Did the Founders Hate Government?

[malthaussen]

22. Yep, your frustration is pretty clear

No document is perfect. Maybe the Brits have the right idea -- their "constitution" is unwritten. Many would claim that is a sign of superiority -- there are quite a number of Euros who think the US constitution is a banal composition of generalities. Of course, most of them have never read the thing.

Given that the US constitution is, by design, a work-in-progress, one could harldly expect that it would be one and indivisible and immutable for all time. The question is, are the principles enumerated therein of value, or not? What is missing? What is superflouous? To what extent are the perceived "flaws" flaws of interpretation? You will recall that there were those who were opposed to creating a written Constitution -- and a written Bill of Rights -- specifically because the words could be misinterpreted by men of ill intent. But any introductory course in literary criticism will apprise you of that potentiality.

Corruption and violence are not the consequences of principles, they are the consequences of ignoring principles. The state of the US is not flawed because our Constitution is flawed, but because men are flawed. Can you really imagine a mere scrap of paper could regulate the behavior of human beings, whatever its provenance? The purpose of the Constitution is to adumbrate the principles to which we as a nation aspire. It is for us as individuals to express those principles in action, or not as we please.

-- Mal