Is It a Good or a Bad Idea to Cite or Honor the U.S. Constitution or the Bible or the Quran or Any Such Document to Validate One's Egalitarian Revolutionary Aspiration?

It's a bad idea.

I do not cite, or honor, the U.S. Constitution to validate my egalitarian revolutionary aspiration. Here’s why.

The reason is that the U.S. Constitution is a bad document because it wrongly says that the form of government it describes is legitimate when in fact it is not. The two main reasons the U.S. government as described in the Constitution is not legitimate are:

• It wrongly allows anti-egalitarians, people who advocate for class inequality and oppression of the have-nots by the haves, to partake in the government. This makes it possible for an oppressive class of people to gain control of the government and use it to dominate the entire population, as has obviously already happened today.

• It wrongly says that a few hundred people (members of Congress, the nine Supreme Court Justices and the President) have the legitimate authority to write and enforce laws that all the (currently) 330 million residents of the United States must obey. This makes it possible (as has obviously happened already) for a rich oppressive class to control the entire population merely by gaining control (with bribes or threats) of a few hundred people.

In truth, the only people who have the right to write and enforce the laws that everybody in a local community must obey are the people constituting as equals the sovereign (no higher governmental power) local assembly of egalitarians, membership in which is the right of all, and ONLY of, adults a) who live or work in the local community and b) who are presumed (unless there is evidence to the contrary) to hold egalitarian values (i.e., opposition to class inequality, no-rich-and-no-poor equality, mutual aid, fairness and truth) and c) who agree that egalitarians have the right to write and enforce laws that all in the local community must obey. This is what makes a government legitimate. It also, in stark contrast to the U.S. Constitution, makes it very difficult for a rich oppressive class to get control of the government. Please read further about this in “Why Only Egalitarians Can Make Laws” and “Why Should Laws Only Be Made By Local Assemblies?” and “What Makes a Government Legitimate?”

The U.S. Constitution thus describes a government that is perfectly suited to the needs of a rich upper class that oppresses the great majority of people, as I discuss in some detail here. And of course a rich upper class today does exactly that, and has done so since the days of the Founding Fathers (whom I discuss here.)

Yes, I know that one can elicit nodding heads of approval from Americans for one’s views if one says those views are consistent with or implied by the U.S. Constitution.

The reason for this is that Americans have been taught to essentially worship the U.S. Constitution the way people worship holy scriptures such as the Bible or the Quran. It’s thus easy to gain some support for, or at least a polite consideration of, one’s views by attaching them somehow to what people think is holy, which includes, in the United States, the U.S. Constitution.

The important fact, however, is that in order for the egalitarian revolutionary movement to succeed it will be necessary for the vast majority of people to know exactly what it aims for, exactly what kind of society based on what principles. People must especially know what makes a government legitimate. The rich will use even the slightest bit of confusion in the minds of people about these things to get away with keeping the system of class oppression intact.

Therefore, because it is currently widely accepted (for lack of any real serious thought or critical discussion about it, I might add) in the United States that what the U.S. Constitution describes is indeed a legitimate form of government, an egalitarian revolutionary movement must—absolutely must!—create a massive public discussion about why the U.S. Constitution is flat out, and dangerously, WRONG.

It is obviously not possible to talk about why the U.S. Constitution is flat out, and dangerously, wrong while at the same time citing it as an authority and honoring it in any way.

What about holy scriptures such as the Bible and Quran?

Many people have cited holy scriptures such as the Bible or Quran as an authority to give legitimacy to their ideas. The problem, of course, is that such holy scriptures generally contain text that supports and also text that contradicts whatever view one is advocating. The Bible, for example, was cited by some anti-slavery people and subsequently by some in the Civil Rights Movement in its fight to abolish the racist Jim Crow laws. But pro-slavery people and pro-Jim Crow people were able to find passages in the Bible to support their views too. I think the same kind of thing can be said about the Quran.

In my opinion the best long-term strategy is simply to say as clearly as possible what one believes and rely on no other authority than the fact that one’s view resonates with most good and decent people.