Making Democracy a Way of Life
By Matthew Shapiro
Some points:
Republic is a form of government, democracy is a way of life.
We as a society are still only in the kindergarten of democracy as a way of life, because we haven't yet learned to produce a will in common at the levels of home, neighborhood, workplace, etc.
Power is not the same as control, authority, or force. Power should be thought of as a creative force. A nation can be powerful (full of creative force) or not. The U.S. is a very forceful nation, but its "powerness" is limited because its people still lack social capacity to create. In this definition of power, its opposite is violence. The more truly powerful a people, the less violent it is. The more violence present in a society, the less power there is.
Human groups can be thought of as crowds, herds, mobs, or authentic communities. The predominant mode of social organization in the U.S. is crowd and herd. This means that we have not yet learned how to create together, and we are easily subject to manipulation.
So-called "direct democracy" can't work, at least not yet, because (as pointed out by One Raven) we still exist as a crowd, rather than as a people. Also, voting does not produce a will in common. It only registers an existing will held in the minds of separate individuals.
Two more Greek words to add to complement the word "democracy" (power of the people): demosophia and syzitisis. Demosophia means "wisdom of the people." Syzitisis means "searching together." Unless people have the syzitisis, they cannot produce the demo'kratos or the demosophia. Unless people have the demosophia, they can't apply the available power well. Unless people have the demo'kratos, they won't have the opportunity to engage in the syzitisis. So we need to focus on all three "legs" of this triad.
Credit due to Alexander Christakis for the words demosophia and syzitisis; credit due to Mary Parker Follett for the herd/crowd/mob/etc. model, and for critique of the concept of direct democracy. Credit due to Hannah Arendt for the power/violence inverse relationship model. Credit given to Matthew Shapiro for the distinctions between power, control, authority, and force.
These points for Lovers of Democracy were sent by Heiner Benking from Berlin
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