To Honor the Fourth of July: Towards a New, Revolutionary Revolution

“No one has failed at anything, only failed to have succeeded so far, until one has stopped trying.” — the author

For almost four decades I have been trying to instigate a new, revolutionary revolution. The goal of this unheard of revolution is to institute a new approach to justice, ‘real justice’.

The ethic of real justice, mutual respect (in effecting choices), follows from observations within the ‘real world’, i.e. material existence. So, unlike any previous approach to justice, it does not involve any beliefs (either secular/ideological or religious/theological). That’s why I call it “real justice.” (Yet, because mutual respect also follows from a belief in equality, one can advocate for mutual respect as the ethic of justice, and the changes that would ensue, based on that belief.) [If interested, see, for starters, “Real Justice (summarized for a ‘5 min read’)” here in Medium.]

Applying that ethic to the governance of society would (among other good things) maximize liberty as a practical matter, reinforce political democracy, and transform the existing economy (any nation’s economy). That is to say, the economy would become self-regulating (with built-in safeguards against inflation) and the means would be provided to eliminate unemployment (at no cost to anyone), poverty (without having to redistribute anything), taxes (of all kinds), and public debt (at all levels of government) while sustainability would be increased (even without additional regulations). [If interested, see, for starters, “By Request: How to Transform the Society of any Nation (in a ‘5 min read’)” here in Medium.]

Why would this be a revolutionary revolution? For one thing, real justice is philosophically revolutionary. For the first time ever, an ethic has been derived from the conditions of human existence with no beliefs involved. Now human beings can know what the ethic of justice is as certainly as we can know that day follows night.

Also, this revolution would not be radical. That is to say, it would not involve tearing down one bit of the existing institutional structure. Even the dreaded (by some) central bank would still exist (though its functions as manager of the economy and lender of last resort to the central government would no longer exist).

A more profound reason why this revolution would be revolutionary is that it would be accomplished through rational persuasion only. That is to say, it would be accomplished without violence, coercion, or even manipulation.

For this revolution there can’t even be a revolutionary organization. If an idea is attached to a particular organization, like a political party, it becomes a source of partisanship; if it is not attached to a particular organization it is available to one and all.

Finally, this revolution could be accomplished in any nation — however rich or poor, whether more developed or less. It could even, eventually, bring the entire globe under a single monetary system, with the same guaranteed minimum income for all people, with no unemployment or poverty or taxes or public debt anywhere — without compromising the sovereignty of one single nation one little bit.

I don’t know where I went wrong. I actually thought this revolution would be well underway, if not completely accomplished by now, at least somewhere. People (so I thought) would want to advocate for real justice, and would find it easy to convince others to advocate for it, without any need for violence or coercion or manipulation, because everyone wants to be respected and because applying real justice to the governance of society absolutely guarantees good outcomes that every human being would want.

Do people not want a society in which everyone should be respecting one another (in effecting choices)? Do people not want to maximize liberty as a practical matter? Do people not want to reinforce political democracy? Do people not want to eliminate unemployment, poverty, taxes, and public debt? Do people not want more sustainability even without additional effort?

Maybe it can still happen. All it would take is for people to start advocating for mutual respect (in effecting choices) as the ethic of justice. Once enough people were doing that, this revolutionary revolution would be accomplished.