Scale Design: Perpetual Change

Hi! Happy New Year !

Zappy New Year! Wait, time for some Douglas Adams zappiness:

F/X: ZAPPY BURSTING SOUND WHICH IS ALSO A BIT SCREAMY AS THE CHAIR BURSTS INTO A TERRIBLE MONSTER

The topic of this blog post:

The point of this blog post is to humbly recommend we as a people necessarily require provisions to mandate  change in our next constitution as scale and time invalidate the constitution. We can no longer afford to treat the US Constitution as a fixed paradigm requiring rare change.

Affirmation

I have long studied early American History starting from when the Mayflower first landed until around 1840. One of the things that becomes abundantly clear is that the US Constitution affirmed existing attitudes and practices for the existing people. The US Constitution did not invent new attitudes and practices. Our attitudes towards trial-by-jury and guns have dramatically changed since 1789 and we have not taken upon ourselves to reflect those changes. 

Scale Example: Trial By Jury

Today trial-by-jury no longer exists in the US except in very rare cases. For example, you cannot buy health care insurance without giving up your right to trial-by-jury. Instead, one must agree to arbitration. This is true with credit cards and so many agreements today. Not a single health insurance plan is available that allows you to retrain your right to trial-by-jury. Every single health insurance policy requires an arbitration agreement. Just on this fact alone I claim we  no longer are the United States of America because our rights can be so easily voided. It is too bad the founders didn't think to include an amendment to the Bill of Rights that forbids citizens from ever waiving their rights or entering contracts signing away their rights.

Why has binding arbitration replaced trial by jury? Today most of us chafe and resent jury duty. It is a demeaning process that judges who are you based upon answering a set of degrading questions. I have an easy out for anyone looking to get dismissed 100% of the time in a jury pool: tell the judge you firmly believe in jury nullification.

Why has binding arbitration replaced trial by jury? Here is a brief run-down given my understanding:

1. Affirmation in 1789. Trial by jury was a common practice until 1789. In lieu of any official British government court in the colonies then the citizens commonly took it upon themselves to convene juries. Trial by jury was a venerated practice of self-government. So much so the it was insisted to be included as an individual right in the Bill of Rights. Citizens today do not enact jury trials ever on their own to resolve conflicts. Trial by jury would not be a right Americans insist on today as a Federal right.
2. Mountain of law. The law builds upon itself every day. Every day legal precedents are set, new laws are passed and a mountain of law means a trial becomes complicated and convoluted.
3. Speedy trial right waived. The right to a speedy trial is waived. 
4. Courtroom bottleneck. We did not scale the need for trials with our access to courts.
5. Population. We just have more people. 
6. Cost. Lawyers and trials have become hugely expensive. 

Can we say we live in America when we no longer have trial-by-jury except in rare cases?

Time Example: Right to Bare Arms

Until well after 1789 guns were a necessity in the US with no standing military. Citizen defended their frontier boundaries. Today we have fixed boundaries, a military and police. Attitudes have changed. Today less than 50% of Americans have a gun in the home. Even more important however than attitudes changing with respect to time is that the second amendment have been void since 1948. That was the moment you as a private citizen were no longer are allowed to own the same arms as the government so the second amendment is neutered. We are not allowed to own any nuclear weapon, bombs, cannons or any other kind of weapon of mass destruction. If the government decided to impose tyranny by force upon its citizen then we have no defense against WMDs that only the government owns. And now there are drones with Hellfire missiles exclusive to the government. How hard would it be for the government to assassinate you?

The Solution

Time-and-time again the US Constitution has been voided by scale and we have done nothing. In the 1800s the number of representatives were fixed at 435 for no rhyme or reason other than the number of representatives was becoming unmanageable. No thought or care was given to what it means to be an American and having equal, adequate or meaningful representation.

So how do we fix this scale problem, this time problem? The point of this blog post is not to propose fixes to the trial-by-jury problem, the second amendment or representation. The point of this blog post is to humbly recommend we as a people necessarily require provisions to mandate change in our next constitution as scale and time invalidate the constitution. We can no longer afford to treat the US Constitution as a fixed paradigm requiring rare change. Arbitration is 100% proof that the trial-by-jury system is 100% broken and no longer a right. We need to force ourselves to upgrade the US Constitution when these breaking points are reached. I cannot buy health care without signing away my rights. How can we say we are Americans when are rights are so trivially voided?

Well come! and Well met!