Principles

One should have a set of principles if they intend on accomplishing a goal or objective; the more principles that one applies to reach an objective in an efficient manner that is rationally consistent, the more effective the plan will be. Principles are applied in many ways in our everyday lives, but most of us give these basic principles much thought. Our Constitution incorporated many basic principles; one of these was that the individual should be given the primary consideration. But our Constitution did not stop there, it also suggested that one citizen could not infringe or impede the rights of others. One function of government was to assure that this breach did not occur within our society.
Clearly, it’s our government that has become the most abusive offender of these basic principles, but our Founders also warned us of this possibility, which we have ignored. The United States of America has been snared by the same human frailties that have taken down all previous nations. One can only hope that there is an awaking of these basic principles within a large portion of our population, otherwise we will join the trash heap of great nations. Our nation is being encouraged to follow the rest of the nations of the world. Are we to give up our principles and follow the failed governments around the globe?
It would be regrettable if we ignored the blueprint that our Founders gave to us; the spirit of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are the best road maps for a free society. The aspect that many individuals don’t like is that the individual is responsible for his or her actions. Thanks to some of our elected officials many of our citizens believe that our failures are the result of someone else’s actions, but they always point the finger at someone other than themselves. The biggest enabler of this dysfunction attitude is our very own government.
It is incomprehensible that man can’t seem to comprehend that all societies evolve into a centralized power structure, which eventually morphs into an authoritarian structure that is designed to satisfy the desires of a select few. This fact is so clear, and yet our species continues to go down the same road, time after time. Most reasonably rational individuals realize that a sound education would help to prevent this eventuality, but it would seem that the powers that be are more interested in indoctrination than in education. Government’s principles become evident over time as a result of the actions that are taken; the actions of our government for generations have shown that it is not interested in applying the principles of our Founders. This statement is true for both political parties; until recently most of our representatives paid little attention to our Constitution, unless they could find something that could be applied to support their position, even if they had to distort the meaning.
Americans are going to have to make a choice as to the direction they want this country to go in; one direction will take them closer to an authoritarian centralized government, the other will lead to a decentralized government, but there will be more pressure placed on the individual citizen to behave in a responsible manner. The shortcoming of the latter position is the fact that individuals will have to develop a respect for each other and realize that there may be differences of opinion and allow for this without applying force of any kind, other than reason, to get one’s position to be accepted.
One other aspect that may be difficult is the fact that the populace is going to have to maintain vigilance over a number of generations and continually reevaluate past actions and the results of those actions. To put this in its simplest terms, we will have to develop a population that is critical and analytical. No nation has ever embarked on a task as challenging as this, because it goes counter to those wishing to establish a power structure.
Charlie Allo