Your Agency in a Nation State
There are a lot of ways to administer a nation state. Even in our modern world there are monarchies, dictatorships, theocracies, warlords, and a broad range of democracies with some communist countries that insist they are democratic. In fact, of the 193 countries that exist right now, each one could be said to have its own modified and slightly unique system of governance.
However, in general, the most prosperous countries with highest standards of living tend to be parliamentary democracies, republics, and constitutional republics. In these countries the citizens have rights to free speech, free association, freedom of religion, fair trials, and the ability to cast their vote in elections.
The United States is a prime example of a constitutional republic with all of these rights and with a high standard of living. Many Americans believe it to be the best country in history and an example to the world of how all free people should be governed.
2500-Year-Old Social Technology
We have the ancient Greeks to thank for the innovation of democracy. And while it has evolved over those millennia, I would assert that we are still using a very low technology of human governance compared to what the modern world can enable.
By way of explanation, imagine this scenario. Intelligent aliens from thousands of light-years away visit our planet knowing nothing about our culture and inquire as to how we govern millions of people in the American community.
Chat With An Alien
Aliens: Greetings. How many people live here?
Americans: We have about 340 million people right now and the number is growing.
Aliens: How are you organized?
Americans: We’re a constitutional republic, so we’re guaranteed some fundamental rights and we elect people to represent our views on everything else.
Aliens: Do you vote several times a day?
Americans: Oh, no, we get a big vote every four years in November.
Aliens: Do you get to vote on everything that is important to you?
Americans: No, we each get to vote on a president, two senators, and one congressman. Those people will represent our desires and best interests for all the thousands of issues that affect us over the next four years.
Aliens: I see. So is there a huge spectrum of choice to accommodate the personal values and priorities of 340 million different people?
Americans: No, there are really just two choices. Democrat or Republican. There are some other very small parties but mathematically they can’t win so votes for them are widely considered to be wasted.
Aliens: What happens for all the people who voted for a loser?
Americans: Everyone has to do what the winning voters wanted. It’s a ‘winner takes all’ sort of deal and all the new laws are mandatory for everyone.
Aliens: And that’s for four consecutive years?
Americans: Well, during the intervening four years if there’s anything a citizen wants changed they can write a letter to the president and to their congressman and their senators and ask them to take action to change the law right away.
Aliens: Does that happen quickly?
Americans: Not really. It can take decades to change a law, and it usually involves thousands of man-hours of lobbying and millions of dollars paid to political campaigns.
Aliens: That seems like a pretty clunky way to do things. Are people generally happy with the way things are run politically?
Americans: Actually, pretty much everyone we know complains about it at every opportunity. Especially in recent years.
Aliens: Wow. So these people you vote for, are they considered to be the best and brightest people among you?
Americans: The fact is, most of us would agree they are probably the most dishonest, unprincipled, and self-serving people among us. It’s widely accepted that you can’t trust a politician to do what they promise. If any other industry did that they’d be sued into bankruptcy, for sure.
Aliens:Aliens: And these are the people in charge of all of you.
Americans: Oh, yeah. They control every industry, all the education, what we can eat, drink, and smoke, who we can marry, what we can do inside our own homes, how much of our money we’re allowed keep, even who we go to war with. They determine the terms and conditions we live under throughout our lives and they can unilaterally change those terms at any time and we can’t opt out of this arrangement. That’s just the price for living in freedom.
Aliens: So dishonest people control everything in your life, you have to abide by what the majority wants, even if you don’t agree, and you get one of two pre-selected choices every four years, you can never negotiate your own deal, and you are told this is freedom. Does everyone agree to this because it’s cost effective?
Americans: Well, if you take all the taxes, tariffs and fees into account it comes to about half of our lifetime income to pay for our system of governance. Plus they put our children and grandchildren into debt before they are even born. So it ain’t cheap, that’s for sure.
Aliens: And this occasional voting is your sole agency over all the laws that you must live by over the entirety of your lifetimes?
Americans: Yup, we get to vote on who makes the mandatory laws. Doing anything without the blessing of the law gets you put in a cage for awhile. Everyone else in your community has to pay for the cage too.
Aliens: How many people participate in these big votes?
Americans: Well, if you believe the numbers provided, it’s around 150 million voters.
Aliens: And you get one vote, right?
Americans: Yup. One man, one vote. Women too, nowadays.
Aliens: And your species has advanced mathematics, correct?
Americans: Sure.
Aliens: So you’re aware that your vote - the main agency you have for choice throughout your lifetimes - is mathematically incapable of causing change in your own life?
Americans: Well, when you put it like that…
Aliens: You have half of your lifetime production taken by known liars who control every aspect of your lives and property. You, your children and their children are born into debt and your main agency for changing anything is a 1 in 150,000,000, comet in a cubic parsec chance. And you’re OK with that?
Americans: Well, everyone knows democracy is the best system.
Aliens: Wow, are you folks open to the idea that there might be higher technologies that enable more granular personal choices, that address individuals instead of large groups, that react quickly to change, that are volitional instead of mandatory, and that might cost much less money over your lifetime?
Americans: No. We’re #1 and you can’t get better than that.
Aliens: OK, bye for now. Hope you’re still here when we visit again.
(Note: I’m not picking on the US. I could have referenced the British instead, in which case the only big differences would be an election every 4 to 5 years, a Labour or Tory choice, and one Member of Parliament for whom to vote and to petition for all the changes you want to see in your lifetime.)
The Takeaway
We are all born into political systems that give us almost no agency over the choices we really want for ourselves. About half of our lifetime production is taken from us to pay for this system of unilateral and mandatory control of the population. It should be obvious that better systems of peaceful, cooperative governance are possible in the 21st century.
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