We need to expand our understanding of democracy
What is democracy? If we look at the word root it means “people rule.”
Back in the early days, people like Aristotle saw it clearly… because there are always more poor people than rich people, democracy means rule by the poor.
My favorite teacher Michael Parenti said that democracy is a gift from the people of history to constrain the power of the rich. It may not always feel like it but we have that power. And I think we should use it!
Our leaders, people like Joe Biden and George W Bush like to call the United States the “world’s greatest democracy.” But they aren’t thinking about our power to stop the rich from doing things we don’t like. They want us to think about democracy only in terms of elections. That somehow showing up to vote every two to four years is the best possible expression of our democratic rights.
We should expand our understanding of democracy beyond the tightly controlled ability to vote thumbs up or thumbs down on what the people who control our government want.
If we’re sticking within the limits of our existing system, jury duty can actually be a powerful form of democracy. In ancient Athens, those were the two things people did when they participated in democracy… voted on important matters and sat on juries to settle conflicts. You can exercise a lot of democratic control over our system by refusing to convict when you think it’s the wrong thing to do. You can also make a difference by making powerful actors pay for their crimes when they hurt people. It is a democratic power that most people treat like a burden. We should see it as an opportunity to enact justice, that our system actually puts in our hands to decide. I intend to develop this idea more when I talk about jury nullification.
Democracy is much more than the limited bit of expression we get from our rigged political system. Let me give you some examples.
Democracy is when the people of this country decide not to listen to authority. The end of the Vietnam War is a good example. At a certain point, the war in Vietnam became so unpopular that the government of this country couldn’t make Americans fight it anymore. The government lost our support. And when they lose our support and are forced to change direction because they can’t pull us in the direction they want anymore, that’s democracy.
The 8-hour work day. The end of child labor. Voting rights for women and black folks. These were not blessings granted by a government that loves its people. These changes were forced onto our system by a population that wasn’t going to take no for an answer. We have this power. It is called democratic power. What we think matters. How we feel matters.
The political class and the rich people who own them put incredible effort into what is sometimes called manufacturing consent. They use the media to try and change attitudes and get people to go along with the things they want. Massive profits for the few. Homelessness. Prisons run for corporate benefit. A healthcare system that puts share prices ahead of public health. Sometimes even genocide, like what is happening right now with our government's unquestioning support for Israel.
TikTok is helping stop the manufacture of consent. We have found a way to remove the layer of bullshit that is designed to guide how we perceive things in a specific direction. In a direction that benefits the rich and corporations.
Right now, we are living through a democratic awakening. And people are remembering that we actually have power.
Another form of democracy, voting with our money. Deciding to get coffee somewhere other than Starbucks for political reasons. Buying off-brand cereal because we have been insulted by a modern-day Marie Antoinette. These democratic acts have real-world consequences.
Democracy is people power. The power of massive groups of people to say NOPE. Democracy is the power to say, hell no! Or just uh-uh, you can’t make me. Democracy is the power to decide for yourself and have the courage of your convictions.
Do you remember what just happened with Wendy’s pitching dynamic pricing of their food? Just a couple weeks back, Wendy’s management put out a trial ballon… to test the waters. It was a disaster! The American public basically laughed in their faces. The memes were especially choice. We have power. Our opinions have power. If Wendy’s or other fast food companies ran the world, we would all be forced to just accept dynamic food pricing to boost corporate profits as another fact of life that comes with living in this vast corporate hellscape. But Wendy’s doesn’t run the world. And we laughed and said… go ahead, give it a try! You’ll be out of business in about 5 weeks if you do. That's democracy in action.
This ability to say no is what forces change. Because government can try to make us go along with things we don’t want. They can try…
I am reminded of a quote from Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States.
"... with all the controls of power and punishment, enticements and concessions, diversions and decoys, operating throughout the history of the country, the Establishment has been unable to keep itself secure from revolt. Every time it looked as if it had succeeded, the very people it thought seduced or subdued, stirred and rose. Blacks, cajoled by Supreme Court decisions and congressional statutes, rebelled. Women, wooed and ignored, romanticized and mistreated, rebelled. Indians, thought dead, reappeared, defiant. Young people, despite lures of career and comfort, defected. Working people, thought soothed by reforms, regulated by law, kept within bounds by their own unions, went on strike. Government intellectuals, pledged to secrecy, began giving away secrets. Priests turned from piety to protest.
“To recall this is to remind people of what the Establishment would like them to forget-the enormous capacity of apparently helpless people to resist, of apparently contented people to demand change. To uncover such history is to find a powerful human impulse to assert one's humanity. It is to hold out, even in times of deep pessimism, the possibility of surprise.”
I'm ready for some surprises.
Let’s make them pay.