Professor’s Classroom
Subject: American History/Political Theory
Paper #9
There is lots of talk these on blogs and discussion forums about the American people being sheep…..it is not a Right/Left thing….both sides feel that Americans are incapable of making a valid decision on their own….that they need the media and politicians and the rest to make the decisions for them…are they, the American voter, lazy, ignorant or just stupid? Another question…is it true? Are the American people sheep?
Well……thinking…..YES they ARE sheep! But when did it happen? When did Americans give up their reason and free choice? An excellent question…..and deserves an answer….
Back in the days of Grad school I took a course entitled, “American Political Thought” and that was a battle from the get go between myself and the professor….we did not agree on much and the debate pretty much took the whole class up….anyway…I digress….the course was about the political thought that went into the making of the USA….especially the Constitution….it covered the many players or should I call them Founders? Now this brings us to the title……the course was where I was introduced to “constitutive will” of the people…..
“Constitutive Will” of the people…….to have the power to institute, establish or enact……which implies that the people of the Colonies wanted establish a representative democracy when the Constitution was being debated…..now this is where my problem begins…
You know during my research I could find NO papers that showed that the people of the Colonies were ever consulted or asked what they wanted from a new government…..so when I see historians say stuff like the founders were deliberating as a people with the end of producing a new constitution that would embody their “constitutive will”……I ask where and who consulted the people?
Let us stop writing b*llshit about our beginnings! The Constitution was argued, debated and written by wealthy landowners and merchants….the people were not consulted…..their, the Founders, only concern was to protect the rights of the wealthy and to give the rest of the Colonists the illusion that if it somehow benefited the rich then the rest of the people were in good shape……in other words the Founders decided what was best for the rest of America and it has been that way ever sense…..
And that brings us to day…..our election process is just a continuation of the first batch of guys deciding what is best for the rest of us…..nothing about the process reflects what is truly the will of the people…..issues are decided on by the parties and then taken on the road and sold to the people as in their best interests.
The “Constitutive Will” of the people is a MYTH! The people have NEVER been the focus of government!
Of course, but then human conflict (and this Rebub/Dem thing IS a conflict just like any other war) is always about taking sides regardless of whether you agree with 90% of what your chosen leader stands for, isn’t it?
I keep saying, though few listen… Pick the best you can for now, BUT work on looking for a new, PROPERLY representative system that works with REALITY, not what we dream humans may one day become – that’s for God to hope and dream about (probably in vain)!
It’s pointless trying to fix the current systems we have because they are all FATALY FLAWED right from their conception! Find a new way and then push for it! It won’t solve today’s problems and it won’t happen overnight, but it’ll never happen at all unless we start somewhere and the sooner we begin, the sooner we might achieve something positive.
The people are the flawed ones…..look at the US now…they are all about “throwing the bums out”….but just not my bums…that is a stupid way to vote…..their bums are NO better than the bums they want to throw out…..
On the :constitutive Will”….no one is asked what should be the important issues of the day…..they are told…..it was so in the beginning and is so today….
Like I said…
It needs to be said loudly……
The people will always have to be “told”. The trick is to find something to tell them that actually IS for THEIR benefit and not for the current vested interests – whoever and whatever they may be!