The Condition of the Citizens |
It's never a question of "politics" but of the condition of the citizens. Do you have good citizens? Do you have healthy, thinking aware citizens? If so and they create a critical mass of the population, then one can say that the politics will be fair to middling. But, what would the "perfect citizen" be? And would "perfect politics" emerge out of "perfect citizens?"
This impossible question is put to the ideal, contemplative mind as a way to escape the reality of the situation.
When politics is formed "from the top" then citizens are reduced to masses who are easily manipulated. That insight was not lost on the framers of the Constitution. That document only came into existence when the people consented to it. It did not exist as a legal document when the elites of the day signed off on it. In the old days, during King rule, at least once in an era, the masses understood their manipulations and ran wild. They were eventually subdued, however, and politics returned to the ruling elite. That is a general statement of course but the framers believed it. They put before themselves an intersting question: "How to create a Republic that survives through time?" And many republics as well as other forms of government, were demolished by iniquity.
Liberal democratic cultures produce noble, grass roots movements that give substance to the notion of citizen and is the best representation of what a democracy can be. The greatest grass roots movement of our time was for Civil Rights. Other great movements have been the environmental and tax revolts. Perhaps we disagree with the politics of them but we acknowledge that they were generated from the bottom to middle of the society.
All this says is that free people understand their situation better than those who govern them. The grass roots level has not yet entered into the byzantine world of warring political classes or put at the top of the pyramid an abstract notion of the "good of society." The good emerges out of them as members of a society. The good appears as soon as they freely give of their labor, raise kids, volunteer to help others, support education, and so on.
It makes no sense, then, to create abstract notions of the way a political elite will govern the people. That is a predictable fact of history and doesn't change simply because the political elite has names like Bill, Al, and George W. The intellectuals are in a quandary in this culture because they can not speak to the people and they desperately want to speak to the ruling elites and help shape their opinions. But the elites have discovered that the people are the essential power and have turned off the intellectuals. The elite will not listen to the intellectuals until they get rid every vestige of critique that is a huge weight on them. And that will take a lot longer than one would think. How do the intellectuals abandon "class conflict?" They re-interpreted class conflict through gender and race but that, too, has been rejected by the people and policy-makers for the most part. They finally speak only to themselves and complain bitterly rather than re-learn the world all over again and approach it from a new angle. Tant pis, says the future.
The people try to make themselves but it's very difficult without foundations and beliefs in secular institutions. And if their trust in those institutions have collapsed? Paranoia, anger, addiction, ennui and other symptoms of a culture in a lot of trouble.
SOME VERY GENERAL LESSONS ON THE LAST 30 YEARS OF POLITICS
Do not depend on the state.
No social movement can guarantee success or elevate groups of people into the 20%. Social movements that collaborate with the public sector can bring people into the middle-class where they must take on the qualities of that class until they individuate away from their dependence on the social movement.
Do not antagonize the middle and upper middle class property holder.
If your success in politics or ideas is dependent on the irrational then your failure will be secured through the irrational.
The most dangerous animal is he who is a critic, ignorant of what he criticizes. Dangerous to his idea at any rate.
Respect the way of life of people, respect their history and culture, respect their institutions, respect their customs before you demand that they change for your sake.
Hatred and resentment often turn into what is hated and resented.
Progressiveness is a many splendored thing. To remain progressive it must continually destroy itself and seek new horizons rather than waddle in its victories.
A people is a fool that allows those who can not take care of themselves to dictate how the world should be.
Politics is the wind that blows ill-will. In the storm of ill-will no solution is possible.
Freedom is no guarantee of happiness and/or fulfillment.
It is dangerous to have infantile fantasies in a maturing culture.
What is always needed is not new politics or new speeches about old subjects but new people; new men and women.
David Eide
January 24, 2014