America: Broken As Designed (Op-Ed)
http://www.kuro5hin.org/?op=displaystory;sid=2002/6/10/204644/205
By Arkady
Tue Jun 11th, 2002 at 08:31:47 AM EST
The most significant test of any system is how it handles unanticipated
situations. A well-designed and
implemented system is one which can continue to operate correctly (i.e. one
which continues to embody its design principles and function according to
its specifications) in a situation which was not considered in its creation.
A system which does not must be considered flawed, either in design or
implementation.
While those of here who are scientists and engineers use this principle of
evaluation daily in our work, it's likely that few of us (and probably even
fewer in the general population) have applied this principle to the State(s)
in which we live. Since the United States, in its current form, is over two
hundred years old (and one of its designers, Thomas Jefferson himself,
advocated such a review every twenty years), a public review of how well it
has proceeded is long overdue.
A well-formed project will have three things, not because they are
necessary for its success, but because they are necessary for deciding
whether it has succeeded. These are: 1) a statement of goals, 2) a
specification and 3) the implementation. Without these, it is impossible to
look at a finished system and reasonably decide to what degree it is (or is
not) what was intended and to what degree it actually performs the functions
it's intended to perform.
The United States is a rarity among States, in that it possesses all three
of these things:
1) statement of goals: The Declaration of Independence and The Federalist
Papers
2) design specification: The Constitution
3) implementation: the State as it exists
(Most modern States possess a written Constitution, though as I understand
it the United Kingdom does not, and obviously all States, in that they
exist, possess an implementation. Few, however, have a written statement of
the founders intentions; the United States, the Soviet Union and Maoist
China are quite a rare collection in that respect.)
Since the U.S. has all three attributes, it is possible to evaluate it as we
would any other project. This involves answering three questions;
1) How closely does the specification follow the stated goals?
2) How well does the implementation follow the specification?
3) How accurately does the implementation embody the stated design goals?
"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness"
The Declaration of Independence (at the National Archives) lays out several
principles and goals for the new State, which its authors hoped to launch
with that document. While some, like the quote above, are stated as
affirmations others may be deduced from the list of complaints against the
British rule, though since this is an essay (not a book, in which I could
reasonably expected to deal with the whole range of the subject) I will
content myself with three affirmative principles listed in the preamble.
These three points are:
1) the State exists only by the consent of the people, who have the right
(and the duty) to withdraw that consent and to institute a new State (or
States) when the old ceases to follow the Declaration's founding principles
2) the peoples' right to "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness", among
others, are unalienable (i.e. may not be transferred to, or interfered with,
by the State)
3) the State must treat all people equally, neither favoring nor oppressing
any class or individual
These three principles are stated quite explicitly, rather than deduced from
the complaints against the British rulers (which makes up most of the text
of the Declaration), and thus can be reasonably used to evaluate the
resulting State. There can be no mistaking them as fundamental design
principles, in that they are stated as such, and thus no reasonable
complaint can be made that they are the product of a later interpretation.
The American State must, therefore, embody these principles fully to be
considered a successful design and implementation.
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