The Second Declaration
Channeling the Jeffersonian Fire for A New Generation of Subversives
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for us to dissolve the political bands that tether us to arbitrary power—and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which Universal Morality entitles us—posterity demands we enumerate the injustices and declare our resolve.
We still hold these truths to be self-evident:
That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
We understand these timeless words to mean that no one is justified in subordinating another who has caused no injury and that neither majoritarian mobs nor deliberative bodies may deny us our lives, liberty, or various pursuits.
Therefore, in peaceful solidarity, we declare our independence—again.
Consent
To secure our rights, the People must institute new governance systems, deriving our just powers from the consent of the governed.
Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of our ends, it is:
[T]he Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
We do not take the implications lightly.
Still, when a “long train of abuses and usurpations” creates a condition of subjugation, it is our right and our duty, “to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for [our] future security.”
We have waited long enough for elected officials to reform themselves and our system. We have seen too little progress. So the time has come for the People to alter our systems of government.
But we are under no illusions: powerful authorities do not care about lofty appeals. We can no more swarm them with muskets than ignore their power. We must instead launch a million experiments in liberation. The history of governments, after all, is a history of repeated injuries by authorities who oppress the people for power’s ends.
Enough is enough.
Injustices
Our grievances pertain to actions of unchecked power. Such actions include:
Taking from us without our consent and preventing us from governing ourselves
Denying us guarantees in the Bill of Rights, especially Amendments I, II, IV, V, VI, VIII, IX, and X.1
Threatening, regulating, and oppressing us, too often without legislation or due process
Lying to us and keeping secrets from us, while evading accountability
Dividing and disenfranchising us through the spectacles of partisan polarization and national elections
Seeking to control us, that is, to engineer society as if it were a machine and we were its cogs
Forcing us to subsidize failed agencies, systems, and institutions
Granting favors or subsidies to reward the powerful at the expense of the poor.
Threatening, attacking, and imprisoning those who share the truth about them, criminalizing both demands for accountability and peaceful dissent
Trading on and profiting from inside knowledge of the very laws they make
Feeding our fears to grow the military-industrial complex out of all reasonable proportion
Threatening to confiscate our means of defending ourselves from criminals and tyrants
Taxing us without legitimacy through currency manipulation
Conscripting the media and social platforms into deception, spin-doctoring, and censorship on their behalf
Assaulting our shared moral principles, common law, and Constitution
Spying on the People and denying us our privacy
Auctioning power to corporate bidders and horse-trading with our property to expand their power
Mandating commercial relationships or associations we would never choose otherwise
Creating corrupt monopsonies of scientific research
Declaring “wars” on the People for "crimes" that have no victim
Invading countries that represent no credible threat to the People or our pursuit of happiness
Using unlimited debt to buy votes and expand their power—thus burdening our children and grandchildren
Threatening legal action, heaping charges on us, or seizing our property without due process
Inculcating our children with illiberal doctrines, identity politics, or bankrupt ideologies
Claiming expertise and decision-making rights on matters about which they have insufficient knowledge
Forcing us to use their debased monies and preventing us from using our own monetary networks and stores of value
Creating perverse, unintended effects by meddling in complex systems they don't fully understand
Oppressing us repeatedly in the name of the common good
Putting the interests of elites over the needs of the People
Obstructing our pursuits and diminishing our happiness
The purposes for which the People's government was constituted have been usurped. So we must set about building society anew.
Resolutions
Therefore, we resolve to:
Work towards a society based on the consent of the governed
Embrace community self-determination and self-governance, starting with the revival and enforcement of Amendments IX and X of our lost Constitution
Challenge all unjustifiable claims to authority by one person over another
Found, find, or fund new jurisdictions—on land, sea, or in the Cloud—where we can live in peace
Practice nonviolence, integrity, compassion, toleration, stewardship, and rationality—where practice means direct reflection and action, not outdated politics
Protect open inquiry and free expression in both their spirit and letter
Judge others by the content of their character, never by irrelevant, arbitrary, or superficial characteristics
Respect one another's religions, traditions, and practices, so long as they are peaceful
Require full transparency from anyone who claims authority
Exit systems that violate our privacy, sovereignty, or right to peaceful association
Build systems that protect our privacy, sovereignty, and peaceful association
Construct communities that better reckon with the increased complexity of the modern world, balanced against the constraints of our human nature
Construct sovereign networks of property, communication, finance, and currency
Organize superior, anti-authoritarian systems of charity and mutual aid
Create the means to protect our pursuit of happiness and life meaning
Take it upon ourselves to protect and steward our natural resources
Condemn and avoid theft via the inflationary and redistributive policies of national central banks
Practice nonviolent resistance but defend ourselves vigorously against all violent actors
Revive federalism, devolving political power as locally as is feasible, always towards true self-government
Become resilient as individuals, families, and communities—empowering ourselves
Exploit the weak joints and leverage points of all unjust hierarchies
Exit any platform, system, or organization that has been compromised by unjust power
Defend ourselves and those we love with the fervor of hornets
Renounce allegiances to the major political parties and their national election spectacles
Oblige regional and local governments to override national authorities
Operate parallel legal systems centered on restitution instead of retribution
Radiate goodwill in the practice of community-building and peace
Solve social problems with our creativity, innovation, and social entrepreneurship
Practice morality in thought, word, and deed, while expecting the same from leaders
Replace our cowardice with courage, our doubt with confidence, and our hesitation with dedication
Signatories
This Declaration evokes the spirit of 1776, but each of the injustices and resolutions listed is cosmopolitan, designed to challenge unjust, unchecked political power wherever it is found. The people of the world must overcome the submission instincts that keep us in the grip of fear. If freedom is our children's birthright, let it never be said we were timid.
Our mission unites us in courage.
We are about to enter an era of upheaval that is unprecedented in our lifetimes. As we move forward together in the solidarity of Gandhi’s satyagraha and Jefferson's self-evident truths, let these principles unleash new experiments in peace, freedom, and self-government. Though human events draw our attention to struggles among great powers, the greatest struggle of our time is the People against an Axis of Unjust Authority. We must not idle as the powerful encircle us with tentacles of control, even if they do so in the name of national security or the common good. After all, "The Thing itself is the Abuse!"2
Instead, we will vote with our money and our feet. We will rise up as peaceful, digital insurgents, write tomorrow's rules, and become practitioners of underthrow. We can build new societies in the detritus of power politics. We start by lending our voices to the universal principles set out in this document.
Once we make our declaration, we shall begin our struggle anew.
Thanks Max for this piece! This is Afrikanus Kofi Akosah. I just retweeted it. I salute!
Aye... as a rhetorical flourish anyway. That may be your purpose here. But I must say what I always say to manifestos, declarations, and the like: writing these solo is not enough. What made the Declaration of Independence and the constitution so powerful was the confluence of folks collaborating on putting them together. If you want to do this properly (and there's no reason to assume you do), it ought to come from that same kind of meeting of minds.
Ah - but there's the rub, isn't it! It's precisely the meeting of minds that is thwarted in the current political and media conditions. And actually, that which you seek to 'underthrow' works surprisingly hard to maintain that state of affairs. Maybe, then, there are few steps to go before a second declaration makes sense. In the meantime, I wish you - and everyone else trying to reassemble collectives - the best of luck with the paths you take together.