Topic: Politics
Why Advocating a Constitutional Convention Is Not Revolutionary Rather, it is just another way to self-marginalizeby Jahfre Fire Eater
(libertarian)
Friday, December 19, 2008
If you have read Nickalis Tower's article: The Proper End to the U.S. Civil War could begin 2009 you already know from my comment on that article that I disagree with his view that a Constitutional Convention will be a good thing; so I will not repeat my reasons here. Instead, I'll comment on the nature of support for a Constitutional Convention as a pattern and how it relates to the larger picture of how individuals participate in the US political process.
I see this as yet another manifestation of the victim mentality that our culture instills in the minds of many citizens. This mindset leads to widespread political apathy, for others it fosters narrowly focused political passion for ineffective fringe behavior and for still others it leads to their acceptance of the paradigm of taking every argument to a higher venue for resolution. All of these very common personal choices hinge on the belief that the individual has no power and only so called experts and higher elected officials have the ability to effect change. This same mindset has led the LP to abandon its original liberty-oriented evangelical goals to focus on Presidential politics and "expert" campaign and party officials. This mindset fosters the "us versus them" mentality advocated by the leaders of the major political parties. They promote this behavior to keep the power and influence coming their way.
This irresistible force has caused our government to go from one that was relatively pyramid shaped, to one that is nearly an inverted pyramid. Individuals on the bottom/local level have relinquished local decision making and legislative authority to the State and the States to the Fed. Overcoming this real-world, pervasive phenomena is one key factor in advancing the defense of individual liberty. Unfortunately, many individuals who have bought into this mindset of pushing control to higher and higher experts cannot accept any other strategy. Their choice is reinforced everywhere they look and they do not dare to stand up and take responsibility after they have worked so diligently to push that responsibility onto experts and elected officials.
'Tis better, in their minds, to long for a magic bullet or a super hero who can nullify the need to actually do any productive political activities in their home towns and cities. Being politically effective is not fun or easy yet if we don't do it the enemies of liberty surely will.
Now you know the rest of the story. Not only do I disagree with any grand and glorious vision of the outcome of a Constitutional Congress but I see those who pin their hopes on such outcomes as irrelevant in the struggle for the defense of individual liberty. Once one has relinquished their own individual responsibility to a supposedly higher power or to a cult of personality, or to an emotion fueled rosy vision of a totally unpredictable outcome (faith-based behavior is often irrational), their effectiveness in the defense of liberty goes to zero as far as I'm concerned.
Doing any of these things appears irrational to me because those paths obviously do not serve the individuals best interests or align with their stated goals. To me this is one of life's great mysteries.
This pattern is manifest in the behavior of fear-mongering conspiracy theorists and in the activism via non-participation advanced by so many of the intellectual libertarians, especially the crowd at LewRockwell.com. It is manifest in the numbers who did not vote regardless if their apathy was in the activism through non-participation paradigm or not. (There is no way to actually tell the difference between a vote not cast for apathy, laziness or activism through non-participation) It is manifest in the relatively flat numbers of people registered with 3rd party or as independents. Once they are caught up in the game it is nearly impossible for them to separate themselves from it. That is the biggest challenge to individual liberty that exists; the black hole of irrational behavior in all its manifestations.
-Jahfre Fire Eater
...And now for something completely different, humor.
I can't tell from the Nolan Chart editor if the above image will work or not. Sometimes it does, most of the time is seems to disappear when I save my article. Here is a normal URL for the image in case it ends up invisible when it is published.
The views expressed in this
article are those of Jahfre Fire Eater only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Jahfre Fire Eater is
solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an
employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
Well at least you didn't say there are only 32 states that have applied for a convention. For the record all 50 states have submitted over 650 applications for a convention, well in excess of the number required. You can read the actual texts of the applications at www.foavc.org the only place where they are posted. They are photographic copies of actual government text and can easily verified by simply going to public library and reading the Congressional Record if you feel the need.
I think you miss the point about an AVC. The very action of this happening will greatly change things in this nation---to the better. It will, in one fell swoop, establish that the government must obey the Constitution, something that I think all agree, it does not feel it must do now.
More importantly, it will enable the people to obtain a new set of tools to deal with the problems of today that the Constitution currently lacks. Consider for example, one 1929 proposal by Wisconsin--an federal initiative, referendum, recall amendment. Care to guess what would happen to putting us trillions in debt if that amendment existed. Care to guess how long it would be before a lot of political fat cats would feel the heat of recall? Care to speculate on what the people would do when they would have the power to do it?
And this is one amendment issue. Others would have a tremendous positive effect on this nation. You can read the others at our site. Learn the truth. Spread the word. www.foavc.org
Posted By: Jake, the champion of the constitution
Date: 2008-12-21 18:20:35
Dear Jahfre Fire Eater -
I was listening to "the crowd at Lew Rockwell.com" yesterday, and listened to a conversation between David Nolan and Lew. Nolan completely dissed the LP's performance (and rightly so) but he kept repeating that the "only point" in having a third parties these days is if they have a completely different/radical view.
I agree with you about effectiveness in our current climate etc. but a convincing radical platform (let's not pretend the LP did a good job advancing it either) might have a chance --- say in a depression, similar to the political chaos in the 1924-1932 Germany.
I know that while you disagree about effectiveness of third parties, but you also defend the ability to freely associate, so I thought I would ask for your thoughts, as you have probably thought this through the most. Not sure if you already wrote about it. If so just send me the link. Peace!
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