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- Jan 30, 2011
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The conditions that led to the revolution are quite well known to most...
Freedom from religious tyranny - Throughout history, without exception in western culture, religion has been a constant source of oppression and human suffering and death, either of non-believers or their own flock. Sometimes acting as the government, sometimes conspiring with government.
Freedom from government tyranny - From village councils to colony governors to the crown, tyranny in government.. meddling in the daily personal business of it's citizens, intruding into their homes was an ever present fact of life with no recourse to address the complaints of the people, no representation.
The one that everyone forgets, if they ever knew... the lesson lost to history, the one we deluded ourselves into thinking republican democracy had cured... Tyranny of capital. (not an anti-capitalist statement).
The founding documents have at their core three principles...
Freedom/self-determination
recognition and protection of natural rights
and balance... the idea that all "men" are created equal, and to expand that idea to eventually include all.. to preserve that equality as much as a government can through checks and balances on power, equal representation, equal rights, equality of religion, etc.
As in any natural system, when things get out of balance, the system crashes.
At the founding of our country, as many warnings were given with regard to the creation and regulation of money as well as the over-concentration of wealth into too few hands, as were given regarding the influences of religion and the inherently corrupt nature of all governments.
The tax protests and rebellions of the early 1770s were as much about the companies like East India Trd as it was about parliament and the crown. For this reason early companies and "incorporations" were extremely limited in the scope of their business practices had no rights but instead, were granted privileges from the people in public trust. The reason is simple. Moneyed interests have had as corrupting and historically constant an influence over governments as have religions and tyrannical kings.
Avarice - Avarice take two forms according to the bible and all moral belief systems (which in this case is reference to historical knowledge, not religion) takes two forms...
Hoarding wealth. Hoarding wealth and not spending it back into society deprives the society of liquidity needed for opportunity and at extremes, basic needs.
Over spending - spending without saving on wants and desires risks your families health and stability.
Balance
Capitalism, if nothing else, is essential to innovation, which is one of the things we are most proud of as Americans. Yet like all things, it must be in balance with the things it's connected to, ie; community, labor, government, etc. A minimally regulated, profit at any cost environment is historically a certain path to tyranny.
Not only have we failed to keep capital interests in check and balance with social needs and standards of living, we have allowed the creation of a super-citizen leading to unequal representation and corporations so large that they can threaten the entire world, extorting bailouts and zero consequence when failure, bankruptcy and lifelong ridicule was warranted.
There is no debate that money = political voice... and the ability of representatives to hear.. if 20% of the pop holds 85% of the wealth, the remaining 80% middle class and poor could pool all their money, all 15% left in the economy and still not outspend the money interests. No longer is it one voice, one vote. The owners and directors of companies and corporations, aside from already having the same voice and vote as all others, now have a mega amplified voice by leveraging the resources and capital of their companies to further influence representation.
This... is grossly out of balance.
Freedom from religious tyranny - Throughout history, without exception in western culture, religion has been a constant source of oppression and human suffering and death, either of non-believers or their own flock. Sometimes acting as the government, sometimes conspiring with government.
Freedom from government tyranny - From village councils to colony governors to the crown, tyranny in government.. meddling in the daily personal business of it's citizens, intruding into their homes was an ever present fact of life with no recourse to address the complaints of the people, no representation.
The one that everyone forgets, if they ever knew... the lesson lost to history, the one we deluded ourselves into thinking republican democracy had cured... Tyranny of capital. (not an anti-capitalist statement).
The founding documents have at their core three principles...
Freedom/self-determination
recognition and protection of natural rights
and balance... the idea that all "men" are created equal, and to expand that idea to eventually include all.. to preserve that equality as much as a government can through checks and balances on power, equal representation, equal rights, equality of religion, etc.
As in any natural system, when things get out of balance, the system crashes.
At the founding of our country, as many warnings were given with regard to the creation and regulation of money as well as the over-concentration of wealth into too few hands, as were given regarding the influences of religion and the inherently corrupt nature of all governments.
The tax protests and rebellions of the early 1770s were as much about the companies like East India Trd as it was about parliament and the crown. For this reason early companies and "incorporations" were extremely limited in the scope of their business practices had no rights but instead, were granted privileges from the people in public trust. The reason is simple. Moneyed interests have had as corrupting and historically constant an influence over governments as have religions and tyrannical kings.
Avarice - Avarice take two forms according to the bible and all moral belief systems (which in this case is reference to historical knowledge, not religion) takes two forms...
Hoarding wealth. Hoarding wealth and not spending it back into society deprives the society of liquidity needed for opportunity and at extremes, basic needs.
Over spending - spending without saving on wants and desires risks your families health and stability.
Balance
Capitalism, if nothing else, is essential to innovation, which is one of the things we are most proud of as Americans. Yet like all things, it must be in balance with the things it's connected to, ie; community, labor, government, etc. A minimally regulated, profit at any cost environment is historically a certain path to tyranny.
Not only have we failed to keep capital interests in check and balance with social needs and standards of living, we have allowed the creation of a super-citizen leading to unequal representation and corporations so large that they can threaten the entire world, extorting bailouts and zero consequence when failure, bankruptcy and lifelong ridicule was warranted.
There is no debate that money = political voice... and the ability of representatives to hear.. if 20% of the pop holds 85% of the wealth, the remaining 80% middle class and poor could pool all their money, all 15% left in the economy and still not outspend the money interests. No longer is it one voice, one vote. The owners and directors of companies and corporations, aside from already having the same voice and vote as all others, now have a mega amplified voice by leveraging the resources and capital of their companies to further influence representation.
This... is grossly out of balance.
eace
