USA 1.0 has been operating since 1789 when the first and only Constitution came in. We are now up to USA 1.989, or whatever. The updates have been comprehensive.
If we were to have a new constitutional convention in the hope of a USA 2.0, agreement could not be reached. The differences in political ideas would be too great. Too many people would be unhappy with proposed changes. No amount of debate would narrow the differences. If agreement ever were reached, the compromises would produce a result close to what we have today.
Our system of government will not change unless that change be radical.
The opportunity exists for America to lead the world in a new political direction: voluntary governments, not necessarily territorial, within the bounds now under the control of the USA.
Let the progressives bind themselves as they see fit under their own laws, receiving all the benefits thereof and incurring all its costs and risks. Let this union be a union of persons who voluntarily choose to be a part of it, taxed and administered as they see fit, living wherever they live in this great country. If they assemble tracts of contiguous property because they want territorial integrity, they may. But there is no necessity of such, anymore than our nationwide churches of many denominations require territorial dominions.
Similarly, let the centrists come together if they will in like union. Let the alt-rightists and the anarcho-capitalists and the socialist anarchists form their own unions or not.
Let there be as many kinds and forms of government as people willingly devise, assemble and join. Let government of the people, by the people and for the people become reality. If the people are actually many peoples, each demanding their own government, then let them try it. Will they all last? Surely not. Will people move from one denomination of government to another as they experience the costs and benefits of their choices? Surely they will.
The seeds of destruction of the USA were planted again and again since 1789. How long does it take for the seeds planted in 1865 or 1898 or 1912 or 1932 or 1965 or 2001 to mature? Maybe 200 years. According to Britannica, Henry IV united France in 1589 but planted the seeds of a dynasty that would be overturned in 1789. The seeds of the Russian Revolution of 1917 were planted 200 years earlier under Peter the Great. Somewhere around 2065 or 2098 or 2112, we may expect the USA to be revolutionized, unless we do it sooner because we can, because we know more now about how political systems destruct, and because we are willing to go in a new direction.
The most formidable challenge in doing this is avoiding the wholesale destruction and redistribution of wealth through the destruction of the currency. I do not share with Murray Rothbard the idea that repudiating government debt is either an economically sound policy or an ethical one. Repudiation has the same effect as an inflationary bonfire. I don’t see how we can get from here to there or persuade others to our panarchic view with a policy like that.
1:58 pm on December 13, 2018
