Democracy 2.0 – Operating Systems Need Updates
Until you’re accused of being racist and/or sexist, no one really pays attention to you. The 2016 American Presidential race has definitely pushed people’s buttons. Including my pushing my friend’s buttons. It all started when I shared Cameron Esposito’s Tweet on Facebook.
Since zero women & zero people of color weighed in on US constitution when it was written, I assume it may occasionally need a few updates.
— Cameron Esposito (@cameronesposito) June 16, 2016
Just like any software update to patch code, fix bugs, and create a new operating system, Democracy 2.0 is something that’s actually being brought to the fore by people like Eric Ries and Elon Musk.
Eric Ries
Eric Ries, software programmer and founder of The Lean Startup movement, touches on bringing Lean Startup principles to government in the last chapter of his 2011 book, The Lean Startup. Literally an authentic, workable, programmer’s point-of-view and Toyota Production System approach that transformed his startups and companies – all as a way to make government better. Democracy 2.0.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk laid out a profound, updated version of democracy during his 2016 Recode talk in June. I’m all in favor of Musk’s vision for government. It’s 100% inclusive of the population, continually progressive, ever-growing, ever-changing, keeping-up-with-the-times approach that is needed for the next 10,000 years. (starting at timestamp 1:22:00)
More Resources
Resources include The Democracy 2.0 Experiment, which includes some ideas of “A simple, legal way to put power in the hands of the people.”
My take on Democracy 2.0
I now believe that the Constitution’s Article 5 Amendment process is not good enough to make up for the “zero women and zero people of color” oversight in the first place. Software and operating systems need both minor and major updates. There must be a larger, broader, faster changes to the Constitution – the operating system – itself.
The founders didn’t include women and people of color in the drafting of the Constitution. And the Constitution is not a sacred cow. It, as a Toastmasters speech, needs to be edited to reflect the America of 2016 and beyond. It needs to be better.
And better happens through iteration – input from where we are now: inclusive of the women and people of color that makes up America today. The Constitution is too slow, too outdated, too archaic. It needs to face forward. It is due for an overhaul. Like your car, it is due for a tune-up.
My friend Victor Irving Jenkins asked: “Who does the editing is the big question? The America of 2016 does not even look the same to all of us.”
First, in a Constitution 2.0 environment, we the people do the editing. Just like Wikipedia. Second, since we currently have a representative Democracy, a Wikipedia-style we-the-people approach here would end up being a direct Democracy.
My friend Joe Shaw asked: “Which laws or parts of the Constitution were so egregiously wrong that they need to be fixed?”
The founders didn’t include women and people of color in the drafting of the Constitution. That’s what’s so egregiously wrong: lack of inclusion in the drafting of the document. It’s like you walked into a bar and the bartender handed you a drink. Except you were never asked what kind of drink you wanted. It’s like getting married, only to realize that you we’re forced into a prenup that you had no say in drafting.
It’s like when the 13 Colonies complained about a similar lack if inclusion in what happened to them: “no taxation without representation.”
The Constitution wasn’t good enough to begin with – nothing is – and Article 5 is not powerful enough. Elon Musk’s vision is exactly where I’m headed. The Constitution, as it stands, may not be good enough to carry humans through the next 10 generations.
My friend Eddie Robertson observed: “So what you are really saying is completely racist and sexist. What you are saying is that white men are evil therefore they couldn’t possibly come up with something fair…”
Yes, I completely agree with you 1000%. I will never hide from the fact that I must be, to varying degrees, racist and sexist. Even to the extent that I am unaware of it.
In my own family tree, yes, it is totally fucked up that my grandmother could not vote simply because she was a woman. That is directly due to a lack of inclusiveness, shortsightedness, and straight-up bullshit sexism on the part of the Founding Father’s.
