Trent Ruble's Blog: The Other Way It Is - Posts Tagged "mars"

When I was a kid, Mars was just a red blur in the night sky. Now, anyone can download detailed maps of the planet's surface. People are even starting to talk seriously about living on Mars. Some go so far as to say that living on Mars is humanity's only hope for survival. I'm not sure I buy that one. Necessary or not, life on Mars is many years away and won't happen at all unless experts get past some pretty nasty obstacles. But, if it does happen, it'll be a great opportunity for a "do over," especially in the area of government.



Most likely, the new Martians will use rules for life that are similar to what they experienced on Earth. The sending agency, whether a government (probably China) or private company, will dictate the legal system for their "employees" and, if they should choose something different, it would be like a revolution of sorts. After a typical Earth revolution, and there have been many, the new government generally put provisions in place to make sure the old problems didn't resurface. For example, the Constitution of the United States, including its Bill of Rights, has many such provisions and has probably been the most successful governing document so far, flawed and misinterpreted as it is.

I think the Martians will find that, when it comes to government, the problems on Mars will be the same as the problems on Earth. Whoever the leaders will be, they will be driven by inherent human weakness. For example, the type of person who desires to live the life necessary to be President of the United States, or President of Mars, is and will always be someone with a big ego and a need to have it fed. Even leaders we consider to have been "good," have had many flaws. Just ask the opposite party. Outside of a coup d'état, that human weakness should rule out a Dictatorship, which would only work well if the dictator were free from his or her humanity (as in the coming 1,000 year reign).

Other choices would be a theocracy, which again only works when the right "person" is in charge; communism, which, even in its perfect form, provides no incentive for excellence; anarchy, which has left places like Somalia nearly unlivable; democracy, which could work for a while until there are too many people to vote on each and every issue; or a republic, which seems to cultivate some very wealthy citizens who control the rest and are vulnerable to corruption. Or, it could be something totally different that has yet to be invented.

In this yet to be invented government, Martians would likely want guaranteed freedoms such as those we in the United States enjoy. We have many of those freedoms because, in 1789, the Bill of Rights was introduced in order to protect us from an overly powerful government. These rights include our freedoms of speech and religion, as well as our freedoms from compulsory self-incrimination and unreasonable searches. In addition, the bill gave us states' rights and the right to own firearms. None of these rights were intended to protect us from one another, but from tyrannical government.

No matter the government of Mars, I don't want to go there anyway. Who would want to suffer through months of traveling in a small, cold metal box in order to live on a dry, rusty-red world. It would be like living in Antarctica with no snow. OK, I like the "no snow" part.