Do We Need to be Governed?
Every society has the right to enact and enforce laws for the common good. When we created the first community in 1982 we started with an anarchy, with no existing laws, or governing body, and built from there. Unfortunately, every law in existence is the product of someone doing something that annoys, offends, or harms another person. The difficult thing is regulating the population enough that everybody is relatively safe, and secure without stomping on the individual's rights, opportunities, or freedoms.
Consider this:
In an anarchy, every individual must be supremely responsible for their actions, and be responsible for the stability of their community.
In a dictatorship the individual is only required to follow the orders of their leader. All responsibility beyond that falls on the leader's shoulders.
We all probably want something between these extremes. If we assume that a good government creates the greatest amount of personal security. While maintaining the greatest amount of individual freedom. We can create a system of governance that fits us well.
Confucius taught, if everyone within a society, fulfilled the obligations of their position in society, then society would be prosperous, peaceful, and stable. Everyone from the king, to the smallest child, has a role to play in maintaining society.
Jesus taught very few rules. In fact by the standards of the day he was pretty much an anarchist. He agreed with two basic rules, the second was later called the "Golden Rule" - "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." This can be a very difficult rule to follow, and has been used to justify all kinds of horrors. The "Spanish Inquisition" for one. It has been proposed that the better rule would be "Do not do unto others what you would not have done unto you".
What are the minimal rules that we need, and how responsible do we need to be to live under them? Can we create a responsible society, without limiting personal freedom, and creating a society of robots? These are just some of the questions each community must decide, and create laws aco.
Bethshean is a small community (Gemeinschaft). The governing structure is small, and hopefully responsive. It has been set up to assist its members, but cannot be expected to fulfill their needs. That is up to the individual. There is no pay or compensation for serving in the government.
Bethshean is also a second tier community , meaning that it represents other communities in the second tier government (Gesellschaft). With many different people, and cultures represented, it must have a built in tolerance of diversity. It must facilitate the business of the communities it represents and be a place of mediation, and exchange. It must never intrude into th workings of the communities it represents. The rule of "Do No Harm" must be followed.
Some of the articles here deal with larger national, and international issues. We all live in a world of nations, and we are committed to making the world a better place, within the existing system.
- Observations is a series of short true life stories with lessons we can learn from them, and thoughts on contemporary issues .
- Structure addresses the ideal structure of local government.
- Guidelines are general rules for governing a community.
You are invited to contribute your beliefs, ideas, and opinions, because nobody has all of the answers, and we are interested in hearing yours
- Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft - Wikipedia