OpEdNews - Article: Robert Jenson, I Agree

Since Robert Jenson has touched on a topic near and dear to my heart I thought I would respond.

His article Headlined on 8/14/08:

The old future's gone: Progressive strategy amid cascading crises

by Robert Jensen in this article Mr. Jenson says, and I quote ...

"We are tribal animals. Whatever kind of political unit we live in, our evolutionary history is in tribes and we are designed to live in relatively small groups, some would say of no more than 150 persons."

If that is so are there any tribal people around that can show us how to act as "tribal" entities? They are ever so close. There is the American Indian. And as a matter of fact they had a share in helping us create our constitution, which our govenment is ripping to shreds all the time these days.

I will now include the article I was just putting together for OPED on just that topic...

We Do Not Live in a Democracy

When I feel something is true I often go out and get the documentation to support my view. I try not to simply air my own opinion.

I want to talk in this article about what our country was like in the beginning. Then you might see why I am not so enthusiastic about its preservation in its present form. Let us examine the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.

"I Pledge Allegiance to the flag of America and to the Republic for which it stands". What is a Republic? Dictionary.com says among other things this..

"Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary, © 2000-2006 K Dictionaries Ltd.
American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This

Republic:
A form of government in which power is explicitly vested in the people, who in turn exercise their power through elected representatives. Today, the terms republic and democracy are virtually interchangeable, but historically the two differed. Democracy implied direct rule by the people, all of whom were equal, whereas republic implied a system of government in which the will of the people was mediated by representatives, who might be wiser and better educated than the average person. In the early American republic, for example, the requirement that voters own property and the establishment of institutions such as the Electoral College were intended to cushion the government from the direct expression of the popular will."

So much for the idea that we were ever a democracy.

As we began so we end..more an oligarchy than a democracy. What does dictionary.com say about "oligarchy"?

Oligarchy: "a form of government in which all power is vested in a few persons or in a dominant class or clique; government by the few."

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