The Plebian Village

In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers declared that human beings, simply by virtue of being human, have the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness . . . among others.

In his Gettysburg Address, President Abraham Lincoln promulgated the idea of a government of the people, for the people, and by the people.

These two concepts, if they were ever truly known, have been abandoned and forgotten.  In our schools we have taught our children the words but we must have failed to teach them the meaning.  Plebism strives to restore these concepts to their proper place, at the forefront of public thought.

Until quite recently, the right to life was translated to mean the right to a job, to earning a living.  That time is past.  The widget that once took ten people an hour to manufacture now requires only a single person, and soon a single worker will be able to make scores of widgets in an hour.  Indeed, the widget is now Widget 3.2 and still evolving.  We need a new paradigm.

Plebism offers forth the model of inherent ownership.  The right to life is translated as the right to participate in the work and bounty of community effort.  Human needs such as food, clothing, and shelter, are produced and provided locally regardless of apparent cost under two concepts called community self-reliance and the local-first principle.  The capitalist concept of unfettered economic growth (cancer) is abandoned as is the socialist concept of nationalization of the means of production.  Both socialism and capitalism are seen as radical extremes on the left and right of the same system: conquest economics.  They are rejected in favor of a radical center, a return to cooperative (tribal) economics devoid of tyranny.  One is reminded of an old saying: from each according to ability; to each according to need.  We would add something to that: to each according to need . . . and contribution.

Plebism embraces the concept of community self-reliance and its principal mechanism is the Synergen.  While a Synergen may be viewed as a corporation without the profit motive, it is also the model for true participatory democracy and thus for a revival of democracy.  Its precepts give rise to a new way of looking at the U.S. Constitution and the governing structure detailed there.

Plebism has nothing against globalization.  As with technology, we embrace it.  But we strenuously object to abdicating control of those commodities and services necessary for our survival.  Under the local-first principle, Plebians keep production of those goods and services necessary for human survival (called utilities) close to home.  Buying flour from Russia, sugar from Brazil, beef from Argentina, and oranges from Israel when we can grow and make those things at home, makes no sense to us.

But above all else, Plebism adheres to the basic principles embedded in its motto:
Liberty, Justice, and Humanity.

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