A Green State of Mind

There are basic premises that direct democracy is built upon in order to be the most effective way to organize society and collective action.

In the multiple debates and discussions about democracy, specifically direct democracy, there has been attempts to define it. Or at the very least, to distill what is its most basic principles and the traits that exist in all forms of democracy. The major obstacle to this analysis, and the discovery of the axioms of democracy, is that the American tradition has been more about representative democracy than direct democracy. The emphasis on representative democracy is based on the inherent belief at the time that direct control by the people was dangerous and that direct democracy was nothing more than mob rule. This was used as an excuse for the landed and propertied class of the American colonies to recuperate the freedom gained by the American Revolution and redefine it through the lens of limited government and natural rights. The theory of natural rights proposes that there are certain rights that are outside of the decisions of any government, or any changes that could be made by a democratic body. Thus, they are inalienable rights. However, it can be argued that the purpose of natural rights do not necessarily need the institution of a representative government that in the end perpetuates the power of the status quo and the elite that profit from it. On the contrary, representation can be an abstraction and alienation of the popular will, and is an almost impossible way to reflect what free people truly want in a collective sense. The result is that representative democracy reproduces the state and limits the possibility of democracy. In other words, there are axioms of democracy that exist outside of the decision making process of the particular democracy in question. These axioms, as first rules that are self evident and do not need to be explained, insures that the fear of mob rule does not actually happen in direct democracy. They are the foundation for how democracy has worked throughout history as the best way for a group of people to self-organize themselves. Enumerating these axioms will help to insure that the direct democratic tradition is able to refute the charges of mob rule that is so easily used against it in order to defend an existing hierarchy and power structure. The axioms of democracy are the founding rules that allow democracy to happen.

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There is not only the need for an alternative to the Federal Reserve, there is the strong potential for an alternative.

The year 2013 will mark the one hundred year anniversary of the formation of the Federal Reserve. For about the same amount of time, this institution has garnered controversy from how it was planned out to how it operates on a daily basis. The major characteristics of the Federal Reserve is that it is a private banking system, it releases the national currency into circulation through loans, and it lends money directly to the government through bonds. Its internal method of banking is fractional reserve banking, where a percentage of reserves held by each bank in the Fed hierarchy is the amount that is generated out of thin air for loans to the lower banks or to individuals at the bottom, and when those loans are paid back to the private banks it increases the reserve and therefore the amount of fiat currency that can be generated. Fiat currency by definition is not taken from the physical supply of the reserve that is held but is loaned out separately, in this day and age electronically as a transfer of numbers from one account to another. The percentage of the reserve determines the amount but not its source. All four aspects of the Federal Reserve such as its private status, its fractional reserve banking, its putting money into circulation through loans, and its lending to the government are all subject to criticism. The least controversial aspect of the Federal Reserve is its ability to set interest rates, which is a minor component compared to its major actions and duties. All that can be criticized can be replaced with other methods in order to have a far more just and stable banking system, one that is responsible to all citizens rather than a banking elite in partnership with a political elite.

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A voter appeal for this election season.

We are in a time of great historical change. Many things are happening in a very short amount of time, and we are all witness to it. From the Arab Spring that toppled dictatorships in the Middle East to the protests against austerity in Europe, a new awakening is occurring to oppose the status quo that has failed everyone for the past thirty years. But in the United States we find that there has been in the last four years a surplus of hope but a lack of change. There were many promises inherent in the election of Barack Obama, but there was also the full realization by those who were observant that his 2008 campaign platform was not as progressive as was imagined by those who ardently supported him. In other words, his supporters were more committed to change than the candidate himself. From that point on, it was clear that he was funded by Wall Street to the same degree as his Republican opponent, and we began to see this influence in the enactment of his presidency and who he surrounded himself with in his administration. The bailouts saved the banks that had ruined the economy with not one person held accountable for this crime. The healthcare bill advocated by the administration, and passed by Congress, had an insurance mandate that is nothing but a corporate subsidy for the insurance companies that will do nothing to improve access to health services for everyone. Instead of being a peace president, and in direct contradiction to his Nobel Peace Prize, Obama has intensified the wars started by George W. Bush with drone attacks that have killed more innocent civilians and assassinated American citizens without a trial. Though he has promised to close Guantanamo, pull back on federal raids on statewide legal medial marijuana dispensaries, and recently spoke out in favor of same sex marriage, the president has been slow on these issues or only given lip service to them. Meanwhile, the government continues to imprison people without trial, raid legal medical marijuana dispensaries, and delayed acting when states have enacted laws limiting gay rights. The signing into law by the president of the NDAA, which will allow indefinite detention of citizens on American soil, is the most recent concrete example of the disappointment this administration has been. Overall, it has been a series of appearance rather than substance in terms of policies for change.

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