WHAT IS THE FUNCTION OF THE PREAMBLE TO THE U.S. CONSTITUTION? (#4)

Posted:  11 Aug 14
Update #3:  14 Aug 14 / 8:30 am ("Statement of purpose" added; Paragraph 2, expanded)
Update #4: 14 Aug 14 / 12:55 pm (Document drastically embellished since update #3)

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Ref:  Civic Mentor Bulletin: A CIVIL WAR (#77) ===== THAT REBUILT THE WORLD!

A.  Purpose

Here is part of the fundamental framework of both our nation and, thus, the Civic Mentor Concept (CMC). This will be analyzed and re-analyzed, to the very end -- and built into everything that the CMC can deduce and convert into practical, day-to-day reality.   These are the glorious, guiding, empowering boundaries within which much can be accomplished. The CMC MUST be philosophically consistent with The Constitution, from top to bottom, inside and out   Such work begins and ends with analysis (and constant re-analyses) and careful, diligent application of the nation's core statement.

This bulletin is how I see things and how I intend to proceed, unless fate intervenes:

B.  The Actual Preamble, verbatim:

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

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CIVIC MENTOR CORE-ANALYSIS

1.  The Constitution IS US -- it made "US" an "US" and a U.S. It is one of the masterpieces coming out of the "Age of Enlightenment" of Western Civilization -- developed by some of the best thinkers OF ALL TIME. It is a brilliant, wise, and BINDING contract among the States and the People -- a most sacred covenant -- that tells ALL HUMANKIND who we are and what we are striving to be. Without it, there IS NO NATION. 

2.  America was "INVENTED" by means of that "Constitutional Blueprint and Operating Manual" and, during the Civil War, it was almost "un-invented," -- for the Confederate enemy tried to BREAK the contract -- and form an independent slave-nation. If they had won, PROVED the contract COULD be broken -- that those words weren't worth the paper on which they were written -- then the nation WOULD HAVE BECOME "UN-HINGED" AND THUS, WOULD HAVE FLOWN COMPLETELY APART -- "perished from the earth." The stresses at the national level are simply TOO GREAT for this not to have happened. Else, why have a Constitution at all? 

a.  And, when that Civil War ended, we had a "brand-new," revolutionized nation -- totally different from what it was before.  The nation finally fixed the flaws which had to be left in place, following the FIRST Revolution.  The part which they couldn't yet make real.  The part which proclaimed -- by our noble Declaration of Independence and bedrock, founding document --  to all humankind -- our MOST sacred truth that "all men are created equal" -- that every human is implicitly endowed with the "unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

b.  FROM THE MOMENT the nation REDEEMED those words, it became MORE TRUE TO ITS OWN SELF -- to Its highly-idealized, highly-principled, carefully-designed nature -- to its glorious, built-in compulsion to endlessly pursue self-perfection -- and the betterment of humankind.  

At long last, confusion had come to an end. 

c.  FROM THE MOMENT OF VICTORY, THE NATION WAS FINALLY FREE TO PROCEED -- BEST SPEED -- TO BACK-UP EVERYTHING IT SAYS TO THE WORLD.  By freeing the slaves, the WHOLE nation became FREE to act as its better nature was always insisting it should.  And, it became more logically consistent in all its relations -- internally and externally -- thereby, reassuring the world (and itself) that it could be reasonably and seriously counted upon to continue striving to back-up ALL ITS SERIOUS UTTERANCES.  

After 87 years -- The Constitution finally made sense. 

All doubt was removed. 
The Nation really MEANT what it had told its people and the world.

 Shameful hypocrisy was no longer painted in
"red-white-blue!!!"  

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3.  Secession was a topic NOT unique to the South -- other States and cities brought-up the idea of leaving the Union, when they found, often to their great annoyance, that their narrow interests had been trumped by larger national ones. The situation at the South made those seceded-States "test" the contract. It took bitterest war among the people to settle, once and for all, the profound question, "Is this contract REALLY binding?" It was natural for them, the South and others, in their willful ignorance, to toy with the idea of "going their own ways." The internal forces made them act that way. Without our FIRMLY ENFORCED CONTRACT -- there is nothing to counteract and squash that very natural impulse -- AND OFF THEY WOULD GO -- either compelled to or caught in some chain-reaction of their own making -- and that would be the end of the United States -- a grand idea, faded into "myth and legends of opportunities, tragically lost" to the entire human species.

AND A "NEW DARK AGE" WOULD HAVE DESCENDED FOR ALL HUMANKIND TO SUFFER, ONCE THE U.S. HAD BEEN SUBTRACTED FROM
THE "HUMAN EQUATION."

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THE END OF NATIONAL AGREEMENT IS THE BEGINNING OF DESTRUCTIVE CONFUSION 

-- it lights a fuse that can't be extinguished, at least in a national sense, without some new agreement being made -- and that's HARD TO DO -- as the creators of the original "contract" already found and proved.  

How much harder would it have been to reform a broken nation which had grown to nearly three times its size since the First Revolution?

Little conflicting, endlessly squabbling "Sub-Nations" (confederacies, unions, etc.) would be more likely to form, than not.

And, once such a SACRED trust had been broken the first time -- how so very much harder would it simply have to be -- to re-establish that trust  -- without yet more bloody tests and trials? 

Clearly, everything would have been DESTABILIZED.  Something very fragile would have been broken -- something special and grand, utterly RUINED -- with any repairs likely to be most imperfect.

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4.  That said, everything needs a "starting point." The preamble is that starting-point for that sacred document -- AND FOR "WE THE PEOPLE" -- as a whole people. It CLEARLY says what this nation is all about. Since this nation was invented (i.e. no Constitution, then no nation) -- it's soul (the "glue" that binds us together as one greater thing) had to be described, EXPLICITLY AND PRECISELY, in writing -- lest there be confusion, such as what a civil war had to settle at such awful cost in blood and treasure. The rest of The Constitution actualizes the preamble into direct, practical effect.  We came into existence, the INSTANT it was signed and ratified.  One moment, there was no nation, then the next moment, there was (and still is). There are plenty of us willing to die, rather than let that instrument ever to be torn up and cancelled -- THEREBY ERASING US from the world stage and history. 

5.  The preamble is an elegant, beautiful statement describing to the world (and to our own selves) what this nation is ALL about. People need to be able to predict their environment, in order to make their best plans -- which their precious FREEDOM permits and enables -- and this magnificent Preamble-paragraph tells us what we have "A RIGHT" to expect from each other -- and a DUTY to protect -- individually and as a huge collection of fragile, often conflicting, often stubborn, but wonderful life forms -- wise enough to turn themselves into a humanistic "self-government" -- which makes us INFINITELY better than we could EVER BE WITHOUT IT -- and makes it a thing worth swearing to preserve at all costs. 

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C.  FEW THINGS ARE MORE IMPORTANT -- IN ALL OF LIFE -- AND FEW HUMANS HAVE BEEN LUCKIER THAN WE WHO HAVE THIS INGENIOUS BLESSING -- THE U.S. CONSTITUTION -- GOVERNING THE QUALITY AND DURATION OF OUR PRECIOUS LIFE-EXPERIENCE. 

LUCKY, LUCKY US!
LUCKY U.S.!
LUCKY SPECIES OF LIFE!

David Nelson


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