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We, the Martians

© Robert Davis

Last month I spent some time speculating about the question of breathable air on Mars--that is, do you have a right to it, or do you have to pay for it? Of course, even if you have a right to it, someone has to pay for it, and ultimately that someone will be you, so the question is really whether the private sector or the government of Mars handles the air supply, and in what fashion. One way or another, though, this problem set me thinking in more broad terms. I started to wonder whether anyone had composed a Martian constitution that addressed the question.

The answer, it turns out, is no.

Nevertheless, there are some interesting draft constitutions out there, and I ended up arriving at a whole new question. Forget breathable air for the moment; what would the government of a Martian society look like as a whole? If we start our preamble with "We, the Martians," what follows after? The answer to this question is, it depends who you ask.

For one thing, there are the outright anarchists. http://www.marsanarchy.org/ Now, I for one consider anarchy a ridiculous proposition, because I read Hobbes and really don't see that his view of the state of nature is open to debate; I suppose if someone wants to argue about it, we can. The lessons of Hobbes, though, should be made abundantly plain on Mars; if life can't be nasty, brutish, and short in that environment, then nobody should ever die anywhere.

Obviously, they do.

A distressing number of people also seem to be inclined towards communism. Frankly, I see no reason why the term "Red Planet" should be taken so literally. Communism doesn't work. What is more, it will never work. I can't even give it credit for good intentions, because it has none. And since I'm an opinionated sort and I don't have to give anyone a fair hearing, I'm even going to say that commies are stupid and just leave it at that. If you have a problem, go read some Ayn Rand. "Atlas Shrugged" would be ideal, but "We the Living" will suffice, and no one in it feels the need to talk for 57 pages the way John Galt does.

Fortunately, the bulk of people seem to take a relatively benign, libertarian view. Dr. Edward L. Hudgins over at the CATO Institute has some very valuable insights on the matter, although he has not expounded upon them in any form suitable for a constitution. http://www.cato.org/pubs/wtpapers/980815... And yet there remain people who, while I can give them credit for good intentions, and even seem to be inclined towards one degree of libertarianism or another, are nevertheless mired in some very troublesome territory.

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