I can't write about "America" -- I never saw it. Very much like with "Russia"; both departured before I could even visit them.
* Only half would vote for Constitution: Poll: 22% of Americans against founding document, 27% not sure.
In a finding that shocked some observers, a new poll says that
barely half of Americans - just 51 percent - would vote for passage of the U.S. Constitution if the same document approved over
two centuries ago were presented in ballot form today.
The survey, conducted by Portrait of America and released Tuesday, said 22 percent of respondents would vote against the Constitution while another 27 percent said they were not sure whether they would support it.
POA pollsters said Tuesday's results did not differ significantly from a similar poll conducted by the polling firm a year ago.
(Y2K news, the election year in America)
No, I am not shocked. I live here. I lived in a communist country before. I lived long enough to see that the majority will never write the US Constitution. The majority doesn't write anything. The majority didn't vote at the times when the Contitution was written, why should they support it now? Even today the majority of Americans do not vote and the majority would vote, the Constitution will be re-written. Or re-interprated.
Women, minorities, animals, plants -- they all were excluded from America two hundrend years ago and that is the America of the Founding Fathers, not of those who are to vote today. Why would two millions prisoners would vote for the documents, the law, which keeps them in jail?
Why would all of them who ARE the mojority today will vote for the Constitution, which was the law of the few? I want to know about the one out of two, who will vote (if any of them indeed vote) -- why? This Constitution is a just a wish list like the ten commendanments of good behavior. Something of a cultural value.
The Post-America I know lives and respects different laws.
First, I do not think that the majority understand it, the Constitution.
Second, I do not think that they are interested.
Look --
"Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe." -Edmund Burke
Liberty and Justice? Never mind the statement itself, what Mr. Burke means whenhe writes "Liberty" or "Justice"? No, I am serious. You can make his into a principle of the United States of America and he still will never explain it to his students. The majority of them in class not on their own will! Liberty? Look around! It's not even "Freedom" -- it's "Free"! Read the signs! "Land of the Free.... Stuff"! The Liberty itself is already separated from Freedom, Mr. Burke. I won't touch the word "Justice," sir.
If we want to understand our majority, we should go back and see why the Constitution was written in the first place. It was written against the majority, who were perfectly happy to be "subjects"! The Contirution was written to protect the minority who heeded Libertry and Justice, yes, against the majority, who never value it.
Here is another piece of the forgotten rules:
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficial. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." -Louis D. Brandeis
Why don't you think that there are millions who do GUARD this country aganist dangers of liberty, who are against justice, who are for the government? Oh, please, they understand, they know what is good for them. What is there not to understand? And they are not "men of zeal, well meaning" -- nothing of this sort. No, they do not mean well for you, sir, and the YOUR Contitution. They do what they mean. And, yes, foget on purpose, too.
There is a good reason, gentlemen, why the Contitution was written by a small group of the minority class. It's their document. Their hope of course was that all Americans will become like them, the owner and masters. The American Age proved that the concept was powerfull -- and it also showed the natural limitations of it. This little word "All" is the problem. Maybe all men are created equal, but not all practice it. Not ALL, gentlemen, are gentlemen. If you did not know, you should look at our PostAmerican constitutional documents, our popular culture.
Unlike your Constitution, our Constitution is a living law! It grows, evolves, full of momentum and energy. Whould like to see it?
Notes
Post-America Files are the transitional zone (like Father-Russia); the facts. I hope that those pages could help you to understand what is ahead (POV, SELF, TECH directories). PM (PostAmeriKa and POMO) -- that is where we are. I am not negative or cynical; I do not want to pass any judgement, because I just came here. Yes, I came with my expectations, but with my fatalism I am not about to fight. I am too old for it.
Plot Page, the story.
