- Why does a democratic government tend to become profligate and oppressive?Marysville Library, Marysville, WA
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Why does a modern democratic government tend to become profligate and oppressive?
275 years ago in 1748, French theorist Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) published The Spirit of the Laws. In this book, Montesquieu presents a triad theory of government based on his conceptualization of the structure of the British government: legislature, executive, judiciary.
As far as I know, Montesquieu's theory of government influenced the structure of all democratic governments created during the period of revolution against colonial rule in the 1700s-1900s. As a result, Montesquieu's theory evidently became the most influential theory of government in the history of civilization, informing free peoples everywhere how to structure their governments.
In my work, I reveal a major flaw in Montesquieu's theory: he fails to see that the citizens have an essential role to play in governance by checking the government. I quote Montesquieu, showing where his reasoning goes astray, thereby contributing to his failure to see the essential role of the citizens. In the absence of citizen checks, a democratic government will tend to become profligate and oppressive.
I reconceptualize the theory of checks and balances as the theory of autonomous power centers — APC theory. In APC theory, the citizenry constitutes the foundational power center of a democratic government, while the three branches of government constitute additional autonomous power centers. This conceptualization embraces Montesquieu's affirmation that the sovereignty of a democratic nation lies in the citizens. Accordingly, in APC theory there are four basic autonomous power centers in a democracy:
- Legislature, executive, judiciary, citizenry
Each power center can check each of the other three.
APC theory completes Montesquieu's theory of checks and balances with two citizen checks on government: a citizen fiscal check and a citizen power check. A well-designed citizen fiscal check should solve the most intractable problem in democratic governance, namely, excessive growth in government cost and size. A well-designed citizen power check should solve the problem of excessive growth in government regulatory power. In short, with well-designed citizen checks in place, the citizens should check a government's propensity to become profligate and oppressive.
Since the United States constitution is structured according to Montesquieu's triad theory, the United States government suffers from the deficiencies of Montesquieu's theory. But with the addition of a well-designed citizen fiscal check and a well-designed citizen power check on the federal government, the natural dynamics of governance should produce a limited, decentralized system of government without a serious threat that it will become profligate and oppressive.
In the meeting, I will present these ideas for discussion.
Reference: Philip Bitar, The Second American Revolution, Edition 2 (2022), chapter 9
Meeting times and locations
Time is PST or PDT, depending on time of year, X = TBD:
X:00 pm in-person — Marysville Library, 2nd meeting-room door on LHS of entrance hallway
X:15 pm online — link to be posted here before meeting
If you plan to attend in person, when you register, please add a comment "Plan to attend in person" to help me in preparing room accommodations.
- What is the most egregious flaw in the United States constitution?Marysville Library, Marysville, WA
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235 years ago in 1789, James Madison wrote a draft of what would become amendment 10 of the United States constitution. Amendment 10 vests the states with powers not delegated to the federal government, but amendment 10 provides the states no means for checking federal expansion into these powers.
I show that, in making this draft, Madison ignored principles for checks that he had expressed in Federalist articles during the prior year of 1788. I show that Madison's own Federalist principles imply that Madison's draft of amendment 10 would be useless in achieving the goal of preventing the federal government from encroaching into state powers.
I propose an amendment that provides an effective state check on federal power.
Madison's failure in drafting amendment 10 is the reason that Texas is legally powerless to contend with the federal government over keeping illegal aliens out of the state.
In the meeting, I will present these ideas for discussion.
Reference: Philip Bitar, The Second American Revolution, Edition 2 (2022), article 13.1
Meeting times and locations
Time is PST or PDT, depending on time of year, X = TBD:
X:00 pm in-person — Marysville Library, 2nd meeting-room door on LHS of entrance hallway
X:15 pm online — link to be posted here before meeting
If you plan to attend in person, when you register, please add a comment "Plan to attend in person" to help me in preparing room accommodations.
- What is the greatest missed opportunity in American history?Marysville Library, Marysville, WA
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In his Dred Scott opinion of March 1857, Chief Justice Roger Taney affirms the equality of blacks, thereby delegitimizing southern secession and portending the end of slavery. Had Republicans been astute, they would have put Taney's equality affirmation to strategic use in a relentless campaign for the next four years, possibly preventing secession and war.
But no one bothered to read Taney’s opinion with sufficient care, so the most famous quote of Taney to this day is a slanderous misquote that reverses his original meaning. In fact, the public paid little attention to the Dred Scott rulings until Republicans advertised them in 1858 and 1860 in order to run against them in the elections of these years.
In the meeting, I will present these ideas for discussion.
Reference: Philip Bitar, The Second American Revolution, Edition 2 (2022), article 12.1
Meeting times and locations
Time is PST or PDT, depending on time of year, X = TBD:
X:00 pm in-person — Marysville Library, 2nd meeting-room door on LHS of entrance hallway
X:15 pm online — link to be posted here before meeting
If you plan to attend in person, when you register, please add a comment "Plan to attend in person" to help me in preparing room accommodations.
- Three tragic ironies that largely explain the reasons for the Civil WarMarysville Library, Marysville, WA
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If you didn't know better, you would think that American antebellum history is a storyline crafted by Sophocles to make you weep. But it actually happened. And you may end up weeping.
In the meeting, I will present these ideas for discussion.
Reference: Philip Bitar, The Second American Revolution, Edition 2 (2022), article 12.4
Meeting times and locations
Time is PST or PDT, depending on time of year, X = TBD:
X:00 pm in-person — Marysville Library, 2nd meeting-room door on LHS of entrance hallway
X:15 pm online — link to be posted here before meeting
If you plan to attend in person, when you register, please add a comment "Plan to attend in person" to help me in preparing room accommodations.
- Mob rule The cause and the cureMarysville Library, Marysville, WA
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Conventional wisdom is wrong on the cause and the cure of mob rule.
Representative democracy inevitably operates by mob rule, whereas direct democracy with the secret ballot prevents mob rule.
The operation of mob rule is exemplified in the secession of the slave states to form the Confederate States of America in 1861.
If we take these lessons to heart, we will greatly improve governance in the United States by reducing the role of mob rule due to representative democracy. And this will become the ultimate legacy of the Civil War.
In the meeting, I will present these ideas for discussion.
Reference: Philip Bitar, The Second American Revolution, Edition 2 (2022), article 13.2
Meeting times and locations
Time is PST or PDT, depending on time of year, X = TBD:
X:00 pm in-person — Marysville Library, 2nd meeting-room door on LHS of entrance hallway
X:15 pm online — link to be posted here before meeting
If you plan to attend in person, when you register, please add a comment "Plan to attend in person" to help me in preparing room accommodations.
- A minimum wage is irrationalMarysville Library, Marysville, WA
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We don’t need complex theory or sophisticated data to determine that a minimum wage will not work as intended and, in fact, that it will be counter productive. I show that this result is obvious.
A minimum wage is irrational for two reasons. A minimum wage treats the symptom not the disease, and a minimum wage makes the patient worse not better.
The symptom that the minimum wage treats is a low wage, but the underlying disease is a deficiency in job skills that warrant higher pay. A minimum wage makes the patient worse by causing price inflation and by causing a reduction in work hours.
The rational policy is to promote job training.
In the meeting, I will present these ideas for discussion.
Reference: Philip Bitar, The Second American Revolution, Edition 2 (2022), article 13.6
Meeting times and locations
Time is PST or PDT, depending on time of year, X = TBD:
X:00 pm in-person — Marysville Library, 2nd meeting-room door on LHS of entrance hallway
X:15 pm online — link to be posted here before meeting
If you plan to attend in person, when you register, please add a comment "Plan to attend in person" to help me in preparing room accommodations.
- How does fiat money work?Marysville Library, Marysville, WA
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Have you ever wondered how fiat money works?
Have you ever wondered how value is created and maintained for an otherwise worthless piece of paper?
I developed a theory of fiat money that explains the reason for fiat money, how fiat money works, and how fiat money should be managed in order to properly maintain its value.
In the meeting, I will present these ideas for discussion.
Reference: Philip Bitar, The Second American Revolution, Edition 2 (2022), article 13.4
Meeting times and locations
Time is PST or PDT, depending on time of year, X = TBD:
X:00 pm in-person — Marysville Library, 2nd meeting-room door on LHS of entrance hallway
X:15 pm online — link to be posted here before meeting
If you plan to attend in person, when you register, please add a comment "Plan to attend in person" to help me in preparing room accommodations.
- The idea of the afterlife dichotomy is irrationalMarysville Library, Marysville, WA
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Western religion
Western religion encompasses the following four major religions:
- Zoroastrianism — emerged by 600 BCE
- Pharisaic Judaism (now Rabbinic Judaism) — emerged about 200 BCE
- Christianity — emerged in the 00s CE
- Islam — emerged in the 600s CE
The following four concepts first appeared in Zoroastrianism and were eventually assimilated into Pharisaic Judaism, from which they were inherited by Christianity:
- Monotheism
- Satan
- Apocalypticism
- Afterlife dichotomy — heaven vs. hell
Islam took these concepts from Christianity and Pharisaic Judaism.
Afterlife dichotomy
The idea of the afterlife dichotomy has caused great contention among Pharisaic Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as to the proper means of salvation from ending up in hell. I'm not aware of Zoroastrianism participating in this contention. The main contention originated in Christianity in the 300s when Constantine favored Christianity and when the Christian church in Rome began suppressing the practice of Judaism and the practice of polytheist religions.
After Islam emerged in the 600s, the main contention was between Christianity and Islam. But after the Reformation of the 1500s emerged, the main contention was between Catholics and Protestants. This contention died down with the European Enlightenment of the mid 1700s, which led to the concept of freedom of religion, as enshrined in amendment 1 of the United States constitution.
Looking back on the period 300-1800, I offer the following conclusion:
- The idea of the afterlife dichotomy has proven to be one of the most destructive ideas ever invented by humans. [Human Life, fig. 12.3 (see end note below for full title of book)]
Disproof of afterlife dichotomy
On February 8 1999, having believed in the afterlife dichotomy since childhood, I was shocked to discover that I could prove that the idea of the afterlife dichotomy is irrational. The problem is that it is irrational to partition a virtue-vice continuum into two discrete categories of virtue vs. vice, heaven vs. hell. I refer to this as the problem of boundary breakdown. I could see that the problem of boundary breakdown would apply to every salvation criterion, thereby proving them all irrational.
In the meeting, I will present these ideas for discussion.
Reference: Philip Bitar, Why Human Life Makes Sense, Edition 5 (2023), chapter 10
Meeting times and locations
Time is PST or PDT, depending on time of year, X = TBD:
X:00 pm in-person — Marysville Library, 2nd meeting-room door on LHS of entrance hallway
X:15 pm online — link to be posted here before meeting
If you plan to attend in person, when you register, please add a comment "Plan to attend in person" to help me in preparing room accommodations.
- Life without the possibility of suffering and death would be meaninglessMarysville Library, Marysville, WA
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In a prior meeting, we considered that the idea of the afterlife dichotomy is irrational due to boundary breakdown: the irrationality of partitioning a virtue-vice continuum into two discrete categories, namely, virtue vs. vice, heaven vs. hell.
But how about the idea of living happily ever after in heaven?
If we think about how we obtain meaning in life, we realize that, in order to obtain meaning, we must be able to exert effort such that the greater the effort we exert, the greater the meaning we can potentially obtain. This fact is illustrated in the New Testament story of the widow’s mite:
- Jesus sat down near the collection box in the Temple and watched as the crowds dropped in their money. Many rich people put in large amounts. Then a poor widow came and dropped in two small coins.
- Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions. For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on.”
- [Mark 12.41-44, New Living Translation]
In this light, life in the absence of effort would be meaningless. It would also be utterly boring.
However, life that is subject to the exertion of effort is necessarily part of a system of energy transformation, which, in turn, implies the possibility of starvation, injury, malfunction, and wear. Furthermore, I have been able to show that, in order to be able to exert effort, we must have a biological body, which, in turn, makes us subject to the possibility of suffering and death.
These observations imply that the idea of living happily ever after would be meaningless because meaningful life requires a biological body which, in turn, implies the possibility of suffering and death.
In the meeting, I will present these ideas for discussion.
Reference: Philip Bitar, Why Human Life Makes Sense, Edition 5 (2023), chapter 9, 10
Meeting times and locations
Time is PST or PDT, depending on time of year, X = TBD:
X:00 pm in-person — Marysville Library, 2nd meeting-room door on LHS of entrance hallway
X:15 pm online — link to be posted here before meeting
If you plan to attend in person, when you register, please add a comment "Plan to attend in person" to help me in preparing room accommodations.
- What is a religion?Marysville Library, Marysville, WA
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I invite you to take a minute or so to answer the following question:
- What is a religion?
I'm not asking for a precise definition — just a few main ideas.
I think that most people will cite ideas such as belief in the supernatural, belief in God, belief in afterlife.
In striving to identify the essence of religion, I developed a definition without reference to any of these ideas. Here is my definition:
- A religion is a social system that is based on non-predictor axioms (NPAs). Such a social system fosters a group identity, and this group identity provides the psychological basis for believing the NPAs.
- A religion is distinguished by axioms that cannot be refuted by sensory evidence.
- [Human Life, fig. 12.1 (see end note for full title of book)]
This definition of religion is based on the means by which knowledge is obtained, and in this context, a distinguishing feature of religion is non-predictor axioms. For this context, you can think of a non-predictor axiom as an axiom that cannot be refuted by sensory evidence. For example, the existence of the afterlife dichotomy cannot be refuted by sensory evidence. This definition of religion may encompass other beliefs that are not normally thought of as religious beliefs, such as belief in magic or belief in gremlins, but for the present purposes, we can encompass such beliefs in the category of religious beliefs.
In the meeting, I will present these ideas for discussion.
Reference: Philip Bitar, Why Human Life Makes Sense, Edition 5 (2023), chapter 12
Meeting times and locations
Time is PST or PDT, depending on time of year, X = TBD:
X:00 pm in-person — Marysville Library, 2nd meeting-room door on LHS of entrance hallway
X:15 pm online — link to be posted here before meeting
If you plan to attend in person, when you register, please add a comment "Plan to attend in person" to help me in preparing room accommodations.