Bringing Back Ethics: "The Spirit of Law"

America needs to bring back morality and ethics into the private operations of corporations and in the mindset of individual citizens.

One hallmark of the modern world is that organizations, corporations and individuals try to find loopholes in the system that work for their advantage and then stand on the their principals and claim that they did nothing wrong when it blows up. This practice absolutely has to be ended.

The recent Wall Street meltdown is a primary example of this practice whereby the financial firms ultimately had a whole team of lawyers who tear apart every piece of legislation in order to find the gaps or the opportunities within the legislation that are open to them. They then proceed to find ways around the overseeing institutions such as the SEC in order to continue their actions. 

The obvious problem in this approach is that it undermines the intent of the legislation and results in border line illegal activities that benefit very few people but also serve to undermine society in general. Whether one sees intervention in the private sector as socialist or not it has been demonstrated time after time that if left to its own devices, the free market forces will do what is in their selfish best interest and then not be held accountable for any damage done to others.  They do this with a clear conscience as they are able to claim that they have technically done nothing illegal.

The issue is not that they have been able to usurp the legislation rather that what they have done, though not technically illegal, it is definitely 100% unethical.  Morality has gone out of the current American way of thinking.

However, in order to overcome this monstrous gap in America, weherby societal ethics have been abandoned by the "ME generation", what needs to be implemented are "Spirit of Law" provisions whereby the actual intent of the legislation is considered legally binding over and above the actual specifics of the legislation itself.

In today' world, it is pretty unrealistic to imagine that any legisaltive body would be able to create a set of rules that will cover every and all future situations that might arise or have yet to be imagined.

The "Spirit of Law" legal provision will make individuals and corporations legally bound to follow through on the intetnion of the legisaltion rather trying to find ways to circumvent it. Under the "Spirit of Law" mantra any entity that finds loopholes in legislation and then exploits them would be held criminally liable and subject to prosecution.

Americans have to embrace a mindset whereby they respect the intent and spirt of the US way of life rather than imagining ways to co opt it for their own selfish purposes. 

"Engaged Democracy" - The Way Forward

Representative democracy is dead.

What needs to evolve is a spirit of "engaged democracy" whereby individuals have the ability to contribute to the democratic process in whatever areas of the public domain that interest them.

Individuals should have the ability to contribute not only input but also in the formulation of legislation.  Expertise exists in volumes in the modern world across America and this brain pool needs to be included in the legislative process so that greater and more effective solutions are reached.  Through "engaged democracy" differing opinions and agendas can be included in the public debate so that the legislation that is reached is broader in consideration than it currently is today.

Non-partisan solutions should be the goal in the "engaged democracy" process so that fair and equitable information is collected and considered with the objective that America moves down a forward-thinking path.  Party politics has lead to way too much emphasis being put on all-or-nothing style legislation that pushes a philosophy, which unfortunately usually comes at the expense of good government.

In today's world of technology and communication, collecting opinion and expertise should be simple so that the social divides are considered and mutually beneficial policies are arrived at.

In the new system of "engaged democracy", the Congress would become a managerial institution designed to oversee the process of developing legislation and would abandon it's role as a legislator itself.  Only in this way can agenda-driven partisanship be left behind such that America can reclaim it's democratic roots.