[Nettime-bold] Democracy

Sent: Monday, October 29, 2001 12:05 PM

Subject: Re: D'Anne sends - Fwd: So what? Who cares? Why should I pay...

D'Anne:

Thanks for reading and acting on my e-mail.

Democracy as practiced in ancient Athens was not about elections or majority rule. Democracy was the form of governing where citizens made decisions about important society concerns - family, education and property. The Greeks called these daily gatherings of the citizens (male aristocrats) to decide the allocation of resources to support these concerns - ekklesia which was also their word for church.

In the United States, by amending our founding documents we have expanded citizenship to include and protect non-aristocrats, slaves, immigrants and women. These improvements were not simply granted by governments convinced or shamed by superior moral arguments. These changes were the result of civil war and unrest promoted by organized church people who I believe practiced the "neighborliness" lived out by Jesus Christ, Samuel, Muhammed, Buddha and the Hindu prophets.

I believe these American revolutionaries took action and practiced participatory democracy because of an abiding, if unarticulated, belief in a God of Abundance. (Who else would risk poverty, prison and death to act and speak out so that all could have a chance at better lives?) Each extension of full U.S.A citizenship was opposed and in some cases is still contested by fearful church going folks who hear the liturgy of abundance for an hour on the weekend but believe and practice the myth of scarcity 24/7. The myth of scarcity teaches each of us: "There is not enough for everyone, therefore I must have it all." The Bible story of how the Pharaoh and his able administrator Joseph used the myth to get the Hebrews to sell themselves into slavery (they gave their money, their cattle, their lands and finally themselves to buy grain to make it through the "famine"), has many parrallels in U.S. citizens trading their birthright to assemble and demand improvement from their representatives for the promise of more and more manufactured stuff.

After two hundred years of fighting and dying by our political forefathers, all adults are now allowed to vote in the U.S.A. but there aren't many. Most of us Americans are still children who devote all our attention to getting and having more and more toys and have never much practiced the neighborliness (concern for the welfare of others) that our mothers taught us. As with all children how we get things is irrelevant, its the getting and having that we think will make us happy. In the rare times when we pause to reflect we realize that the fretting, worrying, planning, stealing, and killing we do or allow to be done in our name so we can get or have more has not ever made us happy. The only times we have ever experienced joy and happiness has occurred when we have acted as adults with love for one another. We know those were sacred times, God was with us.

The myth of scarcity is powerful. We learn from our fathers that in the world there will always be haves and have nots and that being a have is better. Corporate advertisements and government laws reinforce the idea that being a have is better. Even though the Hebrews received enough manna from heaven for their needs those controlled by the myth of scarcity refused God's commands and either hoarded it or tried to gather it on the sabath. Jesus' closest disciples who heard the most parables about the Kingdom of God on Earth refused to share their own provisions with the 5000, so He took the loaves and fishes offered by the "little one" blessed them and gave them out to the crowd. Afterwards, none of the diciples understood that it was about the abundance of sharing and believed that it was magic or a sign from heaven. Indeed, the only disciple who got it that The Kingdom is about economic equality - sharing the abundance of God was St. Paul. In 2 Corinthians 8, which ends at 15, Paul harkens back to the manna story of Exodus 16:18 : "He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little."

Even as the people of the U.S.A. experience the bitter harvest of our government's 1991 war over the price of oil, "church" people know that the promises of abundance celebrated in our liturgies and the salvation through serving others demonstrated by Jesus, Samuel, Muhammed, Buddha and everyone else who has ever lived were not altered or changed in anyway by the attacks of 9-11. Even as our elected office holders in Washington vote to bestow more riches on the haves while sending the children of the have nots off to die and kill in retaliation for the attacks on our corporate finance and war planning centers, the "church" people of San Antonio are organizing themselves to move beyond comforting the grieving. We are working for a decent community where all citizens are treated as adults and participate in the important decisions which allocate resources. The immediate effort centers on the sales tax initiative to support proven strategies that improve public education and opportunities for all families in San Antonio. Who knows what might happen as more "church" people become involved as effective citizens?

Sharing is not easy. The Hebrews could not do it. The Apostles of Jesus could not do it. In fact, Jesus acknowledged that no human can do it alone. But by working together with others, He said and we believe and know that all things are possible for our Creator.

Love and Peace.

Dad