracy to avoid its debauchery cannot be done on ideologically rotten timbers and politically corroded steel beams. Amending may help in narrow ways but old precedents will continue to corrupt the myriad of unresolved issues, and antiquated governmental structures.
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As to one example of the disconnect, consider how the House of Representatives no longer contributes in a way the founders would recognize. Each congressperson supposedly represents their own district. Yet nationally-politicized influences will always deter them from effectively pursuing most constituent goals. Some also will focus on national issues (mostly the top few) and international policy almost exclusively. I would likely pursue that narrower course. Maybe you would as well. Fine. But our constituents would lose something, even if we were piously pristine in our non-local actions and policies. And of course, political polarization won’t let up anytime soon. Therefore, we must reclaim the local, state, and regional connection with the federal government in another manner.
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A We The People System can transcend politics at multiple points, and more strategically and effectively connect local people to state, regional, federal, and international policymaking and policymakers. The new system removes from the equation the politician as savior complex by transplanting it with a ranked (voting) type selection process. Once a citizen begins to transition their image from advocate to politician, their rank in the system structure is reduced. That said, the local public is in control of the ranking, with the system algorithm only suggesting lower rankings. Basic competency training, perpetual, advanced (online) education, and advocacy ability evaluations will enable each community to deploy the most diligent and effective advocates possible.
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Although, communities allowing politicization will be known to others, since the system workings and votes will all be made public. This provides a check on the system, with public accountability for deteriorating standards. A detailed rating system can also be implemented to foster compliance. Any serious threats to the system would rise to another level of awareness, and could be addressed via a We The People compliance council.
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The Ideals Algorithm will be a guide to every community and encourage development of a consistent ethic in goal seeking. What the ideals are in detail will be determined at the time of ratification. Rather than being a prescriptive algorithm, I see the ideals generating parameters for best practices in every policy or action, and providing guidance as to making good ideas actually work, avoiding or navigating long and short-term unintended consequences, accessing supportive resources, developing and initiating projects, etc. The original massive data mining project will be combined with everything we learn, and the system comprehends, in future work.
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We must begin our transition to a 21st century societal structure to manage the complexities of a much more numerous citizenry than imagined by our founders and ancestors. Going along as we are, and have been, means the same stilted, suffocating, and stunted solutions the status quo has always selfishly sanctified.
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Above is just a very thin introduction to the capacity and capabilities of the We The People System I have worked out. In the following prior posts, I presented more details of its potential inner, and outer, workings:
Reminder of why we must invigorate our “form a more perfect union”, or build towards a less-flawed utopia concept via a…richard-the-chwalek.medium.com
And…
Capitalism pits property against people; for property to win, people must lose.richard-the-chwalek.medium.com
As well as…
Making the case for person-to-person, community-to-community, democracy w/ advanced guard rails (an ideals algorithm)…richard-the-chwalek.medium.com
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