I am still in the process of listening to the audio book of The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow. This book is a reexamination of the current narrative of how our civilization, culture, social institutions, etc evolved in the light of new evidence and new interpretations. I came across another passage that really spoke to me.
“Those who aspired to a role on the council of Tlaxcala, far from being expected to demonstrate personal charisma or the ability to outdo rivals, did so in a spirit of self-deprecation – even shame. They were required to subordinate themselves to the people of the city. To ensure that this subordination was no mere show, each was subject to trials, starting with mandatory exposure to public abuse, regarded as the proper reward of ambition, and then – with one’s ego in tatters – a long period of seclusion, in which the aspiring politician suffered ordeals of fasting, sleep deprivation, bloodletting and a strict regime of moral instruction. The initiation ended with a ‘coming out’ of the newly constituted public servant, amid feasting and celebration. Clearly, taking up office in this indigenous democracy required personality traits very different to those we take for granted in modern electoral politics.”
On the off-chance that you are not up on your 16th century mesoamerican history… I was not until I watched an excellent course from Wondrium (formerly Great Courses) entitled Maya to Aztec: Ancient Mesoamerica Revealed taught by a very engaging gentleman, Edwin Barnhart. I enjoyed it so much I watched Professor Barnhart’s other five courses at Wondrium. But I digress.
The Tlaxcala were a city state surrounded by the Aztec Empire. The Aztecs tried to conquer them, but never could. Unlike the Aztecs who had a king, a supreme ruler, the Tlaxcala had a council form of government and no single individual in charge. The quote detailed the process of becoming a member of that council. The Tlaxcala allied themselves with the invading Spaniards to conquer the Aztecs. As the result of this alliance and the ultimate victory, the Spaniards, more or less, left the Tlaxcala alone.
This passage spoke to me as I compared it the current political situation in the United States. We have always elected clowns to political office in this country. I have no hard data, but it certainly feels like this process of sending incompetents to Congress and other political offices has accelerated… warp factor 5, Scotty – ENGAGE.
Of course this brings up several questions. One being why is this so? There are many reasons, but a quote I came across in an article hits the mark for me.
“If we have a gridlock, that will probably be the best thing that could happen for the market. The markets usually do very well when that happens,” said The Wealth Alliance’s Seth Cohan as cited in the article Stocks rally for a third day ahead of midterm election results, Dow closes 300 points higher.
Tis my humble opinion that the wealthy, that businesses, that special interest groups like a dysfunctional government. It allows them to do pretty much as they please.
The next question being are there alternatives to our current system? One answer is that we could make the current system work better. I doubt we have the political fortitude to do so. First we would have to eliminate gerrymandering while make voting less restrictive and easier. We need to abolish lobbyist altogether. I personally think we need a screening process. I can think of no other job, that simply by wanting it, makes you qualified for it. Currently the only criteria for holding most political offices are citizenship and age. Surprisingly, being a convicted felon does not automatically disqualify a person from holding federal offices except in some cases, like treason. State laws are a different matter.
A lottery with the force of a draft would not be a bad idea. Criteria – unrelated to political philosophy – would be set to create a pool of qualified candidates for each district. They would serve their term and be done, like the draft. My son-in-law who spent much time as a media representative for the Oklahoma Senate then a similar position in Oregon was, and may still be, against term limits. He felt it eliminated professionalism from politics. Yeah I know, that sounds very much like an oxymoron. My opinion is different. Far too many of those folks overstay their welcome and continue in office due to a rigged system. And again no lobbyist with this method.
I don’t have any real answers, but I do really like the Tlaxcala method. I do not think ambition is necessary a bad thing, but neither do I think it is necessarily a wonderful trait. Certainly unchecked ambition is problematic, certainly Trumpian ego trips have sent us into atrocious swamps. Send our politicians to the Tlaxcala boot camp. It cannot be a worse system than we have now.
And so it went way back in the day.