THE NATION'S FORGOTTEN PURPOSE
AND LOST DIRECTION
Preamble to the United States Constitution:
"We the people of the United States, in order to
form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure
domestic Tranquility, provide for the common de-
fence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the
blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity,
do ordain and establish this Constitution for the
United States of America."
For the folks who worship our Constitution, and I
value it as highly as anyone, it might be time to re-
affirm our devotion to it, and reconsider it's high
purpose and basic meaning. These are not at all
complicated, but are easily neglected or forgotten.
The purpose of our government is laid out clearly
and succinctly in the opening words of this magni-
ficent document: "We the people of the United
States, in order to form a more perfect union (em-
phasis mine) . . ." Let me stop right there: we the
people are set on achieving (and are still supposed
to be working at) forming a more perfect union!
Is that what our politics are about, and what they
are doing? Hardly: a perfect union would be one
that combines communitarian ism with individualism
perfectly. (Communitarian ism is dedication to the
common good. It suffers when subordinated to
individual advantage as we see happening a lot as
we speak.) Power corrupts, we know. Sen. Mc-
Cain says greed is creating havoc in our markets.
Well, that's certainly part of it! It takes more than
greed to get us where we are now. Lots of greedy
people are dumb, and get nowhere!
Okay: the over-riding purpose of the Constitution
is to form a more perfect union. It goes on to list
necessary areas to accomplish this: "establish jus-
tice" is one of them. Here we are failing badly, both
in our criminal justice, and even more so in the
areas of distributive justice. As John Rawls showed
in his monumental A Theory of Justice, justice is
simply fairness. (Google him, if you are interested
in his reasoning.) As to its import, Rawls wrote:
"Justice is the first value of social institutions, as
truth is of systems of thought." Actually, without
justice, nothing else in the Preamble will work well
or for long. In fact, without justice, everything in
the Constitution becomes meaningless, if not im-
possible!
Please do not try to tell me that justice is just too
complex to be understood. That's nonsense!
About the third thing a child says after "no" and
"mama," is "that's not fair." Everybody knows
what that is. Studies at UCLA in 2008 have indi-
cated that reactions to fairness are "wired" into
the brain and that "Fairness is activating the same
part of the brain that responds to food in rats . . .
This is consistent with the notion that being trea-
ted fairly satisfies a basic need." (From Wikipedia
on Justice.) So justice is first in the program of
forming a more perfect union.
"Insure domestic Tranquility" comes next. This
requires good government. Good government is
fair and competent. It is free of secrecy, favori-
tism, bias or cronyism. That in turn requires
vigilant, vigorous examination of public policies
and actions by an unbiased press. For that rea-
son the First Amendment protects free speech
and press. These are absolutely vital to form
(and keep) a more perfect union.
Of course, we don't really have a vigorous, vigi-
lent, unfettered media anymore. That's part of
why we have a government run amok and out of
control. 80% of us think we are on the wrong
track, and 65% of us want us out of Iraq now.
But we the people are powerless to change any-
thing important. Gore Vidal (in an interview
with the Progressive) said of our current oligar-
chy: "The people don't matter to this gang. They
pay no attention. They think in totalitarian terms.
They've got the troops. They've got the army.
They've got congress. They've got the judiciary.
Why should they worry? Let the chattering class
chatter. Bush is a thug. I think there is something
really the matter with him."
Whether there is anything wrong with Mr. Bush
I don't know. He may just be a spoiled rich boy
who never grew up. Everything was always given
to him (including an election!) I do know there
is something very wrong with us! "Fool me once . . ."
How did this happen? How and why did the self-
congratulatory free press keep us distracted with
senseless trivia while our national store was being
robbed, looted, and gutted (like a moose) without
a peep from the watch dogs? They didn't even
watch! Gore Vidal again, in the same interview:
"When you've got a press like we have, you no
longer have an informed citizenry." He's right, of
course. And that means trouble, lots of trouble,
right here in River City. We can't have a more
perfect union without much fuller and fairer in-
formation. Rush rules!
Next is "provide for the common defense." This
one we excel in, because it's so financially re-
warding. We spend almost $600 billion per year
on it. Naturally, since this area is so profitable,
there is little oversight and colossal waste and
corruption instead. I won't go into the many
needs that are shorted in favor of defense, such
as infra-structure, education, health care, clean
energy, the environment, and on and on. We will
see some of this however, in the next item.
After the common defense, which I'm sliding by
because we're doing it, and it's too big to do
justice to here, comes the part that says to form
a more perfect union, we need to "promote the
general Welfare." That's also essential to insure
domestic tranquility and establish (and maintain)
justice. Harry Truman said "it took 150 years for
the Republicans to find "welfare" in the Constitu-
tion." True, and they still don't accept it! Or at
least many don't. To promote the general wel-
fare certainly includes universal health care. How
could it not? All the industrialized countries in
the world have it -- except us. And we're the rich-
est! Even some of the developing countries like
Cuba and China have it.
The Republicans want to "privatize" Social Secu-
rity. The American public says "no way." Aren't
you glad a major chunk of your old age livelihood
isn't riding on red in the stock market roulette?
What a dumb idea that was!
Lastly, to "secure the Blessings of Liberty to our-
selves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish
this Constitution for the United States of Ameri-
ca." We won't have the last without all the rest.
That is the genius of our Founding Fathers. They
understood the inter-connectedness of all these
features essential to good government. I will plan
to write more later about the "common good"
that is the social glue holding together and pro-
moting a "more perfect union." I will also dis-
cuss the mortal threat that lionized individualism
that celebrates private privilege and advantage
poses both to the common good and the more
perfect union.
AND LOST DIRECTION
Preamble to the United States Constitution:
"We the people of the United States, in order to
form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure
domestic Tranquility, provide for the common de-
fence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the
blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity,
do ordain and establish this Constitution for the
United States of America."
For the folks who worship our Constitution, and I
value it as highly as anyone, it might be time to re-
affirm our devotion to it, and reconsider it's high
purpose and basic meaning. These are not at all
complicated, but are easily neglected or forgotten.
The purpose of our government is laid out clearly
and succinctly in the opening words of this magni-
ficent document: "We the people of the United
States, in order to form a more perfect union (em-
phasis mine) . . ." Let me stop right there: we the
people are set on achieving (and are still supposed
to be working at) forming a more perfect union!
Is that what our politics are about, and what they
are doing? Hardly: a perfect union would be one
that combines communitarian ism with individualism
perfectly. (Communitarian ism is dedication to the
common good. It suffers when subordinated to
individual advantage as we see happening a lot as
we speak.) Power corrupts, we know. Sen. Mc-
Cain says greed is creating havoc in our markets.
Well, that's certainly part of it! It takes more than
greed to get us where we are now. Lots of greedy
people are dumb, and get nowhere!
Okay: the over-riding purpose of the Constitution
is to form a more perfect union. It goes on to list
necessary areas to accomplish this: "establish jus-
tice" is one of them. Here we are failing badly, both
in our criminal justice, and even more so in the
areas of distributive justice. As John Rawls showed
in his monumental A Theory of Justice, justice is
simply fairness. (Google him, if you are interested
in his reasoning.) As to its import, Rawls wrote:
"Justice is the first value of social institutions, as
truth is of systems of thought." Actually, without
justice, nothing else in the Preamble will work well
or for long. In fact, without justice, everything in
the Constitution becomes meaningless, if not im-
possible!
Please do not try to tell me that justice is just too
complex to be understood. That's nonsense!
About the third thing a child says after "no" and
"mama," is "that's not fair." Everybody knows
what that is. Studies at UCLA in 2008 have indi-
cated that reactions to fairness are "wired" into
the brain and that "Fairness is activating the same
part of the brain that responds to food in rats . . .
This is consistent with the notion that being trea-
ted fairly satisfies a basic need." (From Wikipedia
on Justice.) So justice is first in the program of
forming a more perfect union.
"Insure domestic Tranquility" comes next. This
requires good government. Good government is
fair and competent. It is free of secrecy, favori-
tism, bias or cronyism. That in turn requires
vigilant, vigorous examination of public policies
and actions by an unbiased press. For that rea-
son the First Amendment protects free speech
and press. These are absolutely vital to form
(and keep) a more perfect union.
Of course, we don't really have a vigorous, vigi-
lent, unfettered media anymore. That's part of
why we have a government run amok and out of
control. 80% of us think we are on the wrong
track, and 65% of us want us out of Iraq now.
But we the people are powerless to change any-
thing important. Gore Vidal (in an interview
with the Progressive) said of our current oligar-
chy: "The people don't matter to this gang. They
pay no attention. They think in totalitarian terms.
They've got the troops. They've got the army.
They've got congress. They've got the judiciary.
Why should they worry? Let the chattering class
chatter. Bush is a thug. I think there is something
really the matter with him."
Whether there is anything wrong with Mr. Bush
I don't know. He may just be a spoiled rich boy
who never grew up. Everything was always given
to him (including an election!) I do know there
is something very wrong with us! "Fool me once . . ."
How did this happen? How and why did the self-
congratulatory free press keep us distracted with
senseless trivia while our national store was being
robbed, looted, and gutted (like a moose) without
a peep from the watch dogs? They didn't even
watch! Gore Vidal again, in the same interview:
"When you've got a press like we have, you no
longer have an informed citizenry." He's right, of
course. And that means trouble, lots of trouble,
right here in River City. We can't have a more
perfect union without much fuller and fairer in-
formation. Rush rules!
Next is "provide for the common defense." This
one we excel in, because it's so financially re-
warding. We spend almost $600 billion per year
on it. Naturally, since this area is so profitable,
there is little oversight and colossal waste and
corruption instead. I won't go into the many
needs that are shorted in favor of defense, such
as infra-structure, education, health care, clean
energy, the environment, and on and on. We will
see some of this however, in the next item.
After the common defense, which I'm sliding by
because we're doing it, and it's too big to do
justice to here, comes the part that says to form
a more perfect union, we need to "promote the
general Welfare." That's also essential to insure
domestic tranquility and establish (and maintain)
justice. Harry Truman said "it took 150 years for
the Republicans to find "welfare" in the Constitu-
tion." True, and they still don't accept it! Or at
least many don't. To promote the general wel-
fare certainly includes universal health care. How
could it not? All the industrialized countries in
the world have it -- except us. And we're the rich-
est! Even some of the developing countries like
Cuba and China have it.
The Republicans want to "privatize" Social Secu-
rity. The American public says "no way." Aren't
you glad a major chunk of your old age livelihood
isn't riding on red in the stock market roulette?
What a dumb idea that was!
Lastly, to "secure the Blessings of Liberty to our-
selves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish
this Constitution for the United States of Ameri-
ca." We won't have the last without all the rest.
That is the genius of our Founding Fathers. They
understood the inter-connectedness of all these
features essential to good government. I will plan
to write more later about the "common good"
that is the social glue holding together and pro-
moting a "more perfect union." I will also dis-
cuss the mortal threat that lionized individualism
that celebrates private privilege and advantage
poses both to the common good and the more
perfect union.
posted by John Goodwin at
12:04 PM
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