I quit Breaking News some years ago after reluctantly concluding it was generally impossible to have a civil, constructive conversation across the aisle in regard to current events. (I still darken the corridors of Religion.)
I’m going to test the waters here at Perspectives with a somewhat different approach. I’m hoping to have a conversation about what kind of a society and what kind of a polity we want, while assiduously avoiding current events.
I want to encourage: Discussion about shared values and not-shared values; discussion in the abstract about political structures; discussion about how systems design can help or hinder us from creating the kind of society we want to live in.
I want to discourage: Discussion about current events; any mention at all of the current or previous President of the United States; any comments about any current political party. In short, anything that can knock us off the abstract game and into tribal warfare.
I don’t know at this point if this will be a single OP or a series. Probably depends a lot on whether it feels fruitful to continue. I will start out by proposing a few key values or concepts that I hold as central to the kind of society I want to live in. I invite your comments agreeing, teasing out, disagreeing, etc.. Again, please refrain from scoring any political points related to current events.
I propose these items as central tenets of the kind of society and polity in which I want to live:
- Human rights: Governments are bound by an obligation to protect basic human rights for all persons within their jurisdiction.
- Rule of law: Government officials are constrained in their actions by an even-handed application of the rule of law.
- Rules-based international order: Multilateral institutions strengthen and uphold the obligation of sovereign governments to limit their actions to those that are agreed upon as legal by the international community. Strong countries are not allowed to invade weaker countries just because they want to.
- Representative democracy: All citizens have the right and the ability to participate freely and fairly in choosing who will govern them. Any practices that curtail the rights of citizens to participate on an equal footing are severely limited.
- Limits to the power of corporations and the wealth: Systems have effective safeguards to limit the distorting influence of money in our political system.
I don’t propose this as a complete list, but each of these items seems necessary to me.
Questions: What do you think about these five items? What would you add? Or subtract?
And did I mention? Please avoid discussing current events and people.