Our Societies Could be Amazing - Starting Right Now - if a New Agreement Between Voters on all sides of the aisle was Established.

This agreement would use technology to eliminate corruption, create governmental transparency, decentralization, accountability, and more. And no, we don't need government's permission to proceed.

Apr 13, 2022

First, some questions:

Do you think governments are currently representing their people in the best ways possible? Are you sick of the corporate influence, dark money, and secrets in our government and politics? Are you disappointed with the overall way our governments are treating their people? Can you envision a better way for government to act and respond to the voters and people they are supposed to represent?

What if we told you that all of us together could not only fix these problems but also be on the road to creating the most amazing society imaginable? If you believed this was possible, would you be interested in a simple agreement? Most importantly, would you agree not to vote for any candidate if they refused to comply with our new agreement - regardless of their (or your) political party affiliation?

We think the number of people who would agree to this are pretty much unanimous outside the oligarchs, corporate and political elite, trolls, and tyrants of the world. Which makes this idea even more enticing.

Let’s elaborate:

First, we need a new agreed upon layer of technology that exists between the politicians and the voters in our democracies. One that we all come up with together, plugs into the current systems, and connects voters and politicians in a transparent and accountable way. Think sort of like a social media platform for voters and their representatives but with accountability (maybe with blockchain or other decentralized technology), and one that is constantly evolving to prevent corruption. This shouldn’t be too hard to do. (We explore more ideas and possibilities on this technology here, here, and here).

It’s time to bring visions of a true participatory government into modern times by using technology as our tool. A new well thought out platform could be our new town hall and more.

Below is a rough draft of a potential agreement between future voters and representatives.

Would you agree to this? Would you want your political candidates to agree to this? Would you agree not to vote for any candidate if they refused to be part of this agreement?

We would.

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THE AGREEMENT:
We the People - and representatives - agree to the following:

1) As voters and representatives we agree to work together and put the integrity of the system as the number one most important line item - above all else - because we realize if the system is flawed then the individual laws and rules within the system matter not. From this day forward we will work above all to hold politicians accountable by making them unelectable or by getting them recalled if they attempt to tamper with the system in any way that makes it not work for the people it is supposed to serve. The first step is we will not vote for any politician who does not agree to this agreement in full.

2) We all agree to remove money from politics. We the people will only vote for politicians who either don’t take campaign donations, or (if we agree upon it) only take small personal sized donations similar to what Bernie Sanders attempted to do in his last Presidential run. (This would only make sense if it was only small donations from individual non-corporate donors that were all traceable and transparent). No more massive corporate donations. No more dark money in politics. And any money accepted outside of what we decide on would automatically mean the candidate loses everyone’s future vote. Simply put: you break this rule as a candidate then we the people will never vote for you again in any capacity ever. Zero tolerance. We need to have a system where politicians care more about what the people want than what the corporations and their lobbyists want. Thus, we need to remove the money coming from special interests.

3) We agree to constantly seek improvements for transparency in government, and constantly evolve the system of government to prevent corruption. Thomas Jefferson once said, “A well informed electorate is a prerequisite to Democracy.” If our government is allowed to act in secret on anything it feels like, then we are not a well informed electorate. In fact, we are a confused and ill-informed one. The only things that should be secret in government are military secrets and maybe ongoing investigations. Certainly not spending bills, campaign donations, and more. We need cameras and technology monitoring politicians and their actions the same way police body cams monitor police (see #4). If voters can’t see what is happening behind closed doors, then voting is pointless. The people need to see what is happening in order to make the most informed decisions, and right now we are purposely kept in the dark. We need to put a massive spot light on government by only agreeing to elect politicians who make this their main goal, along with evolving the system of government itself to prevent corruption. Transparency is the enemy of corruption.

4) Work to develop the best technology and methods possible that constantly seek to find improved ways to connect voters to their representatives. Voters deserve to have a voice, and with the technology of today that should be known in real time. Conversely, politicians should and could be held accountable in real time for their actions. We need to create a technology platform that is incorruptible, evolving, and whose main purpose is to fuse the voters and representatives in a way to get the best results for the people via their government. This will be like a voluntary transparency exposition by all candidates. Any candidates who won’t allow our technology to work as we intend will become unelectable. If they feel like their privacy is being invaded it will be. That will be part of the sacrifice our elected officials will agree to. There is nothing to fear if they have nothing to hide, right?

We also need a way to hold the politicians accountable, which currently is almost non-existent. This new platform must be full of checks and balances to avoid trolls, bots, and people not directly in their voting districts from participating in it. This platform must also be easily accessible for all communities and people. This platform should include, but is not limited to the following line items and/or agreements:

From this point forward politicians agree to video and audio record any and all meetings they have. They will then upload these files to our new platform in real time (or as close to it as possible). Intentional failure to do so will show a lack of commitment to transparency and participatory governance by the representative. This opens the door for corruption to take seed and it will not be tolerated. Again this should be a zero tolerance policy.
Any bills, acts, orders, laws, or any changes that effect the voters must be posted online before they become a law or before they are voted on and/or signed. There must be ample time for constituents to scrutinize, look for conflicts of interest, leave feedback, and a general consensus to be made over them by the communities they effect.
All the contracts and money given out by government have to use an open transparent process that is monitored in real time by everyone. This may include smart contracts in the future - aka DAOs - in order to make government bidding more fair and transparent.
There will be an “idea portal” where voters voices can be heard in real time. Voters can submit ideas for changes (specific to voting districts) and these ideas can then be viewed by all. These ideas will then be upvoted and downvoted by the electorate and the best ideas will percolate to the top. Commenting will not exist in this portion of the portal. Which means that naysayers can’t just come and shoot down ideas. The only way for comments to be made are with new ideas. So if your idea is better (even slightly), then present your idea in the portal and the reasons why and make your case. This will keep the idea portal as a solutions-minded space. After ample time is given for new ideas, representatives agree to consider the best ideas by the voters and implement them whenever possible - or leave thorough explanations when they are not and those explanations will be scrutinized by the public in real time.
Every action by a politician that effects the electorate will be held accountable in real time in this new platform to give immediate and secure feedback to the politicians as they act and speak. If a politician ever acts in ways against the consensus of their constituents everyone will see that and they better start explaining exactly why in the portal.

5) Anyone who becomes a representative or decides to run for office must also agree to the following:

They will disclose all conflicts of interest in our new digital portal. The voters can also use this same portal to provide evidence of conflicts of interest or corruption if the candidates fail to disclose them.
They work toward building a new separate branch of government (maybe called The Department of Corruption) that is elected with representatives (maybe one from each county). This department will report directly to the people and not to another branch of government like the FBI or Department of Justice does. This new department’s only job is to police the system - the government and all of its forces - and protect it from corruption. There should be red team sting operations happening all the time.
They work toward ending all wars in all countries by helping spread ideas of peace, decentralization, transparency, rationality, and idea forming.
They work towards helping the people pass bills that aid in decentralizing government and making it more responsive and transparent to the people it represents.
They vow to thoroughly understand all bills before passing them. (Most politicians don’t even read the bills now. In fact, most of the bills are currently written by the corporations they benefit most).
They work towards making all aspects of government as transparent as possible, and thus as incorruptible as possible. Any areas that are not transparent need to have a system of approved checks and balances.

“A good system you should be able to turn over to your enemies to run and they can’t break it.” - Naval Ravikant.

Our system is currently being run by people without our best interests in mind, and it is not sustainable. Simply put: Fixing the system is the answer.

For those concerned about implementation - this has already been implemented in Taiwan with great success ever since the Sunflower Revolution (read more about that here). They have been able to keep constant infiltration attempts by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) into their own government at bay because of it, which is an amazing feat in itself. It seems the only way the CCP could ever take down Taiwan is by force because they have done such a good job with using technology to decentralize their participatory government.

Adding this new agreed upon layer of technology to our own governments can be a painless path that resonates with nearly all political and ideological parties, and most importantly prevents corruption of the system. But we need as many people as possible to agree to this, and hold representatives accountable.

Once that is done, an amazing society is possible. But it won’t happen by accident.

Are you in?

As always the entire purpose of this is to connect with other solutions-minded people like yourself! For 4 billion years on this planet there were only single-celled organisms. Then one day they somehow learned to work together and make complex multi-celled creatures like you and me. Right now we are like those single-celled organisms. Our next evolution is finding how to work together, better.

In order to build the world we want to see we will need technology to help us. Please join the upcoming discussions in this group on the blockchain based social media platform called MINDS. There is no algorithm or censorship on this platform. Just the free exchange of ideas. The group was recently started but if we can get a few like-minded people working together, maybe we can be the catalyst that leads to a post scarcity world. HERE IS THE GROUP ON MINDS.

If you enjoyed this topic we explore it in several other articles we wrote here, here, and here.

Thanks for problem solving with us, you beautiful, rational creature.

About the author:
Josh R. Ketry - Director of Strategy and Systems - is an advocate for freedom, human growth, and human potential. A Brazilian Jiu Jitsu blackbelt and Academy owner. Growth Mindset student (for life). Entrepreneur. Writer. Philosophy fan. Long-time carnivore diet practitioner for autoimmune issues. Birder. Muskie fisherman. Photographer. No topic off limits. Thank you for reading!