Planetary Protectorate
The
Restoring Truth and Justice to Planet Earth
1. How does this plan uphold the core positive values of a benign civilization?
Government must be built on morality; otherwise, it has no reason to exist, and without reason to, it eventually won't. This is a law of social physics.
The Law of the Earth is morality itself, manifested into language. It IS the good of humankind and respect for the equal value of all. It is conscience, gathered from the aether, and condensed onto paper.
As the foundation of the Protectorate, and source of ALL authority, the Law of the Earth enshrines the core values of the New Civilization into the bedrock of all governance - immutably, unchangeably, and eternally.
The Planetary Protectorate has authority ONLY to uphold the Law of the Earth, and has no authority to use force for any purpose beyond that.
No one may ever use force upon anyone else, unless the latter is doing something unlawful; and, crucially, the definition of what constitutes "unlawful" cannot be changed by the former in order to justify attacking the latter with force that he already wanted to use.
The definition of "unlawful" is fixed at:
1. needless and non-defensive harming of animals or people
2. needless degradation of the ecosystem
3. violation of the liberty of anyone who is not doing either of the first two.
Every word in those 3 lines has already been precisely defined in the Detail section of this proposal. And in the event that anything is unclear, Title 4 of the Law (Rationality) provides a foolproof guide to arbitrate any dispute logically, to determine the Law's proper application, in any situation.
There is no ambiguity, no room for twisting.
Any society that considers itself capable of making or changing Law, or of setting its own definition of right and wrong, will always see its Core Values under neverending threat from the whims and desires of its members.
But when Law is fixed in place, those values may be preserved forever.
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2. How does this plan ensure that decisions are made responsibly?
Ultimate decision-making authority for the Earth is vested in the Planetary High Council.
As explained earlier, this Council is comprised of 15 to 30 members. This is the perfect size for debate - large enough to feature a full range of viewpoints, and small enough to maintain an intimate, friendly conversational flow, without the need for formal parliamentary procedures.
In contrast, the Planetary Assembly is a very large body, with thousands of members; however, this body is not charged with decision-making. It merely serves as a communication-funneling tool, to bring the concerns of people across the world into focus, to inform the High Council of what to discuss. If such a large body were deliberative, then decision-making would indeed be next to impossible (as we see in other large, dysfunctional assemblies, such as the USA Congress).
But the High Council - not the Assembly - is the true body of deliberation for the planet. It has direct command over the Action Branches, and whatever decision it makes is final.
The same governance structure is reiterated at every level of social organization, from the Planet all the way down to the Village (with Region, City, and Township in between), to handle issues at that scale. The Councils at each of these levels operate the same way as the High Council, with the same protocol and number of members, and the same authority (over their respective scale and jurisdiction).
Whenever any decision needs to be made, everyone knows exactly where to go and whom to speak to.
And if Council declines to hear the issue, it can be raised to awareness through the Assembly, which by law must have the ear of the Council.
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3. How is this plan effective at actually getting things done?
This model features:
-A planetary government with jurisdiction across the entire world.
-Actional authority with unitary, top-down command over all forces.
-Mirror-image structures at every level of organization, from Planet all the way down to Village (with Region, City, and Township in between), ensuring local and regional effectiveness at addressing challenges at all scales.
This is the most effective arrangement possible; there is no model that can have greater potency.
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4. How is this plan going to be financed?
Financing is distinct for each Branch.
Council is self-financing.
Guardianship is funded through taxation.
Service is funded voluntarily, through donations.
How can a tax be lawful, if everyone has the Right to (keep their) Property?
Most taxes are unlawful. No person has the authority to take what belongs to someone else - and governments are composed of persons, so governments lack this authority too.
But one tax IS lawful:
A tax on the extraction of nonrenewable resources.
The potential to extract nonrenewable resources is the collective property of humanity. The planet's total supply is our Collective Endowment.
In order to uphold the Right to Equal Opportunity (Title 1), the Protectorate manages the prudent usage of these resources, and taxes their extraction.
Anyone who extracts nonrenewable resources is leasing this opportunity from the human collective, and must pay humanity for the opportunity-cost.
That is the basis of any lawful taxation.
And the funds obtained from taxation are spent on Guardianship - the upholdment of basic universal rights and biospheric integrity. This is a matter of defense - the one expenditure which even anti-tax ideologues support, even if grudgingly.
No taxed funds are spent on the Service Branch. This branch's activities lack a mandate for physical force - so obviously it cannot obtain funds for them through force either.
And it doesn't need to. If a project is worthwhile for a community (whether a Village or a Planet), then the community will volunteer the funds and resources to make it happen (and there already exist crowdfunding technologies to facilitate this). And if they refuse, then the project probably wasn't necessary.
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5. How does this system ensure that the average person can have trust in the governing process?
The only thing keeping power benevolent is wisdom. All power must be founded on wisdom - it's the lifeblood of good decision-making and governance. Without wisdom, no system can endure for long - no matter how clever its design.
Past system-designers, like the framers of the U.S. Constitution, assumed humans would be corrupt, selfish, and evil, and designed systems to keep their selfishness in check, by pitting one selfish impulse against another, in a bid to have them cancel each other out.
But in reality, no system can stand indefinitely against evil, if it allows enough evil people into power.
A truly effective system must stop such people from rising through the ranks in the first place. That's the only way.
And Land-Based Progressive Delegation is the optimal way to maximize the accompaniment of power by wisdom.
All true decision-making power in the Protectorate rests with Council, and every process related to Council - from its election to its deliberation - is designed to maximize the amount of wisdom animating the process.
The basic building-block of the whole process is Village Council.
This takes place:
-Outdoors (barring inclement weather), under open sky - a major source of wisdom
-In the Village Green, the center of the village, the most balanced focal-point of the village's collective consciousness
-On grass or bare soil, allowing a direct, physical connection to the Planet
-Surrounded by trees - another primary source of wisdom
-In a circle - the most balanced, equitable arrangement for deliberation
-After a group meditation, maximizing clear-mindedness before any discussion
Whoever this Council elects to climb the next rung of the ladder - to represent the Village at the Township Council - will have been elected by the uttermost wisdom-inducing process that can possibly happen. She/he will be the "cream of the crop" - not a "politician", but a truly wise individual - the wisest the Village has.
Thus, a Township Council will consist of the wisest individuals from every Village in the sphere of that Township.
And it will elect the wisest individual to proceed up the ladder, to City Council.
And so forth.
As the process reaches the top, the High Council consists of the wisest individuals on the planet.
The average citizen can trust that they're being faithfully represented because everyone who casts a vote, for anyone, at any level of the ladder, is casting a vote for someone whom they personally know, and have interviewed and conversed with, face to face, many times, extensively, for months or even years. There are no "politicians" in this system; those are for Assembly, which has no official power, being completely subordinate to Council.
Whoever you elect to climb up the ladder is someone you know personally. And whoever they elect to climb the ladder is someone they know personally.
If you know and trust Person A, and Person A knows and trusts Person B, then you can rest assured that Person B is trustworthy.
And thus, we can have the highest degree of confidence and trust in the people governing us, at every level of the structure.
Simple. Durable. Sustainable. Common sense!
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6. How is this plan flexible enough to respond to new challenge?
The Law of the Earth should never be changed, as its truths are timeless, universal, and valid in every land, in every epoch. It's based on eternal principles of mutual respect between sovereign beings, acknowledgment of the consciousness of all Life, and recognition of the paramount necessity of living in balance with Nature. No one can ever make those principles unlawful, nor their opposites lawful.
Everything in the Law is something everyone already knows. Though some of us may have forgotten, we always knew - and still know - deep down. All it takes to remember is honest reflection and meditation.
However, new technological capabilities can present new challenges.
To account for the introduction of new technologies and new ethical questions that accompany them, additional items may be added to Mantle and Crust principles, to cover the new dimensions of our abilities. But all such items must be extrapolations of Core principles, and may not contradict their respective Core.
And unlike Mantle and Crust material, the material in the Core may never be changed - not in substance.
An important distinction must be made between changing the Law's substance, and changing its language.
Language can become outdated. As language evolves, things written long ago may become ambiguous to current readers. Therefore, the language may be updated if needed.
So, to recap:
Mantle / Crust: Grammatical updating + Additional extrapolations from Core
Core: Only grammatical updating.
The Planetary High Council is the body responsible for this lawkeeping.
The High Council may also change the structure of the Planetary Protectorate, and the Earth Party, as long as these changes don't contravene anything in the Law.
As the wisest people on Earth, the members of the High Council are the best equipped for this solemn duty. If it's not safe in their hands, it's not safe in anyone's.
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7. How are officeholders to be held accountable, to make sure they do their jobs correctly?
If a Guardianship or Service branch member misbehaves, they can be removed by their superior, or by the Council.
If a Council member misbehaves, they can be recalled by the lower-level Council that elected them. This can be done within 24 hours - as soon as their electing Council is able to convene. No need to wait for a predetermined election date. Very accountable.
And once again, our greatest defense is the Law:
1. Every Protectorate office displays the Law, printed in full, on its wall.
2. Every Protectorate officer carries the Law on their person, ALWAYS while on duty.
3. Every person will be reminded of it, from kindergarten onward, so none can forget.
4. Every person will be given a copy of the Law.
5. The Law is present and undeniable, in every interaction involving the Protectorate.
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8. How does this plan respect the sovereignty of individual nations?
The Planetary Protectorate allows nation-states to continue to govern themselves, and doesn't interfere in their internal affairs - as long as their internal affairs don't:
1. violate universal human rights
2. inflict unnecessary cruelty upon living beings
3. degrade the ecosystem that we all depend on for survival.
In other words, as long as they don't violate the Law of the Earth - the law that all of us are born knowing.
Nations are free to participate in projects of the Service Branch, if they wish, but none of these projects involve force against that nation.
The branch that uses force is the Guardianship Branch; and it only does so on behalf of the three universal imperatives listed above, which are absolutely worthy of being forcefully upheld.
Complete national sovereignty was important within the context of the old civilization; but this whole web of interlocking crises we face as a planet is calling us to evolve beyond that. Nations have proven themselves unable (or unwilling) to respect the planet they live upon, so there must be an "adult in the room" to keep their abuses in check.
National sovereignty covers nations' prerogative to govern their internal affairs as they like - but not to commit crimes against their planet or the living beings who dwell here.
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9. This plan involves a global government - how can we be sure it won't lead to tyranny?
What's to stop a tyrant from arising?
Just one thing, but it's the most important of all:
The Law of the Earth.
The Law always honors the Liberty of a peaceful person, and so cannot be used in service to a tyrant.
Since the law cannot be changed, no matter how much power a leader accumulates, he can never change the Law, and thus, the veneer of moral legitimacy that all historical dictators were able to conjure will always escape any demagogue who violates the unchanging Law.
Every despotic system that ever existed shared one thing in common: They all treated Law as if it were something that can be created by Man, and changed on his whim. They all granted human beings the godlike power to change the definition of Right and Wrong.
Sometimes it was just one person, wearing a crown. Later, it was 51% of the population. But in both systems, people - mere people - were claiming the authority to set the definition of morality for other people.
They weren't claiming to have discovered the law, as this writer has; they were literally claiming to make it.
And so, if a leader or officeholder wanted to do something immoral, he simply changed the definition of moral (in people's minds), by passing "legislation." And since the people hallucinated him to have such authority, their own morality collapsed in tandem with his, and gas chambers and gulags became possible.
Both monarchy and democracy got it wrong. We cannot change the definition of right and wrong for each other, and we cannot make laws for each other. None of us have that authority. And if none of us have it, we cannot "elect" or "delegate" it to a representative. This is pure mathematical truth: We cannot give someone something we don't have!
If we don't have a yacht, we cannot give our representative a yacht.
If we don't have the authority to change the definition of right and wrong, we cannot give such a thing to a representative.
Obviously!
This fundamental misunderstanding was the rotting core of almost all societies, including the modern one. When a house is built on sand, it is bound to fall apart, and absolutely nothing can be done to fix it - as long as sand remains its footing.
Nothing else we do can overcome our challenges if we don't fix this one crucial mistake. We must recognize the Law of the Earth as the true and only Law on this planet: eternal, unchanging, and superseding all man-made institutions in perpetuity.
This is mandatory, no matter what governance model is eventually adopted. All attempts to build a civilization will fail, if they claim the false authority to make one man lord of another, and to change the
definition of morality by the force of their own consensus. Such attempts will end in either chaos or tyranny.
ALL of them.
Basing government on a foundation of immutable law makes tyranny impossible. All tyranny proceeds from the philosophical error that people create law, and if no one ascribes that power to anyone, tyranny cannot happen.
Recognizing the Law of the Earth is the ONLY way.
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