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'10 Commandments'
I have been looking for a way for the public to
monitor what our governments (all levels), politicians, bureaucrats etc are
doing. A simple criteria that everyone can use, including
the media when publishing political news.
The simplest one that I can think of is the '10
Commandments', the question is, what would the 10(?) commandments be?
Summary of my thoughts to date.
1. 10 Commandments that can be held up as a judgement.
2. send them to every politician, civil servant, newspaper, radio and tv.
3. encourage the media to show a red flag with the commandment number on it
every time a political comment/decision is published, yellow card when they
get too near the mark.
4. encourage the public to write to the papers quoting which commandment has
been broken.
5. have a competition to write a ballard on the 10 commandments (songs were
used to transmit history and news long before the internet), you could have a
Europe-song-contest to pick the winner.
6. use a think-tank/brain-storming to get the commandments, then run a
competion to get the public involved in picking the highest scoring 10, and/or
the best additional one.
7. the 10 commandments could be used on all levels of government, you could
have 'score-cards' printed so the public could keep track of what the
politicians current rating is.
Never forget, the impression is more important than the reality in politics,
and if it caught the publics interest someone may do the same with the legal
system.
Lets go back a few steps.
1. what is a constitution?
Principally it is a statement of what the 'powers-that-be' can, and can't do.
That is fair enough, put it presents a problem with the public writing their
own -
a. how long would it take to do if one followed the conventional course of
constitutions i.e. 3-400 pages of legal jargon.
b. what are the chances of it being accepted.
c. how many of the public would understand it.
The answer to a. has to be months, b. has to be zero, c. very few.
There are three sayings I use as guides
KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)
'You don't have to re-invent the wheel just because you have a puncture', and
It is accepted better, if it is remembered.
I am not adverse to a bit of lateral thinking i.e. taking ideas that work in
one sphere and using them in totally unrelated situations.
So
a) what ever solution is found, it will need the public to know, agree, and
more important, understand it (how can the public be vigilant, or diligent, if
they do not know the criteria to judge by).
To achieve that it will need to be short and sweet.
To achieve acceptance you will need the media.
The media just love 'punch-lines' (cryptic quotes that encapsulate the issue).
b) at this point it is beneficial to be reminded of the validity of the
following -
<quote>
when it comes to verbiage, less often is more:
Pythagorean theorem: 24 words
The Lord's Prayer: 66 words.
Archimedes's Principle: 67 words.
The 10 Commandments: 179 words.
Lincoln's Gettysburg address: 286 words.
The U.S. Declaration of Independence: 1,300 words.
The U.S. Government regulations on the sale of cabbage: 26,911 words.
The lunatics are everywhere.
Lets ensure they have no place to hide.
<end quote>
c) Presentation.
Using the logic of advertisements, something that makes people laugh carries
the message better than the 'droll, but factual'.
I have a Power-Point program of wage review, I converted it and sent it to the
election officials, it led one through a process of asking if the election was
honest, open, and auditable by the public, it was impossible to say 'Yes'
because the 'YES' button leaped all over the screen every time the cursor went
near it.
Pressing 'NO' led to the message saying 'Agreed, do it right next time'.
Did it work?
I'll tell you after the next election,
presumably they got the message.
Any contributions to add to, or replace,
Thou shalt not take democracy in vain.
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