Welcome to Orcmid's Lair, the playground for family connections, pastimes, and scholarly vocation -- the collected professional and recreational work of Dennis E. Hamilton

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Ask Not What Democracy Can Do For You ...

Eight Diagrams: Tech Tools, Grassroots, Globalization, Democratization.  Writer Wayne Yang notices that we often operate with simplistic impressions and generalize to

 “… complex and abstract concepts, even if they are concepts that require much more dialogue. Take Democracy. Often, we think of it largely, simply as the right to vote. But isn't Democracy also about a voice, a true political voice, and not just a vote? Isn't it about equality of economic opportunity, a means to a livelihood, and not just investment opportunities: not just a dollar, a yen, an euro, a rand?”

Wayne’s lengthy piece covers a lot of territory, adding an interesting multi-cultural perspective as well. 

I want to expand the question about what democracy is.  I say that what Democracy is about, is way bigger and far simpler than that.  Here’s my contribution to the conversation that Wayne’s (rhetorical?) question invites:

What Democracy Is To Me:

 Democracy is trusting ourselves to govern each other and granting our fellow citizens equal voice in arriving at the means and authority by which we do that.

It’s that simple.  That’s the context in which we make the gifts of democracy to each other.  It is a gift of trust that we make in each other and that we then abide by.

There’s something else about democracy that it is important to understand.  There is no perpetual, indestructible condition of democracy.  Democracy requires ongoing trust and deepening of social arrangements, economic practices, and civil conduct.  Like trust itself—and faith, to which it is related—there is perpetual renewal and articulation in that dance by which democracy emerges.

To the degree we are unwilling to trust each other, we blind ourselves to our role in the nurturing of democracy and we undermine the institution itself. 

 There’s a lot more I could say, and I undoubtedly will.  But not here now.  I am going to leave this for comments and discussion and move along.  I think I’ll also look for some appropriate readings in the work of Thomas Jefferson.

One tip: Before parading out all of the ways you speculate that this simple principle is not enough, consider how we do indeed make it work and have been doing so for a few centuries now.

 

posted by orcmid at 4/30/2005 12:08:22 PM