User:Woozle/My Left Wing/Revolution 2.0 Outline RFC/fidelity

The question is How do we prevent The Revolution from being co-opted (again)? Movements and organizations typically start out with the best of motives and principles, but soon begin to compromise those principles as they become more powerful and more able to actually carry out their plans.

One key to the solution is that the problem happens when too much power is in the hands of too few. We need to make sure that power is distributed in ways that inhibit improper use without preventing necessary use.

Another key is that we need to use a variety of safety mechanisms and backups. The Constitution does this, but it didn't anticipate automation and modern media -- which is partly responsible for the failures of those safety checks, but also offers us the tools to build better ones.

A third key is that the system needs to provide an easy way for citizens to ditch parts of it that become corrupt, without cutting themselves off from vital services. A monopoly on many vital services is one way the current system sustains itself.

When I first wrote this section, I dove straight in and suggested a design for a new form of government -- but I'm thinking I need to unbundle that suggestion to see if there is agreement (or not) on each of the parts.

There are actually three ideas here:


 * 1) political change within the system is insufficient; we need new organizations outside the government
 * 2) those new organizations should ultimately aim to push the buttons of the old system like a modern computer program talking to a mainframe text interface
 * 3) if you grant the first two, then we need one or more design proposals for a new, less-corruptible government (here's mine)

Whether or not we decide to replace the existing system, I would like to recommend the following institutions (government and social) for removal or revision:
 * the Electoral College
 * the Federal Reserve
 * one-vote-per-person-binary voting
 * democracy needs to be less "representative" and more direct (which is always presented as this Really Bad Idea; I think that's a hoax)
 * the job-centered economy (you shouldn't have to have a "real job" to survive at an adequate level)

Which parts of this are we in agreement on, and which parts need to be discussed further? Are there any other suggestions for (government or social) institutions which should be at least reconsidered?