Nine years of fury (part 1)

Like most Americans, particularly Americans of my age, my idea of the United States and my position in it was not defined or clear; it was colored roughly by a worn out myth. With the installation of George W. Bush in 2000, and his administration's 911 construction of 2001, my sensibilities about being American have been under attack, and I have been in a constant state of wild fury over the differences between the American lie that I was born aspiring to and the subsequent revelations of the actual conditions I am presented with.

I have been heard  people talk about our human rights, about the needs of goverments to operate, and seen human rights disolve as ordinary citizens feed the unhealthy appetite of antisocial governments with their rights and their lives.

Any government of a society serves the needs of those in the society who currently wield power. Without external forces acting on it, a government will serve no one else. A legitimate government is one whose power is respected by the society without the exertion of extraordinary force on those governed by those in the society who currently wield power.

A constitution which is executed lends legitimacy to a government by providing confidence in the behavior of a government. the behavior does not need to be good, simply predictable. Without the provisions of a constitution which are enforced, a government will serve only the needs of those in the society with power, in proportion to the amount of power wielded, executed in any way which serves those in power best.

Power is the ability to coerce effectively; power over another manifests sometimes through physical, brutal force, sometimes through the ability to give or withhold something which is needed by another.

Initially, provisions of a constitution are generally manifestations of some in power protecting their position in the event that they lose some measure of the power they currently hold. In regulating government in this way, those in power lose some of their power, but they gain some protection from each other.

Later, provisions of a constitution can be the result of pressure from those governed to receive priveleges and protections in exchange for support of the government. These priveleges and protections are seen as rights. Those in power lose some advantage over those they govern, but need to maintain less force to retain their position. These rights will only be enforced as long as the governed maintain the pressure on the government to enforce it. When the enforcement of that right no longer eases the difficulty of governing, the government will cease to recognize the right. A right does not exist if it is not defended.

Americans have their eye on the possibility of extreme luxury, and see the American dream as the right to pursue extreme wealth. This is the right they pursue to the exclusion of other basic rights. The right to pursue wealth does not guarantee the attainment of it, but it does set up a situation where one supports the rights of one's superiors to oppress one, and results in a lack of pressure on the American government to make sure that the society is regulated to serve the society as a whole.