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Feb. 23rd, 2015 06:23 pmBuy! Read! Review! (Command form for purposes of advertising)
Someone posted a meme somewhere that used that (bogus?) quote about a revolution every twenty years or so...supposedly from Jefferson.
As a guy who writes Alternate History, I occasionally think about such things. After all, the creation of the US was a step forward. If you think about what Frank Herbert called “the Pharaohnic Imperative”, you can see that the Founders resisted that, and created something significantly different than any previous gov’t.
I do not think we have continued that forward momentum.
So, here’s an Alternate History, in the form of a Timeline:
1796-1800: Repeated violent Slave Revolts, violently put down. Abolitionists arm escaped slaves.
1800-03: Guerilla warfare across the South.
1804: The election of President Thomas Paine (first three-term President.) End of slavery; Citizenship for all former slaves. Indigenous peoples create 3 new and separate States, elect first congressmen.
1824: Farmer’s revolution: boycotts of all banks, leading to the banning of usury. ‘Town Meeting‘ democracy becomes the norm all over the US, anticipating the Direct Democracy movement of the century’s end.
1825: Founding of NOWR: the National Organization for Women’s Rights.
1825-42: Rising power of NOWR: demonstrations violently put down.
1843; WOMEN’S REVOLT. General strike by women, backed by Farmer’s Union and the Grange.
1844: Constitutional Amendment: Universal Suffrage.
1865: Constitutional Amendment: Food Clothing and Shelter not to be denied to any citizen. Owen makes first proposal for moneyless economy.
1865-1900: Due to the previous two Amendments, a million flowers bloom: New developments in science and the arts transform society; American inventors advance Babbage’s work to unheard-of heights. First electrical motors, practical lightbulbs, and powered airships.
[1871: the Paris Commune fights off invasion, expands speedily across France. Local assemblies practicing Direct Democracy pop up all over Europe, especially Germany and England. Ireland adopts DD, declares Independence.]
1900: Women take the lead in the US House and Senate, forge ahead with birth control and child health initiatives. Congress votes to arm Cuban and Filipino revolutionaries, but refuses to deploy American troops. (This sets a precedent)
1910: Nikola Tesla (an immigrant from Croatia) creates the first binary computer language. His partner Thomas Edison’s work with vacuum tubes sets the stage for radio and TV.
1921: “New Media” (TV , film, and Radio) declared ‘non-commercial’. Town meetings exert local control over radio, begin to produce TV programs. Advocates of ‘the moneyless economy’ merge with the “Society for the Economy of the Gift” to form a powerful political party.
1932: The “Gifters” eke out a narrow victory over the Meritocratic Party in National elections. Reforms continue, based on the narrow common ground between the parties. “Green Party” founded; problems caused by pollution debated in Town Meetings nationwide.
1955: (January) General Strike by women, farmers, youth, in favor of ‘a more moneyless economy’ and ‘Status not Wealth’. With neither women nor young people working, and in fear what striking farmers will do to the food supply, the Gov’t yields: agrees to study demands, effect change.
1956: National elections divide power nearly equally: Meritocrats, Gifters, Greens, each have about a third of the Congress. Gifters have 34 Senate seats, nearly all women. An obscure academic named Eleanor Roosevelt wins the Presidency for the Gifters; her vice president is a man from the State of Cherokee, who has Meritocratic leanings, but is a member of the Green Party.
1959: Brief war with the Empire of Brazil. Airships from the US litter the country with pamphlets explaining DD and the Economy of the Gift. The Empire falls, breaking into thousands of independent DD assemblies.
Hmmm. I’m running out of steam here. MAYBE, if I ever finish all me other Writing Projects, I’ll do a novel or two set in this reality. Could be fun.
Gotta go! See ya!
As a guy who writes Alternate History, I occasionally think about such things. After all, the creation of the US was a step forward. If you think about what Frank Herbert called “the Pharaohnic Imperative”, you can see that the Founders resisted that, and created something significantly different than any previous gov’t.
I do not think we have continued that forward momentum.
So, here’s an Alternate History, in the form of a Timeline:
1796-1800: Repeated violent Slave Revolts, violently put down. Abolitionists arm escaped slaves.
1800-03: Guerilla warfare across the South.
1804: The election of President Thomas Paine (first three-term President.) End of slavery; Citizenship for all former slaves. Indigenous peoples create 3 new and separate States, elect first congressmen.
1824: Farmer’s revolution: boycotts of all banks, leading to the banning of usury. ‘Town Meeting‘ democracy becomes the norm all over the US, anticipating the Direct Democracy movement of the century’s end.
1825: Founding of NOWR: the National Organization for Women’s Rights.
1825-42: Rising power of NOWR: demonstrations violently put down.
1843; WOMEN’S REVOLT. General strike by women, backed by Farmer’s Union and the Grange.
1844: Constitutional Amendment: Universal Suffrage.
1865: Constitutional Amendment: Food Clothing and Shelter not to be denied to any citizen. Owen makes first proposal for moneyless economy.
1865-1900: Due to the previous two Amendments, a million flowers bloom: New developments in science and the arts transform society; American inventors advance Babbage’s work to unheard-of heights. First electrical motors, practical lightbulbs, and powered airships.
[1871: the Paris Commune fights off invasion, expands speedily across France. Local assemblies practicing Direct Democracy pop up all over Europe, especially Germany and England. Ireland adopts DD, declares Independence.]
1900: Women take the lead in the US House and Senate, forge ahead with birth control and child health initiatives. Congress votes to arm Cuban and Filipino revolutionaries, but refuses to deploy American troops. (This sets a precedent)
1910: Nikola Tesla (an immigrant from Croatia) creates the first binary computer language. His partner Thomas Edison’s work with vacuum tubes sets the stage for radio and TV.
1921: “New Media” (TV , film, and Radio) declared ‘non-commercial’. Town meetings exert local control over radio, begin to produce TV programs. Advocates of ‘the moneyless economy’ merge with the “Society for the Economy of the Gift” to form a powerful political party.
1932: The “Gifters” eke out a narrow victory over the Meritocratic Party in National elections. Reforms continue, based on the narrow common ground between the parties. “Green Party” founded; problems caused by pollution debated in Town Meetings nationwide.
1955: (January) General Strike by women, farmers, youth, in favor of ‘a more moneyless economy’ and ‘Status not Wealth’. With neither women nor young people working, and in fear what striking farmers will do to the food supply, the Gov’t yields: agrees to study demands, effect change.
1956: National elections divide power nearly equally: Meritocrats, Gifters, Greens, each have about a third of the Congress. Gifters have 34 Senate seats, nearly all women. An obscure academic named Eleanor Roosevelt wins the Presidency for the Gifters; her vice president is a man from the State of Cherokee, who has Meritocratic leanings, but is a member of the Green Party.
1959: Brief war with the Empire of Brazil. Airships from the US litter the country with pamphlets explaining DD and the Economy of the Gift. The Empire falls, breaking into thousands of independent DD assemblies.
Hmmm. I’m running out of steam here. MAYBE, if I ever finish all me other Writing Projects, I’ll do a novel or two set in this reality. Could be fun.
Gotta go! See ya!
