Systems, Staleness, and Societal Change

Yesterday, I wrote a comment in response to another commenter, and it got me thinking. My [excerpted] comment was:

I’m going to repeat something that was imparted to me a while back by a smart person with a PhD in biology who went on to be a high-end financial advisor (right?!). His view rings so true and is incredibly relevant to where we are today in this country.

In layperson’s terms, what I took away from his insights was this: all systems - biological, geological, human -devised) need to be regulated. Systems that are not regulated properly become toxic, deviate from their original purpose, and eventually do so much harm they die or kill whatever/whoever created the system in the first place. systems can be regulated either internally (think white blood cells that kill viruses n our body) or externally (think pollution controls to minimize changes to the composition of our atmosphere).

Combine this with the following:

1. Throughout history, democracies are NOT the default form of governance. that honor belongs to strong person rule - whether its Tribal Chiefs, Shamans, Kings, Queens, Emperors, Dictators, Strongmen (usually men), a coalition of Oligarchs, even religious rule by a singular head of whatever the religion may be. More widespread small “d” democratic governance is a relatively new phenomenon.

2. Finally, history shows us that no society is immune to upheaval and change (more often than not, that change can be abrupt and violent).

The United State of America is one of the longest lasting true representative democracies. The two most famous ancient societies we think of as ones where people had a say in governance ar ancient Greece and ancient Rome. The Greek city-state Athens had a form of direct democracy for somewhat less than 200 years from the 6th to 4th centuries BCE (most of the other Greek city-states were ruled by strongmen of wealthy elite oligarchs). Around the same time, Romans established their own “democracy” in the form of a Republic (where voters elected representatives instead of voting directly on laws); however, the Roman Senate - which had great influence - was unelected and seats were generally held by wealthy families. In both places, the ability to participate in voting was extremely limited - primarily to male “citizens”. While Roman participatory government last for something on the order of almost 500 years (6th century BCE to sometime in the 1st century BCE) it was not nearly the same as what we view as democracy today.

The people who founded our democracy never intended for it to stagnate, or for the Constitution and our systems of governance derived from the Constitution, to be unresponsive to the time in which people live.

Unfortunately, IMHO, that is now the case. Thomas Jefferson certainly believed the constitution should be periodically updated to reflect current times. In 1816, Jefferson wrote in a letter,

So too did James Madison. In 1819, in a letter, referring to the constitutional amendment process, he wrote,

So much for the history lesson.

IMHO, the longer a governance structure exists in a society, the more stale it gets. People being people - and institutions being institutions, self-interest, power, ego, and wealth tend to insinuate themselves in the minds and actions of those we choose to govern us, replacing the welfare of the people they represent.

A few quick high-level examples:

• The meaning of “Commander in Chief has morphed so much it is now unrecognizable from the Constitution. Article II, Section 2, clause 1 is the only place “Commander in Chief is mentioned. It states, “The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States;…” (bolding mine). The Prez is NOT Commander in Chief over the states or police or ICE or anything other than when Congress declares war. Congress needs to reassert its authority in this area.

• SCOTUS has clearly been politicized/captured by… interests. Just one example: SCOTUS has given corporations 1st Amendment rights AND overridden laws disallowing corporations to donate money to political campaigns even though corporations are not mentioned anywhere in the constitution. Again, Congress needs to reassert its authority of SCOTUS (staggered term limits and expansion to cover the 13 current judicial districts anyone?).

• The right to vote is being attacked daily. It is one of the most sacrosanct parts of our history (I know, race and women but we corrected that in the Constitution). congress must act to ensure this right continues to be available to every American citizen.

This is all leading up to my main point: now, more than ever, we need bold leaders who have the courage, intent, intestinal fortitude and tenacity to effect the changes we need to avoid a total breakdown of our system. We do not have the luxury of putting up with go-along, get-along institutionalists (Schumer, Jeffries anyone?!). We need to articulate a bold path of reform for our constitution, institutions, laws and governance in today’s world, and do everything in our power as a people to elect those leaders - and support those institutions - who will follow that path.

We have power and agency if we act together and each of us plays our part, however small. This may sound harsh to some, but the alternative is playing out right in front of our faces. And it obviously is not acceptable.

Finds those bold people and organizations, and even if there isn’t 100% alignment, support them openly and proudly. To paraphrase an old saying, don’t let perfection be the enemy of necessity.