super-recent retro-futurism

[alexr_rwx]

I was clicking around some wikipedia about Timothy Leary and early cyberpunk and John Perry Barlow and bOING bOING -- roughly the subject matter of Technical (You're So). Recent history, as people tried to figure out what computers and networks of computers, would do to our lives -- so wild! I'm not even sure what to say about it! But, like -- the WELL, and MOOs, and the connections with old hippies, and people distributing things on Hypercard stacks, and Billy Idol's attempt to get into all of this (NB, that article is really worth reading -- especially the parts about the reaction to Billy Idol from the online communities of 1993), and... just... so weird!

In all this browsing, I came across this character R.U. Sirius, who I feel like I probably should have known about before. But he was involved with this political whatsits called the Revolution Party. Here's their 20-point platform, under the cut.

http://web.archive.org/web/20080422054735/http://revolting.com/archive/old_revolting/platforms.html

"20 Point Party Platform for National Politics by R.U. Sirius"

1. Convert to clean energy now! Particularly in light of the global climate crisis, we call for a global transition to clean energy sources by the end of the decade. Encourage the development and distribution of new, more efficient, clean energy sources as the technologies become available. Encourage the practice of recycling and clean manufacturing processes. Promote global cooperation in ensuring that all nations are able to implement these new technologies as soon as possible. Promote research into possibly reversing the damaging effects of old, "dirty" technologies.

2. Drug peace! We call for an immediate end to the War on Drugs as a top national priority, beginning with the repeal of all prohibition against Cannabis, later to be followed by the total transformation of all policy towards other so-called "illicit" substances. We demand an end to the imprisonment of individuals for the possesion of small amounts of illegal drugs and encourage the replacement of our current punitive, "criminal justice" approach with one that views the abuse of drugs as a health problem, and that stresses education as well as respect for an individual's Constitutional rights & civil liberties. We recognize that the specific details of this wider transition require greater investigation and therefore encourage constructive debate of new models of drug regulation and taxation, ranging from medicalization to legalization and many points between. Furthermore, we call for an immediate end to military involvement in the war on drugs, both at home and internationally.

3. We will repeal twice as many laws as we pass. We need to simplify and clarify the rules of the game. We will do a better job of enforcing and obeying a few reasonable rules than thousands upon thousands of incomprehensible statutes.

4. End corporate rule! We reject the domination of our lives and political systems by corporations, and call for corporate documents and information to be open to the public. We call for an end to corporate welfare. We call for prison terms for serious corporate crime. We call on Federal and State governments to use the right to revoke the charters of corporations that don't play by the rules, and challenge legal rulings giving corporations the same rights as people.

5. Radical simplification and reform of the tax system: We call for an end to all Federal Personal Income taxes on an individual's first $100,000 of income, with a simple flat tax to be instituted on all income over $100,000. We further encourage states to also end taxation of the incomes of the poor and middle class.
In order to maintain social security insurance we call for an end to the current income ceiling on payroll taxes which place an unfair burden on lower and middle income people.
Finally,we are committed to promoting individual and smaller business enterprize by easing the excessive tax burdens on small companies, individual proprietors, and "free agents", and by making large corporations pay their fair share.

6. You can't own the human genome. We need to examine biotechnology's promises and threats more closely, and share the information and the positive results more democratically.

7. Close down the prison/industrial complex. Pardon all prisoners who are in for victimless crimes, provided they have no known history of violent activities. Pardon all prisoners listed with Amnesty International. Grant a stay of execution to Mumia, and support a new trial.

8. Defend civil liberties. For the first time in recent memory, let's have a federal government that respects The Constitution and The Bill of Rights. Let's have representatives of the ACLU, EFF and other pro-rights organizations in the Justice Department.

9. Stop the war on youth. It's time to end absurd zero-tolerance policies in schools, curfews, and other impositions of martial law on the youth of America.

10. It's time for a new globalism. Advocate a global minimum wage and environmental standards. Oppose excesses in corporate property rights through patents, copyrights et. al.

11. Stop policing the world. Become just another member of the UN, with responsibilities equivalent to our numbers. Reduce the Pentagon's budget by at least 30%.

12. Tibet can't wait. And neither can millions of other victims of state repression around the globe. Emphasize human rights in foreign policy, and be consistent about it. Representatives of human rights groups should represent the US in the UN and should be part of the State Department.

13. Close down the National Security State. Since the end of World War II, representative democracy has been hostage to the National Security State. Release all secret documents (excluding only those recent ones that present a very clear and present danger), fire the CIA, and reform the federal intelligence apparatus. Put mature computer hackers in charge of intelligence.

14. Put environmental concerns before profits and jobs. On the other hand, put scientific consensus and reason ahead of emotion-based environmentalism. Protect the environment while limiting Orwellian bureaucratic absurdities. Pay loggers not to clear cut the forests.

15. Open federally-funded birth control clinics all across the country, guaranteeing women in every locale reasonable access to her legal right to abortion and other forms of birth control.

16. Allow 'autonomous zones.' Offer ways in which localities and even households can -- with a very few limits -- opt out of the system.

17. Re-establish social services at pre-Reagan levels, for starters. Study the possibility of replacing demeaning welfare by using government to create an ultimately self-sustaining 'generic' maintenance economy. By creating co-operatives that co-exist with free enterprise, we can replace welfare with a less demeaning, and more democraticly engaging alternative.

18. Study the possibility of restructuring the economic/money system toward making money consistent with actual value in an age where money-as-information is excessively abstracted from the creation of real wealth and unfairly favors those who know how to manipulate it. Also, question the oligarchic power of those who control the money system, such as the Federal Reserve, the IMF, and the World Bank, reforming or possibly eliminating those organizations.

19. Fund a 'Manhattan Project Toward Utopia.' Finance and encourage altruistic scientific and technological projects geared towards breakthroughs that can diminish or eliminate scarcity, disease, and other forms of suffering that most people would prefer not to experience. Establish a principal of universal access to the products of such breakthroughs.

20. Victory Over Horseshit! The political process in America is hostage to certain obvious absurdities that are an embarrassment before the civilized world: like the continuing embargo against Cuba (and particularly the Helms/Burton bill), the excessive numbers of state executions, our refusal to sign the land mine treaty, the opposition to policies like needle exchange that are geared towards slowing down a plague, refusal of funding for international birth control, ad infinitum. Let's have a national government that calls ridiculous horseshit what it is.

I think... most of these are pretty good ideas. Except for probably (16), and the specifics of (5). (3) is fantastic, even if it sounds really glib how it's stated. None of these policy points seem likely to be implemented by the current folks in power, or perhaps by anybody likely to be in power at all ever.

Comments

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Yeah, a mix of good stuff, vagueness, and garbage. I doubt that tax scheme will actually pay for the government they want. The rich make a lot, but in aggregate so do everyone else. 18 (money) sounds clueless. The repeal thing is meaningless: I could repeal two laws and pass one new one that contains the exact text of the old ones combined.

[oniugnip.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I wouldn't say it's meaningless, just because you could hack around it by doing something terrible. The point is that it's too complicated to know what laws are supposed to apply in a given situation, so they get applied inconsistently, and that should be fixed.

I doubt the tax scheme, or any of it at all, will be applied in any sense. At least not soon.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Simplification or better salience of laws (and regulations! where most of the action happens) would be good, but OTOH society is kind of intrinsically complex too.

I figure chances of being applies are slightly higher for proposals specific (or sensible) enough that one *could* apply them.

Less vague platform

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

1. Tax all fossil fuels for the carbon and other pollution they produce, aiming for e.g. a tax of $2.50 on gasoline in 5 years. Help people deal with the prices by redistributing all that revenue on a per capita basis, in what's called "fee and rebate". Put a tariff on imports from countries without similar environmental taxes. Pay for double-tracking and other improvements to Amtrak rail and service. Subsidize Greyhound to resume service to small towns, for a cost of a few hundred million to a few billion per year, depending on frequency. Start building high speed rail, for a total system cost of $2 trillion. Encourage via federal money urban use of congestion charges.

2. Yeah that.

3. Pass federal and state amendments such that all laws expire 20 years after they were last passed or renewed.

4. Kind of okay. Reform of corporate democracy and executive compensation procedures would probably be good.

5. Tax capital gains as normal income, if not at higher rates. Introduce more brackets, like another 2% marginal rate for every doubling of income, up to about 70% at the top. Introduce tax deduction for rental expenses if the home mortgage deduction can't be phased out.

6. Not enough info.

7. Commute all federal death row sentences to life with parole. [Something a president could just do.] Eliminate death penalty. Make fines proportional to income, a la Finland. [And more]

Diverging:
Medicare for all. Raise taxes to pay for that.

Remind the Fed of its dual mandate to control inflation *and* maintain full employment, even at the cost of higher inflation. Borrow for stimulus as recommended by Krugman et al. Expand infrastructure spending by 2% of GDP or more, for deferred maintenance and general upgrade.

===

Not complete, but I hope it shows a difference in approach.

[zacharyzsparks.livejournal.com]

*clicks on wikipedia link*

"The party's 20-point platform was a hybrid of libertarianism and liberalism."

That...that is pretty much exactly what I was going to say. "Less government...but not *no* government, and every libertarian is going to disagree with us on where we stop getting rid of things."

Aaron mentions from time to time that the tax code should be drastically reformed in a way similar to the very beginning of (5), possibly by implementing some kind of graded consumption tax or anything? And yeah, agreeing with the above poster about taxing pollution and stuff.

Is "bOING bOING" supposed to be pronounced "b-oing, b-oing" (so like, buh-OING or whatever), or is my mind weird in parsing it that way?

[winterkoninkje.livejournal.com]

Sounds good overall. Though, like mindstalk, I'm annoyed by how vague and wishy-washy-feel-good it is without making (m)any concrete suggestions. I think it's telling that one of the more specific suggestions is the one you take issue with the details of. I think the vagueness is a big part of the reason why there's so little likelihood of this ever happening. Without a concrete proposition on the table, there's no chance of getting an active enough following to overthrow the oligarchs and put it into law.

Though, given all the bullshit around the GOP doing their damnedest to block healthcare reform, the renewed attacks on women's right to birth control and abortion (did you hear about Georgia (http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2012/03/31/at-11th-hour-georgia-passes-women-as-livestock-bill/)?), the neigh impossibility of states to pass laws acknowledging gay marriages, etc, I'm increasingly of the opinion that the only way to get any reform in this country will be via outright revolution.

[lindseykuper]

I'm disappointed that you didn't put the 20-point platform in 20-point font.