Here is the thing that concerns me: How many of us really believe in democracy for those who don't think/believe the way we do? In a truly functioning democracy, everyone would believe that everyone--short of those who want to actually harm others--belongs here and deserves a voice and deserves equitable opportunities and to be supported and treated as a *full* human being, that is treated the way I would want to be in good circumstances or bad. Treated like a member of the community just as valuable any other, unrelated to gender, race, status, productivity, wealth or poverty, education, degree of health, etc. Do all or even most of us believe that? I honestly don't know. And the fact that I can't say "yes" to that question is the most dangerous reality we face.
Hi Michael, how many of us really believe in democracy is a *great* question. Thanks.
Yesterday I read a line from democracy scholar Danielle Allen. She said, "We can't have a democracy if the citizens don't want one." This is one reason we haven't achieved full political equality yet and that short stack of democratic gains from the 1950s to the 1970s has been rolling back since.
She's also right when she says we have to address the cycle of cynicism, because it's always taken generational conversation and action to get whatever advances we've ever had. If democracy is at least part about "how we self-govern," then how it plays out falls to us, all of us and each of us.
The shift I've been making is to say, democracy isn't just what happens in my state or national capital (with all the obstacles and undemocratic nonsense happening there). It's also what happens when people come together in their daily lives to make decisions about shared problems and shared resources. If we talked about *that* with people, might they see democracy differently?
I like to think people would behave differently if they believed in the definition you present here. What you're saying and what I'm saying overlap. I think most people in the US consider democracy a "system" that, once put into place, continues to function: governing bodies that we periodically vote to staff with one group or another. But I believe--and I think your description concurs with this--that democracy is a *practice.* And a practice isn't something you perform once every few years. It's a continually active way of being in the world; it requires ongoing attention, involvement, action. In short, democracy doesn't just happen at election time. It requires ongoing attention and commitment. It's an ongoing, even daily awareness of the results--good or bad or in between--of our individual, social, and collective choices. I don't know about other countries, but most Americans simply don't treat democracy as practice. We don't "come together in our daily lives to make decisions about shared problems and resources." And that's why democracy, especially at the state and national levels but even at local levels, is able to be continually manipulated by those with influence and power. These things happen because we're socially trained to think of this work as the domain of the specialists we call politicians. It's like saying religion/spirituality only belongs to those who are ordained, as if people's actual religious beliefs and practices are irrelevant. There have been historical moments when that has shifted, when groups of citizen do come together, advocate, choose, demand, question and practice democracy. But they need to more than "moments" or brief "movements." I don't know how to get that to happen; I wish I did.
Yes, yes, yes. Democracy is a practice! I think you're right about the default narrative.
I also want to retrain my eye to recognize local and small-scale forms of democracy where they are happening, because as much as I see alienation and disempowerment, I also think there's a gap between what people experience in their lives and what they think other people are experiencing "out there." (This disconnect happens in economics as well: surveys often show folks saying "the economy" is toast even as they say "I and my friends" are doing ok.)
Your clergy/laypeople analogy: spot on. Thank you for wrestling with these ideas!
Here is the thing that concerns me: How many of us really believe in democracy for those who don't think/believe the way we do? In a truly functioning democracy, everyone would believe that everyone--short of those who want to actually harm others--belongs here and deserves a voice and deserves equitable opportunities and to be supported and treated as a *full* human being, that is treated the way I would want to be in good circumstances or bad. Treated like a member of the community just as valuable any other, unrelated to gender, race, status, productivity, wealth or poverty, education, degree of health, etc. Do all or even most of us believe that? I honestly don't know. And the fact that I can't say "yes" to that question is the most dangerous reality we face.
Hi Michael, how many of us really believe in democracy is a *great* question. Thanks.
Yesterday I read a line from democracy scholar Danielle Allen. She said, "We can't have a democracy if the citizens don't want one." This is one reason we haven't achieved full political equality yet and that short stack of democratic gains from the 1950s to the 1970s has been rolling back since.
She's also right when she says we have to address the cycle of cynicism, because it's always taken generational conversation and action to get whatever advances we've ever had. If democracy is at least part about "how we self-govern," then how it plays out falls to us, all of us and each of us.
The shift I've been making is to say, democracy isn't just what happens in my state or national capital (with all the obstacles and undemocratic nonsense happening there). It's also what happens when people come together in their daily lives to make decisions about shared problems and shared resources. If we talked about *that* with people, might they see democracy differently?
I like to think people would behave differently if they believed in the definition you present here. What you're saying and what I'm saying overlap. I think most people in the US consider democracy a "system" that, once put into place, continues to function: governing bodies that we periodically vote to staff with one group or another. But I believe--and I think your description concurs with this--that democracy is a *practice.* And a practice isn't something you perform once every few years. It's a continually active way of being in the world; it requires ongoing attention, involvement, action. In short, democracy doesn't just happen at election time. It requires ongoing attention and commitment. It's an ongoing, even daily awareness of the results--good or bad or in between--of our individual, social, and collective choices. I don't know about other countries, but most Americans simply don't treat democracy as practice. We don't "come together in our daily lives to make decisions about shared problems and resources." And that's why democracy, especially at the state and national levels but even at local levels, is able to be continually manipulated by those with influence and power. These things happen because we're socially trained to think of this work as the domain of the specialists we call politicians. It's like saying religion/spirituality only belongs to those who are ordained, as if people's actual religious beliefs and practices are irrelevant. There have been historical moments when that has shifted, when groups of citizen do come together, advocate, choose, demand, question and practice democracy. But they need to more than "moments" or brief "movements." I don't know how to get that to happen; I wish I did.
Yes, yes, yes. Democracy is a practice! I think you're right about the default narrative.
I also want to retrain my eye to recognize local and small-scale forms of democracy where they are happening, because as much as I see alienation and disempowerment, I also think there's a gap between what people experience in their lives and what they think other people are experiencing "out there." (This disconnect happens in economics as well: surveys often show folks saying "the economy" is toast even as they say "I and my friends" are doing ok.)
Your clergy/laypeople analogy: spot on. Thank you for wrestling with these ideas!
Also, I got a different name for you in my email than I see in the app now. Pen name?