As most of you know we live in republic/democracy. This is supported and contained within a system of rules and structure. This is called government. For the time being I am going to call this “rules based democracy.”
You see it is only the rules that support our democracy. We have lost our democratic spirit and culture. We all value certain freedoms and choices afforded us by our government, but by and large we sit back and let the system do what it does.
As demonstrated by our most recent executive regime we only have a democracy because the rules say we do. Even the people in charge of the government lack any kind of democratic spirit or culture. The only thing maintaining the democratic structure of the government for the last 4 years or so is the system of checks and balances built into our system.
This is mighty dangerous. The system is being strained to breaking point because we are relying far too much on our “rules based democracy” and far too little on fostering a democratic culture.
Just like in the monarchies that were pushed out in populist revolts all around the world our government is being run mostly by those born into the system. The ruling class is making a comeback.
We cannot simply rely on the structure of the government to uphold “democracy.” The people involved in that government need to committed to that ideal. The entire country needs to be committed to that ideal. When the spirit of democracy is removed from the structure we are left with a hollow shell operating more like a machine and less like an organism.
The system is gridlocked in binary politics that allow for overly simplistic political dialogue. The people in the two parties haven’t thought about what it means to live in a democracy for a decade at least. They concentrate on winning elections, not being democratic.
Perhaps we are simply taking our system for granted, getting complacent. Democracy is an organic form of government it must be tended carefully, not left lose to run wild. Think of rules based democracy as a computer. It operates within its limits, learns nothing and simply keeps running and running regardless of whether it is fulfilling its function.
The democratic culture is a great organism that operates within certain limitations, but constantly changes, learns and formulates goals. That organism requires far more attention and care than the machine and shows signs of malfunction much sooner.
With only the rules of democracy operating we are left in a train headed towards a wall. Without a democratic culture we are doomed.
And what are the greatest threats to democratic culture? Comfort and apathy for one, religion for another. Comfort leads to complaceny and slackness when watching the system do its work. Religion undermines the most basic idea necessary for democracy: that man can and should determine his own fate.
Religion removes all worth from man. Though man is God’s special creation, or at least special he exists solely to submit to God or at the mercy of God as an outside force. Man’s only worth is achieved by obeying God. This goes all the way back to the beginning of civilization.
When man was totally at the mercy of the world around him it was only natural to try to control those elements by creating a being greater than nature who could be appeased through rituals and right action. In this sense man became a powerful servant of something more powerful than himself and had a certain amount of “control” on the world around him.
Now that idea works against us. The culture of servitude saturates our culture. We constantly seek higher powers to solve our problems or protect us while we wallow in worship and weakness. Democracy, in theory, empowers humanity, yet how can man be empowered when he spends his best moments groveling?
Complacency also burdens the democratic spirit, but is much easier to remove from the individual spirit than the damage of religion.
We must restore the spirit to our government or it will crumble. It is already showing major signs of cracking. With only a system of laws to rule us we are no better off than a constitutional monarchy.
Yet another in the Win column to the Good Doctor. I agree with your setiment and it is, as always, gorgeously worded. It is alway refreshing to have a political conversation that is so far from the typical trite, dried out technical speak that usually dominates this sort of discussion, and that actually adresses our democracy as the fragile living thing it is.
Thank you.
~I should have ducked~
I immensley enjoyed your writing and thoughts on the subject here. I just wrote a blog somewhat similar about retaining our vision of the American Republic in the future. Here's the link feel free to check it out. great work. http://www.progressiveu.org/201055-the-constituition-v-the-bible
Silent enim leges inter arma
I feel so much more enlightened and motivated to learn and teach about this thing you speak up. I was just thinking earlier that if most people are like me (or like I was) when it comes to politics, then we are in for some real trouble. Thank you for another amazing post.
~Me
http://www.progressiveu.org/102757-governments-role
all truths are easy to understand once discovered; the point is to discover them ~galileo
Eloquently written and very concise =). This is how the people of this country should be viewing the government and themselves. Why isn't this idea taught at an earlier age to our youth? I only started hearing about this concept in my Freshmen Composition class last semester, and it completely changed the way I viewed the government and the role that I play in it. I also find it ironic, that for a country that considers itself democratically spirited, democratic ideas and values are not instilled in our youth from the beginning. Haha sorry, I better stop now because I'm about to go on a whole other tangent about how our education system is very authoritarian etc, perhaps I should write a blog on that.
~ munky boi ~ ^_^
I agree completely with what you're saying--our rules-based democracy has had its intent manipulated. This correllates with the Nanny State; the idea that the government is creating laws to protect citizens from themselves. It seems like the issues that are now being mandated should be common sense, like using a seatbelt. However, it is truly necessary to the protection of America's citizens to outlaw drugs? Look at the problems that have been created because of Nanny State laws and outmoded ideas. (An example is the rampant smuggling of illegal drugs from Mexico, Latin America, and the Middle East.) While laws to protect critizens other citizens are necessary, the Nanny State is the ultimate result of a crumbling democracy.
Cheers from Union Jane
"I have only ever made one prayer a very short one: "God, make my enemies ridiculous." And God made it so." --Voltaire
"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." --Eleanor Roosevelt
"I never let schooling interfere
"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Friedrich Nietzsche
I am not as in love with Democracy as the teachers at the government schools have always told me I should be. Democracy, like politics, is a dirty dishonest, overly complicated business that has as its only virtue that it is ten times better than the alternative.
“rules based democracy.” Which you seem to find lacking is in my opinion better thought out, and more reliable than any improved "democratic spirit and culture" could be at protecting the rights of individuals, and keeping the oppressive tendancies of government in check. Those people that I visualise when you say "democratic spirit and culture" are the most frightening busy bodies alive. On the other hand our Constitution with checks and ballances that insure that any of the three bodies of our government can put the brakes on the other two if they get out of control has brilliantly stood the test of time.
I don't need any more laws, and activism always leads to more laws, to protect my freedom. I think I would rather trust the power lust and greed that controlls this present state of affairs. Better the devil I know...I can think of too many examples to post here. Maybe I'll put together my first blog on this.
I also find this statement to be entirely clueless:
"Religion removes all worth from man."
Marx felt the same way, and I invite you to examine the results of that failed experiment.
A fact is always better than an ideal
"Religion removes all worth from man."
Marx felt the same way, and I invite you to examine the results of that failed experiment."
The Marxist system fails for many reasons. Its anti-religious stance is mostly pragmatic. In Marxism the government must be the highest authority for the people, so religion must be abolished as God is above the government. (I am sure you know all that) My point is that it is the authoritarian and inflexible nature of Marxism that dooms it to failure, not its lack of religious conviction.
I don't mean to suggest that the rules are unnecessary, only that the rules alone, without the accompanying spirit do not a democracy make. Just following the rules of our form of government doesn't make a good, or even really democratic government.
Frankly I would prefer some workable form of anarchy, but if I must endure government I would like to endure a robust, healthy democracy, not the twisted power play that passes for democracy now. Politicians play inside the rules, mostly, but they don't have any of the spirit that those rules are meant to foster.
Res ipsa loquitur.
memento mori, mahalo.
"Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real-estate above principals."
Heinlein’s 'The Moon is a Harsh Mistress' should be required reading along with 'Starship Troopers' for any political science degree.
"I have sworn upon the alter of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man"
--Thomas Jefferson
That great quote really sums up my opinion of the proper role of Democratic activism.
"Religion removes all worth from man."
Accompanied with a call for political action, of a yet unspecified nature, TERRIFIES me. I have trouble trusting ANYONE that says they want to exercise governmental power. Now you come along and call for more action, and at the same time admit that Christian values such as Charity, Forgiveness, Humility , and serving a loving God are in direct opposition to your views. Are you even aware that the concept 'Public Servant' is based upon a statement by Jesus?
Marx made a similar statement about religion. He wanted to take this 'opiate' from the people along with their freedom. He said that his dictatorship of the proletariat' would just 'wither away'. Hunger for power does not go away because of human nature. The need for a basis of morality is not something that ended mans time in paradise. Mankind in its amoral state is ruthless and cruel. Remove the value system that created the liberty and freedom we enjoy at this point and you probably will not like what you get.
A fact is always better than an ideal
Most of the positive Christian values are detroyed when those who hold and perpetuate them get power. Official Christian power would destroy, and has destroyed in the past, every positive aspect of Christianity.
Res ipsa loquitur.
memento mori, mahalo.
"Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real-estate above principles."
I said to my wife last night that I was beginning to get the feeling that if there is not change in near future, our precious democracy will soon be defined as a social experiment that was the biggest lie in the history of civilization. And by "change", I mean a pardigm shift, not the change that I hear Obama speak of. I believe the word you chose was "spirit". I agree.
And although I am a Christian, I feel even more convinced that religion is a major threat, not only to our democracy and way of life, but to the message of Christ in which I strongly believe to be my foundation and guide.
I think that religion as we have come to know it is causing the same "hollowness" within the "church" that Jesus established.
Great thoughts.
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"Faith is to believe what you do not yet see; the reward for this faith is to see what you believe"-- St. Augustine
It is nice to see that kind of critical, self aware attitude among Christians, and among those who have grown up and been indoctrinated into democratic society. As we move farther and farther from the spirit of democracy it is necessary not only to look at the political ideas and laws that are made, but the system that makes those laws and the way it is executed.
Res ipsa loquitur.
memento mori, mahalo.
"Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real-estate above principles."