AMERICA'S RAW STORY
18th POST
By Gary Brumback
GOVERNING SMALLER AMERICAS
As
a long-in-the-tooth, organizational psychologist, I have noticed that my field generally
knows little about the organization of government or the art of governing, concentrating
as it does on the other part of the corpocracy, corporate America. In this
short essay I define governing, list its various forms throughout the ages and
in America, and then close by proposing a model for governing in America that
is definitely different from the way she has always been governed.
What
Does Governing a Nation Mean?
Governing
a nation means whatever “relevant” people define it to be and however it is practiced.
Relevant people, I suppose, would include political scientists, an oxymoron,
because both politics and governing are forms of art, not science. To me the
most relevant definition of governing is not a single one but the many as seen
in how it is practiced in its myriad forms, but that is begging the question. So
here is my simple definition; governing is the act of managing publically
funded organizations that may or may not help the common good of the public
being governed.
It
is about as dry a definition as one can get but it does cover the waterfront.
What animate it are the diverse forms of governing actually practiced down
through the ages. I will list only the earliest and the more prominent ones. Two
common denominators of most if not all forms are their creation by the power
elite and their warfare, two features that are very detrimental to the common
good.
Governing
Down Through the Ages
Kinship.
Families may have been the earliest form by which people governed themselves
collectively. Extended families converged into tribes with tribal lords and
councils.
Absolute
and Constitutional Monarchies. In the former a monarch’s rule is ironclad. In
the latter the monarch’s power is constrained by law and a political body.
Empires.
The people of a land are conquered by a superpower and thereafter ruled by an
Emperor. There have been nearly 200 empires throughout history. Egypt’s empire
lasted the longest, 3,000 years. No new ones have arisen for quite some time.
Early City/Nation States.
Ancient Greeks, who were fixated on how to govern and by whom, were governed by
city/state governments and taxed by them. Perhaps the earliest precursor to
America’s tallest hierarchically structured government was China at least two
millennia ago when Ch’in, the “First Exhalted Emperor” established a
hierarchical bureaucracy to control the newly unified China.
Pre-America
Land. Many thousands of years before the land later called “America” was stolen
by rapacious, fanatical, and savage European settlers, that land was inhabited
by successive waves of what became known generically as “Indians.” Over time
they developed more sophisticated forms of governing themselves. Perhaps the
most often cited is the Iroquois League of Nations, a confederacy model copied
from the mid-15th century. Chiefs were chosen by the senior women of
their tribe. Tribal decisions were made by consensus, not by voting.
Corpocracies.
An outgrowth of the industrial revolution was the corporation. Benito
Mussolini, the founder of Italian Fascism, reportedly said at the height of his
dictatorship that “fascism should more properly be called corporatism because
it is the merger of state and corporate power.” Hitler honed corporatism into
the Third Reich, then the pinnacle of fascism. My name for “corporatism” is
“corpocracy,” and in America it is the unequal merger of state and subservient
government. Ipso facto, America is a fascist state and has been from its
beginning.
That
concludes the list, but before moving on to the proposed model I want to ask
readers this question, “Do you notice what is missing from the list?”
Democracy
is what is missing because it is pure myth, a hoax perpetrated and sustained by
the power elite. America’s “democracy” is said to have been inspired by the
putative “crucible of democracy,” Greece. Bunkum! Not even during the so-called
“halcyon era of democracy” when Pericles ruled Greece did she have a democracy.
Only about one-tenth of Athens’ populace was officially designated citizens.
Slaves, women, and men who had not served in the military were all
non-citizens. Military service was an absolute necessity since Pericles
presided over the remaining years of the war with Persia and the first few years
of the 30 year war between Athens and Sparta. What ancient Greece inspired, it
seems, is the habit of getting things through war.
America’s
power elite and its lackeys proclaim democracy while practicing corpocracy.
They know it is not a democracy. Only three groups of Americans, the deceived,
the deluded and the deniers believe it to be so. Americans who know and detest
the corpocracy for what it is and does are outnumbered but also subjugated as
are those three groups. That being so, is not any proposed alternative for
governing useless and having only a short shelf life? My answer has to be
“probably yes,” but we live in desperate times and desperately need to start
building a livable future if there are to be any future generations much longer
other than for microorganisms.
Governing
Smaller Americas: The Model’s Four Principles
The
model is guided by four mutually compatible principles:
1. The Principle of Individual Self Governance
The Individual + Circumstances = Individual Health,
Happiness and Prosperity
2. The Principle of the Larger Liberty Quotient
More Individual Self Determination/Less Corpocracy Determination
3. The Principle of Size
Smaller is More Governable than Bigger
4. The Principle of Good Governance
The Nation + Good Governance = National Health,
Happiness and Prosperity
1.
The Principle of Individual Self Governance. There can be no people without
persons. The person is the indivisible unit in a nation of people. Diminishment
of individual self governance diminishes national self governance, or to put it
in the vernacular, “all for one, and one for all.”
2.
The Principle of the Larger Liberty Quotient. What distinguishes this principle
from the first one is that the corpocracy enters into the second one. The
smaller the quotient the larger is corpocracy determination and as the ratio
gets smaller and smaller the determination turns into subjugation. The ideal
ratio would be one where the denominator is just small enough to be right and
missing the corporate component.
3.
Smaller is better than larger. Should doomsday come, only microorganisms will
survive. Larger organizations are less manageable than small ones. The largest
organization in the world, the U.S. Federal government knows it’s unmanageable
but won’t admit it. Smaller numbers are also more useful than larger ones.
America has absolutely too many governments: city, county, regional, state, and
national. America is over governed and under served.
Had
the colonists not slaughtered the Natives there could have been a much
different nation. Had President Lincoln not sacrificed 175,000 countrymen for
the sake of unifying the nation for defense and expansion, there would have
been two smaller Americas, and much less opportunity for endless warring by the
mightiest war force ever known and the power elite’s appetite for global
exploitation.
4.
The Principle of Good Governance. This principle is a derivative of the first
three. Good governance optimizes self governance, yields larger liberty
quotients throughout the governed, and is optimally small in size and number organizationally.
Governing
Smaller America’s According to the Principles
Not
one of the four principles has seen the light of day in practice in America’s
history. If they were to be followed, what would good government look like
throughout the land stolen from the Natives?
1.
Smaller and Fewer Governments. Four regional governments called the Four
Americas. One central council to protect the entire land’s common valuables: Native
Americans; air; and peace among the four Americas and with global neighbors.
Municipal governments.
2.
The Governments’ Ultimate Goals. They are to be found in the first, second, and
forth principles: individual and general public health, happiness, and
prosperity; elimination of the corporate role in governing; and the shrinking
corporate presence in the four Americas’ economies.
3.
Change and Maintenance Agents. All people in the four regions following the lead
of those who are selected by consensus to be the principals.
4.
Deference to the First “Americans.” There are scores of Indian tribes located
throughout the land that should be called Stolen America. The central council
would mandate that tribal members be among those selected to be
principals.
In
Closing
There
is no point in my trying to add the details that “are in the Devil” of how the
model might actually be implemented. I served my purpose already by just sharing
the model’s outline. If it ignites the imagination and actions of any readers
that is enough gratification for me. Moreover, many times before I have labored
over the details of ideas that came to naught.
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