Democracy and MRE

I was interviewed this week for my US citizenship and had the pleasure of re-reading the constitution. The sheer simplicity and elegance of the document is staggering. A site I found very useful, is the National Archives, which also details the historical events which led to the constitutional convention.

I was intrigued by the MRE structure implicit in the three branches of government:

Maven - Supreme Court/Judiciary
Relater - Congress/Legislative
Evangelist - President/Executive

Not only is MRE implicit in the fundamental structure, but no one branch is allowed to gain too much power. The famous "checks and balances" in the constitution ensures that Maven, Relater and Evangelist energies are regulated by each other. Much like the simple game Rock, Paper, Stone (RPS), each branch can neutralize one other branch if necessary.

Interestingly, there is a fractal effect going on. While each branch is clearly skewed towards one energy, there can be variations within it. For example, while Evangelists tend to dominate the presidency, there have indeed been times when Relaters (Jimmy Carter) and Mavens (Richard Nixon) have prevailed.

This makes a powerful case for the democratic process - a society can choose its energetic "skew" and shift this accordingly over time!