Civicwiki:Mission

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The government of the United States of America has been stable and continuous for almost 230 years. No other modern government has existed that long or produced such dramatic success for its citizens, and for that matter, for the world. A democratic republic of 230 years is old by historical standards. Our founders would probably be surprised that their work has lasted so long.

The longevity of our government removes today’s youth 8 or 9 generations from its origins. Not surprisingly, few of us today understand or have a sense of our political heritage or the source or our success. We are prosperous and comfortable. Like a fish unaware of salt water, our long-running success has become an uninteresting condition of life. But our continued success is never guaranteed. We are increasingly out of touch with the ideas and human spirit on which that success was built. They must be understood and refreshed if we are to stay ahead of the historical odds.

Economic growth has been anemic for the last 6 years. We've had recessions before, but the effects of this one have been unnecessarily long. The larger problem is that we are increasingly out of touch with the source of wealth and well being - (and by that we mean the wealth and well being of all of us - not some legendary few) and so it is starting to slip away for many Americans.
We need to refresh our understanding of the source of wealth and the causes of poverty.

The Mission

The original motivation for Civicwiki was the current state of political discourse and the deep social division that has caused. CW was (and still is) to be a reaction to the political process as it has become today - filled with unsupported assertion, fact presented out of context, one-sided half-truths, fabrication presented as fact, and rhetoric calculated to elicit an emotional reaction, all to serve political agendas at the expense of truth and the general welfare. (Please read about Civicwiki.)

So, CW's mission is to provide a forum for fact-based civil discourse, free of demagoguery.

If we are to navigate through the fog of political marketing, we must have a reliable compass.

To help with that and support discussion of the issues, CW's mission is also to refresh and explain the ideas and the heritage behind American success.

The Story

America’s longevity was the result of many factors, but chief among them was a group of very smart people who were genuinely interested in solving the problem of a stable and just federal government. They had no self-serving political agendas beyond good government. They were well educated in the history of previous efforts and in the philosophy of rights and politics and believed in a basic set of unalienable rights afforded to every person. They understood the need for a social and political society in which individual rights and security were guaranteed. They were determined that the people be ultimately in charge rather than an oligarchy. They understood that society was a collection of individuals and groups of diverse, and sometimes competing, interests - that would have to live peaceably together. They were remarkable in their understanding of the problems to be solved if such a society were to be stable. From these understandings, they developed a constitution that defined how such a stable and just government would work and sought to foresee the ways in which people (none of us are angels) could pollute the water. The Constitution of the United States is a document of eternal truths expressed in unique government constructs. It is remarkable in its wisdom and foresight.

Civicwiki seeks to refresh that understanding and the ideas behind America's durable nation by telling the stories of both early and modern Americans, the events and philosophies that shaped our society, our civic structure, and how those things made us successful as a nation.

CW is a website with a framework to hold the narrative. At the beginning, the pages are mostly blank. We must depend on our readers to help us write the pages and maintain content quality. So, CW needs the help of writers and editors. (Perhaps you would like to participate.)

CW has divided the story into several parts 1) the ideas, 2) historical influences, 3) America's wealth, and 4) the issues.

  1. "The ideas" are the concepts that unified Americans leading up to independence, and the concepts that were the subjects of the constitutional debates, and were then encoded into our constitution. They are primarily about the rights of people and the duties of government – what they are and what they aren’t. They are also about the implications of those rights – the rule of law, our country's center piece, being an example.
  2. Historical influences summarizes the interesting and relevant elements of American history as it was shaped by events and the ideas that guided America's development.
  3. America's wealth seeks to explain how wealth is created, the paths out of povery, how this has worked in America, and the influence of government policy.
  4. "The issues" tackles those things that are of primary concern to Americans today. This part of the story can be thought of as the bottom line. The parts that precede it are good and interesting background. But we have to apply what those stories teach us to the issues if the information is to serve a useful purpose.

Main Topics

CW articles will be cataloged under a set of main topics

CW’s 1st main topic is Inalienable Rights. It is the part of story of "the ideas".
America was founded on a principle of rights – the fundamental few rights of people that became central to declaring independence as well as to our constitution. These rights apply to everyone and no one person’s enjoyment of them may be violated by any person or group even if such a group constitutes a majority. They are unalienable – therefore they outrank even the democratic process. To understand this is the beginning of understanding the rule of law on which the stability of our country depends.
CW’s 2nd main topic is America's Heritage. These are the stories of historical influence.
CW’s mission is not to act as historian, but it seems necessary to understanding America’s success to scan history for the interesting events and beliefs that shaped the attitudes and actions of Americans, starting with the first colonies and proceeding ultimately to the present.
CW’s 3rd main topic is American Independence. This belongs to both "the ideas" and to historical influences.
It is a piece of American history starting in 1763 and ending with the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
CW’s 4th main topic is Federalism and Democracy. This also belongs to the ideas behind America.
It is about the constitution and the ideas that surfaced in the debate leading up to its ratification.
CW’s 5th main topic is America's Wealth.
Wealth and poverty are easy to misunderstand. CW would like to make them commonly understood.
CW’s 6th main topic is “The Issues”.
This is where we get to the heart of the matter. Let’s have a fact based (and unemotional) discussion about the issues that matter to us and that seem to divide America. Let’s ignore the political marketing, turn off the politicians and commentators and their agendas and talk to one another.

A few of the ideas presented on this site are original. In all cases, we have relied heavily on history and the writings of other, more insightful minds.

A personal statement about the mission

The sponsors of Civicwiki have assumed this mission out of love.

We love the idea and the beauty of those simple few rights that we and everyone else recognizes as inalienable. We can debate the existence of other rights, but life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are fundamental. They can be explained, but they cannot be denied. They are a product of nature - or if you prefer, a gift from God.
We love the idea of living in a country where these rights are guaranteed. We are glad to live in the United States, where that ideal is more closely approximated than anywhere else.
Because of that, we feel fortunate every day that we were lucky enough to be born in America. Unlike immigrants, we did not choose to be here. We hold the immigrants, who chose America out of that same kind of love, in high regard..

Because of our love of the freedom and protection we enjoy in America, we feel driven to do what we can to preserve those things that made America the land of the free. We hope that this does not strike anyone as old fashioned. If it ever becomes out-of-date, then freedom becomes out of date. We do not worry about that happening because we believe that the human desire for freedom is eternal. We do, however, understand that governments that protect freedom are a small part of the history of civilization, and we sense that an increasing number of Americans take our success for granted.