A New Constitution, Part 4

This is part 4 of the series; part 3 is here.

In the last part of this series, I added a new guiding principle related to use of force. The constitution is now comprised of two rights:

The right for each person to live according to their own values.

The right to live free of physical force, both real and threatened.

According to these guiding principles, here’s how law, sanctions and reason can be used to address conflicts:

LAW: A law cannot be passed that violates a guiding principle, so only behaviors that involve real or threatened force can be criminalized.

SANCTIONS: If a person does something that another person does not approve of, the disapproving party may react in whatever manner they wish as long as it does not involve the use or threat of force. In other words, sanctions are a peaceful way for people to protest against values they do not share.

REASON: I think this is the best way to affect long-lasting change, because unlike sanctions, use of reason attempts to change the underlying values that give rise to behaviors. Since free speech and free press follow automatically from the guiding principles, anyone can use reason as a means of influence.

In the next part, I'll discuss the controversial aspects of this approach to addressing conflict.

Comments

[Wes Moulder]

Sanctions.

This immediately makes me think economic sanctions. I tend to see this as groups banding together and boycotting the person whose values they find offensive through economic means. We see attempts at this today, like the far right tried with Disney when Disney offered benefits for gay couples.

The problem here is that people as a whole tend to operate in day to day separate from their stated values. They quickly decided that it's easier to write laws banning certain behaviour than it is to get people who profess to share your beliefs to act out of principles instead of the 'path of least resistence'.