Hi all,

from a discussion in the Discord earlier about the vote to abolish the constitution, it sounds like there’s some serious opinions about the current state of government, constitution, and the level of bureaucracy and jurisprudence in our community. Some people want stronger laws, some people want no laws, and some people just want a more clear existing system. So this is the first post in a set of posts I’m calling our “Constitutional Convention”. I’m down for us to rewrite the whole thing, so if we were going to start over from scratch, what do you want to do differently this time? If not, what do you think needs changed?

For this post I’d like to encourage more discussion than debate, so more asking questions about other's positions than disagreements about them.

Prompts:

• What do you see as the government’s responsibility in our community?

• What benefits has having a government had on our community?

• What drawbacks has having a government had on our community?

• Does bureaucracy (defined here as “any formal procedure” e.g. voting, elections, laws, etc.) enhance or decrease your enjoyment in participating in the community?

• If you could unilaterally change something in the current constitution, what would it be?

• What should the role of elected officials, if any, be? Should they have "powers" that regular citizens don't, or be more of a “first among equals” representative position?

So far these are the positions I’ve seen:

• The whole idea of a government just adds unneeded strife in our community. We can get along fine without one.

• The current system would be fine if it were more clear.