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Omniarchy
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1. Omniarchy is the fulfillment of all the Offices of Governance by all the People. The Five Offices of Governance are Councilor, Juror, Sheriff, Clerk, and Soldier. Each person takes on the office of Sheriff whenever they encounter a violation. Juries are assembled from all available persons, from whom a Jury is chosen by random lot. Clerks are chosen by random lot from the same pool, who record the Jury and Council proceedings to protect everyone's rights. Councilors are chosen by random lot, and cannot serve on that Council again until they've served on every other Council. All members of Society serve for a set time in the Armed Forces. All members of Society have a seat on the High Council, and determine appeals, capital crimes, and armed forces policy by majority vote. Omniarchy is a Compact of Responsibility Omniarchy is a contract between Free Persons, a Compact of Partnership, who grant each other the right to enforce it, and it only governs the relationships between persons who sign it. It says nothing about what they do with their own time, grants no one the right to take their money or property except as punishment for crime, according to a set scale, and it sets the pay scale and fiscal policies for the nation so that the value of money remains constant. Signers of the Compact are called Freeholders, because they hold their property and rights freely, only yielding them of their own free will by making an agreement. No Freeholder has the right to make them agree or submit to anything they did not agree to. The Compact spells out right and wrong: murder, theft, etc., are not complicated, or difficult to identify. These cannot be changed, and new “laws” are not needed every year to “protect people better.” Councils meet to apply the Compact, not change it, enlighten it, modernize it, or anything else. The Compact is solid enough to protect all rights, and flexible enough to go with a society to the farthest reaches of the Universe. High Council All Freeholders have a seat on the High Council, and can participate in its conduct and vote on all issues before it as equals. This is not as big a job as it may seem, nor the issues as complicated as nations face, because or Compact is simple: do right, and don't do wrong. There are NO taxes among us. They are simply not necessary, and are theft, no matter how they’re presented. Money is created as ledger entries at a rate set by the Finance Council to maintain the value of money at a constant value in real buying power. That money is spent directly into circulation as pay for attending High Council (one may think of it as National Service, but this is not a nation in the usual sense). Once a year, every Freeholder has the right to participate in this, and commits to do so three years out of five. During High Council, capital cases are sentenced, appeals are heard, policies are set for the lower Councils to follow in their rulings, and diplomatic issues and policies decided. All this is done by a simple majority vote of all Freeholders in attendance at Council that year. 20-30% of the money created is set aside for the Resource, Armed Forces, and Research Councils, and the High Council decides how much of that money each one gets, and tells them the goals to accomplish with it. The High Council also directs diplomatic policy and may establish a paid Diplomatic Corps, but cannot bind any Freeholder by treaty. Any Freeholders wishing to be bound by a treaty must sign it themselves, and those who don’t sign it, aren’t bound by it. Acting in violation of a treaty one did not sign may be a violation of some provision of the Compact, but cannot be charged as treason. There are no politics and no politicians; they can’t exist in Omniarchy. Councils are filled by random lottery, and once a Freeholder has served on a Council other than the High Council, they can never serve on that Council again until they’ve served on all the other Councils. They also cannot serve on a Council if they have an interest in that Council’s area. For example, a restaurant owner cannot sit on the Food and Beverage Council. Councils meet once a year for two months at the same time as High Council, unless made permanent by the High Council, which can make them temporary again as well. Councils can only rule on the conduct of voluntary relationships between Freeholders and on applications of the Compact to those relationships, and can only bind all Freeholders or none, not specific groups or persons, and cannot rule on what Freeholders do on their own time or with their own property or money. This way, the customers rule the marketplace, no one else. And, since the Compact only recognizes human persons, no corporation can exist among the Freeholders. Limited Partnerships fulfill all the functions of a corporation, with the difference being, with a Partnership, there’s someone to punish for crimes. With corporations, there isn’t, and corporations DO use that fact. Every Freeholder also serves in the Armed Forces for a set time. In an era of push-button wars, this is not a terrible burden, nor does it require that they make special arrangements for very many with physical handicaps; all can serve in some valuable way. This is separate from High Council, and is also paid time, though at different rates. All Freeholders may sit on the High Council and have equal say in partnership policy, though the High Council cannot violate nor change the Compact. Freeholders who are not drawn for seats on lesser Councils during High Council will work on the various “public” works, such as public buildings, facilities for the elderly and handicapped, etc., as directed by the Resource Council. Justice All Freeholders are trained in the basics of law enforcement: investigation, arrest, emergency aid, etc., at the Academy, and have an Order book to write Orders to Appear to issue to Freeholders who violate the Compact. When a Freeholder sees a Violation, they immediately are in the Office of Sheriff, and can write an Order to appear before the next scheduled Jury, or make an arrest and call a Jury immediately, or call on other Freeholders to help pursue and arrest, as needed. Juries are drawn at random from local Freeholders, and direct any necessary investigation, search, arrest, etc. There are no Judges; the Jury Foreman conducts the session and makes sure everyone follows the Rules of Order, Freeholder Juries order Investigations and question both parties; there are no lawyers, and no need for them. Juries rule on Violations, and the Compact and all Council Rulings are in plain English and easy to understand. For crimes against persons, such as assault, and crimes of money, like embezzlement, the penalty is twice the damage plus the cost of all Jurors’ and Sheriffs’ time in righting the wrong, including investigations, service of warrants, etc. This way Freeholders get paid for enforcing the Compact, by the violator, and the victim receives twice the damage done. For sexual crimes, the penalty is forfeiture of all property, including money, paid to the Victim, and then Banishment. The rate of pay for Jurors, Clerks, and Sheriffs is set by the Finance Council at an amount equal to the average hourly income of all Freeholders. Those convicted of violations who can’t pay are assigned jobs and housing and food, and the wages very heavily garnished until the penalty is paid. Fleeing from such a sentence is treason, and the punishment is Banishment, including forfeiture of all property and money. Any verdict can be appealed to the High Council. For this reason, Freeholders have no need of prisons, nor capital punishment. Treason lies in activities that will hurt the Compact’s goals or the Partnership at large. Juries can convict of treason, but only the High Council can pass sentence on it, after hearing an automatic appeal. The only sentence for treason is banishment. Freeholders have no need of capital punishment: keep the agreement faithfully, or go away. There is no Option C. Clerks keep records, including records of every Council and Jury proceeding, and including gathering records of investigations ordered by that Jury, and also keep records of Council proceedings. Clerks have the authority to stop a proceeding until record-keeping requirements are met, Order production of documents and statements, enforceable by Sheriffs, and require any pertinent information for their records. Sheriffs fulfill the Orders of Clerks just as they would the Orders of a Jury. Clerks, like Jurors, Sheriffs, and Councilors, are randomly chosen for each session from among the available Freeholders, and leave that office when the work at hand is done. Children, Retirees, and the Handicapped and Disabled These groups are all Protected, and have first claim to any Freeholder’s protection in time of danger (though the Armed Forces have to fulfill their missions without deviating, but their missions protect all Freeholders, so…). Freeholders commit to respecting children’s rights, including those of their own children, and violation of those is a violation of the Compact; there’s no special Family Court or Child Protective Services or other such institutions. Freeholder Rights, the limits of corporal punishment of children, rights to food, clothing, medical care, education, etc. are spelled out in the Compact. Retirees, the Handicapped, and the Disabled have all the rights of Freeholders, and none of the responsibilities, and cannot fill the Offices of Governance, but can call a Jury or call on a Sheriff at any time to prevent or right a violation. The Retirees, Handicapped, and Disabled are cared for first by their families, and by the Cadets at the Academy and by the Resource Council in cases where compassion and need indicate greater care or a group residence. Fraud and Subtle Lies One of the pillars of a healthy society is truth, and every Freeholder has a right to truth from every other Freeholder, even if the truth is, “That’s not your business.” The Language Council publishes a Dictionary and Reference Grammar and Usage Manual as Council Rulings, and all statements, contracts, publications, etc., will only be enforced according to the meanings in those Rulings. That means that subtle traps in contracts, for example, won’t work; the meanings of the words and phrases will be clear. It also means that publishing misleading news, for example, is a punishable violation of the Compact, and any Freeholder can bring it before a Jury. In some cases, lies can be treason. The Finance Council will publish an Accounting Manual, and all business records, publications, and contracts will be handled according to it. That means there will be no accounting trickery, period. The numbers can only mean one thing in Freeholder society. Interest-bearing Debt Freeholders understand that the borrower is slave to the lender. As a Partnership of free persons, Freeholders require that their Partners remain free, so that they can fulfill their duties to other Freeholders, and soo that no third party gains any rights to a Freeholder's duties to their Partners. No contract for interest-bearing debt, no matter how phrased, will be entered into by Freeholders nor enforced by a Freeholder Jury. Because the money has consistent value, and every Freeholder has the capacity to meet their own needs for food and clothing and shelter, there is no need to enslave others by interest-bearing debt to save for retirement. By committing to do these things, and to hold other Freeholders accountable for doing them, Freeholders retain their rights, develop their families and our society, and establish a firm hedge of protection which they can grow to any size, and within which they can build anything they wish. Wild Variations in Culture The Partnership of Freeholders has room for any culture and religion which does not teach or endorse violations of Freeholders' rights under the Compact. That means that Christians, Buddhists, Atheists, etc., can all become Freeholders, and it means that Muslims, for example, cannot (Islam requires jihad, which is a violation of the Compact). It also does not require involuntary relationships outside the Offices of Governance. That means that, for example, ethnic groups can have their neighborhoods, which they may forbid outsiders to enter, and that will be respected except when the Compact requires otherwise, such as a Search or Arrest Order. They cannot force another to adopt their ways, nor can anyone intrude upon them, so long as they keep to the Compact and fulfill their High Council and other duties. Uniformity of Outlook and Training To become a Freeholder, one must graduate the Academy, which is free to all who can read and write English, who can do basic math, who understand right and wrong, and are physically mature. The Academy trains you in the meaning of the Compact, and various ways to accomplish all the goals of life within the duties and rights of a Freeholder. By this one method, the Partnership of Freeholders builds and maintains a culture of truth, respect, freedom, separation, and cooperation, in unity of purpose: to protect the rights of man, from his neighbor and from the foreigner. Omniarchy is the rule over all by all, or "universal rule". It is essentially chaos in which any person is permitted to commit aggression against any other person. It is distinct from anarchy, which simply means the absence of the state and can encompass a social order in which people are protected from aggression. It has been noted that the Joker in The Dark Knight favors omniarchy. Related topics *Bellum omnium contra omnes, a Latin phrase meaning "war of all against all" 
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