Dear Friends,
Its seems to me, all constitutions are written by the elite for the elite, and so it is no shocker that they all fail sooner rather than later, because of the elite. In every instance the modern elite find loopholes in the constitution to undermine it’s limitations on their rule. This happens over and over, with every successive generation of arrogant, condescending and entitled elite, until the constitutional violations are blatant and broad. Eventually that old constitution is deemed unfit and replaced by a new one. The elite write the new one, and if they are virtuous, it limits government and if they are ambitious it demands unlimited government, so the elite can rule beneficently. In the first instance the constitution must be eroded over generations before it fails, in the second, it failed before it was signed.
A constitution is an innovation that came out of the Enlightenment era. The thinkers of the time were breaking away from kings and aristocracy and embracing capitalism, limited government and industrialization. After dealing with the “rights of kings” for centuries the philosophers of the time were tired of unlimited rule. So they came up with a constitution, or a contract between the ruled and the rulers, so that tyranny can be identified and dealt with. The rights of the individual was guaranteed under a constitution because the power of the elite was limited by it. As I mentioned above, successive generations of elite have chipped away at the various constitutions, until they became a mere chiffon nighty covering naked oppression. The opposite of its intention.
There are two kinds of constitutions, the right form of constitution and the wrong form. A right constitution is one that is a set of negative liberties, or put another way, it limits what the government can do… to you, for you and in your name. Wrong form constitutions say what the government is required to do… for you, to you and in your name. The wrong form builds oppression right into its structure. Tyranny becomes an integral part of any such constitution, that seeks to give government power over the individual, to “help,” run the economy or punish longstanding power inequities. The nations laws quickly devolve into arbitrary rule, to benefit whatever interest group is ascendant. The contract between the governed and the governors becomes a slave document.
Constitutions are a great idea but unlike a contract between individuals, it is unenforcable. Obviously we are talking about right constitutions. It may look good on paper but isn’t worth the paper it is written on. Because the elite are the enforcers against their own interests. Clearly this system is failed before it is even implemented. No one, let alone a psychopath, is able to enforce the laws on him or herself. That would be expecting a human to be an angel. What Constitutions need, and have lacked, is an enforcement mechanism and absolute transparency. Without them the elite can work in the dark to undermine any constitution, no matter how well written, notorious and reasoned. A constitution must evolve to correct for deficiencies exposed by the modern elite and future ones as well.
Constitutional theory needs to evolve, to solve the problems presented to it, else it will continue to stultify. Instead of relying on an armed populace, to rise up and slaughter their way back to freedom, I think it is far more efficient to put a legal, constitutional and accountable system in place, put teeth into it… an evolution of present constitutional law. This is a better option than allowing the elite to defecate in the national well. Lets spread the word, demand our constitutions be upgraded, to include a criminal enforcement mechanism for politicians and bureaucrats who abuse our constitutional Rights, and absolute transparency, to insure they are acting constitutionally. That is a constitutional evolution that empowers the individual instead of the State. The right form of constitutional development.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
