As
people slowly but surely awaken to the fact that representative democracy is
not a democracy of, by and for the people, but rather a democracy of by and for
a select group of people mistakenly referred to as representatives of the
people, the question once again becomes, what is democracy of, by and for the
people and how are we able to implement such a system to best benefit everyone
regardless of where each one happens to be participating.
Remember,
democracy is simply a form (methodology or system) of collective decision
making, wherein the degree (amount or percentage) of democracy expressed by the
collective is equivalent to the degree by which all members of the collective
have “the opportunity” to participate equally in any and all of the decision making
processes applicable to the collective as a whole.
To
be clear, democracy is not about having an obligation to participate in any
particular aspect of a democratic group or collective; nor is it about having
an obligation to participate in anything at all. Rather, democracy is and always has been
simply about having “the opportunity to participate equally” in any and all
aspects of the decision-making processes applicable to the collective. In essence, real democracy is simply an
expression of real equality to decide and determine the shape and direction of,
by and for the group or collective unto which the democracy applies.
For
example, in a classroom democracy of twenty students, each student would be
afforded the opportunity to participate equally in any and all of the decision
making processes (or steps) leading up to the final step of voting to decide
and implement a matter that is applicable to that class as a whole. From there,
those same students might exit the classroom to enter into other systems of
democracy, such as the school, community, city, state, national and even a
planetary democracy, wherein each “participant” would (from the small to the
big and the big to the small) continue to always have and/or be afforded the
opportunity to participate equally in any and all of the decisions that are
going to apply to that particular participant.
Herein,
the right (as the opportunity to participate equally in the decision making
processes of a collective) goes hand in hand with any obligation to abide by
the decision that have been collectively made.
And this is why representative democracy (in terms of it being a
decision making system of, by and for the people) is a contradictory term which
actually refers to a form of control exercised by a minority that constitutes
what we call government, which is actually just another form of tyranny over
the people who have yet to take responsibility for the direction of their
collectives. The good thing is, we are finally making some progress.
In order
for a system of decision making to be a true expression of democracy, those
unto whom the decisions will apply must always have and/or be afforded the
opportunity to participate equally in all of the decision making processes
leading up to the implementation of that particular decision. For example, as
someone living in the Amazon jungle is not going to be affected by the
decisions made in a Washington DC elementary school, that person would also not
be provided (as a right) with the opportunity to participate equally in the
decision making processes of that classroom.
But
this doesn’t mean that he or she might not one day decide to travel to
Washington DC to visit that classroom, whereupon that person (as a new
participant in the sphere of that classroom) would then have the right as the
opportunity to participate equally in that classroom’s decision making
processes, while also being subject to its democratic processes (while
participating), which may or may not already have rules pertaining to welcoming
newcomers.
Participation
is a given that comes with life: even if
you decide not to decide, you have still made a choice as to how you
will live the life you’ve been given. Therefore, if we really want to see
change in our democratic systems, we require first to take back our power and
start participating - becoming the change we care to see.
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