Empty Boxes

We need to be explicit about the ideas we value.

Many boxes are empty.  This is true of concepts, or ideas.  We have grown up respecting them but have seldom looked inside and tried to understand them.  We just assume they are what we have been told, good things worth protecting.

Then when people say that such an idea is failing, that people are turning against it, that it is in danger of rejection, we panic.   And, since gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands is popular (always drawing an audience), we dress in black and hope to be invited to speak at the funeral. 

Democracy is not failing.  But only because in the abstract there is nothing to fail.  I learned in graduate school, I had good instructors, that “democracy” as a serious concept in the study government was an empty suit.  It is used by many people in different ways and generally without clarified meaning. 

Yes, it had a meaning in ancient Athens, but that isn’t very helpful today. Now it is a label used to endorse a government whose policies we approve.

There are social values that we honor and strive to develop. What I hope we still see as our heritage. Freedom to write and speak without fear of harm.  Ability for the many and the few to bring to the attention of large numbers of people what they speak and write.  Respect for the ideas of others and attention to the interests of minorities as well as majorities.  Public space where we can hear and question new ideas, reveal faulty logic, and examine evidence and statements of fact.   

The right of assembly.  The rule of law.  And some serious ways of harmonizing conflicting interests within both the immediate community and beyond. 

We should not, however, value a system of government simply because it serves a “national interest,” or allows smart people to prevail in conflicts over policy because they know “the greater good.”

All systems of government are expressions of past experience, present hope and future faith.  They are structures built of rule and custom.  They are well or ill meant.  They may claim elements of the “ideal,” but they are not THE ideal.  They may all call themselves “democracies.”

It is true that we are having trouble finding our way.  Fallen into an abyss?  I think not.  It may, in fact, be a sign of hope that in stumbling we lift ourselves up and see a bit further into the future

Labels are not substance. We should not be fighting for the “box,” but for a content worth the battle.

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