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Booraem, Alfred W., May 31, 1946.
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1
Notes on the Anatomy of Community.
An inductive study of communities in search of self-evident truths.
The central principle of a community-in-law, is the mutual and reciprocal relation ship of its members. On the other hand an aggregation or a community-in-fact operates on the basis of every man for himself and the Devil take the hindmost until the next crisis.
Life is a fact, as is also the instinct to preserve it. The congestion of the aggregation aggravates the interference between individuals in their struggle to survive, and gives odds in favour of the men of ill-will.
The philosophy of democracy is to secure the unalienable rights of "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" by instituting a government with the consent of the governed, i.e. by creating a community-in-law.
Note the use of the word "Secure". The rights are claimed as self-evident truths, yet we find them denied or restricted in the scramble of the unorganized aggregation, by men of ill-will who are frankly out to get theirs regardless, and often by men of good-will whose separate effort clash of necessity.
Let us examine the following cases: I The panic cases, where a fire in a building sometimes produces a stampede for exits that increases the death toll.
II The life-boat cases, where for over a century, it has been accepted practice to ration all food and water. No one has to fight for his share, or gets more than his share by force or purchase. In this last war we extended the principle of rationing and price control for the same reasons. We recognized the necessity of limiting supply and demand in the general interest.
III In the commonplace of high way traffic, the right to travel is restricted by mere numbers, and can be secured only by traffic regulation by the appropriate community.
IV Every rural settlement passes in time from the status of wells and out-houses to water supply and sewerage systems.
V In the gold-mush days, every prospector carried gun along with pick and shovel, and the odds were in favour of the men of ill-will until a group secured their rights by pooling them and electing a sheriff.