Thought Experiment #8
37signals posed this thought experiment in a recent blog post:
Who would write the new constitution?Specifically, they ask:
Assuming the US needed a new constitution, who are the top few living people you'd like to see help draft it?Post your thoughts in the comments here (but formulate your ideas before you click the comments link and read everyone else's suggestions, you lemming!). Then follow the link above and read through some of the comments over on the 37signals site. It's interesting discussion.
Comments
A few possibilities to get things started: David Brin (suggested almost entirely based on his book, The Transparent Society), Aaron Sorkin (don't tell me you don't want to read a magnificent document of governance written by that guy), Jon Stewart (for obvious reasons), Jimmy Carter (best president to be such a bad president).
I'd go for Sandra Day O'Connor and Morris Dees, head of the Southern Poverty Law Center. I'd also go with Jimmy Carter and probably Sorkin (although I'd like a Constitution under 300 pages). Minnesota's own Arne Carlson might deserve a shot as well as somebody from Amnesty International.
It would be tough to find a group that even remotely approached the brilliance, compassion and wisdom of the original writers.
I say the duo of U2's Bono and Sonny Bono (or, I guess, Mrs. Sonny Bono now that he's dead) take a hack at it. Just so it could include the line: "I got U2, babe!" Sorry about that.
I might seriously include Erwin Chemerinsky. He always argues in front of the High court and whenever he is on Charlie Rose he seems to have already thought out the Big questions.
For the Jeffersonian angle, I'd get, say, a couple of hundred ordinary people involved in small groups of a dozen or so (plus a trained facilitator).
How cool would that be, eh?
Lately, I have been thinking that Joel Spolsky seems to have a handle on just about every facet of human and organizational behavior, so I guess he gets my vote. Can I just submit joelonsoftware.com and substitute "people" for "developers" and "rights" for "code?"