Counts shatter fellowship. They can corrupt everything Americans rely on to gather, speak with, and understand one another. Counts can afford to treat the American people as underlings to manage.
And this violates
fundamental
American values.
Americans have the rights to gather peacefully, speak freely, and get the whole truth from our media. We work to understand our neighbors, build trust, and live in a shared reality together.
Extreme money can turn any regular problem in America into an extreme threat. Elite, entitled Counts endanger America by wielding extreme E8, E9, E10, E11 Money Counts to:
- Corrupt print, radio, and video media. Americans rely on our media to represent and share the reality of our lives. But a Count can take possession of an entire media network and push his personal views on all Americans. He can replace our reality with his whims and wants.
- Turn social media into something anti-social. Americans rely on social media to learn about one another. But a Count can choose to manipulate social media to keep Americans in bubbles with like-minded people. When Contributing Americans can’t bridge differences, we can’t stand united against Counts.
- Leave Americans in the dark. Without healthy media, Americans can’t really know what we actually agree and disagree about. When our media is corrupted, all we hear are versions of what Counts think and believe and want.
- Replace peaceful influence with private agendas. Americans need media and community organizations as tools to peacefully understand and influence one another. But Counts have no need for these tools. Counts can easily ignore and override American neighbors.
- Make Americans stop trusting one another. When Americans can’t count on a shared reality with our neighbors, we can’t trust each other. And that’s fine for Counts. When Americans are divided, we can’t stop the out-of-control Money Counts of the Counting Class.
- Make Contributing Americans feel powerless. When Counts corrupt the ways Americans have common experiences, they leave us all feeling isolated and disconnected. Contributing Americans feel powerless against the extreme money of the Counting Class.
On the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the Big Woods Declaration (BWD) renews the call for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, free from the corruption of extreme money.
The BWD is a First Amendment petition to the American people and our government. It is not limited to any political party or group.
The BWD is a total of 60 pages: the Core Declaration (4 pages), the 13 Notes, the 27 Dangers to America, and the 16 Solutions for America.
The BWD may be shared and reused under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. View a copy of this license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
The BWD was created without the use of any AI, opinion polling, or focus groups. The BWD draws on many core American ideas as well as the work of Thorstein Veblen, America’s visionary from the Big Woods of Minnesota.
All photos in the BWD were taken in the Big Woods. The BWD was framed by Erik Christopher Sahlin with Alyssa Beth Wulf.
