Table of Contents
admin August 28th, 2007
Part I – Clarity
1 The Straightjacket
Why are we as societies creating a world that we as individuals abhor?
This is the question that’s propelled my life for decades now.
It is really bewildering. We know that no human being actually gets up in the morning vowing, “Yeah, today I’m going to make sure another child dies needlessly of hunger,” or muttering, “Sure, I’ll do my part to heat the planet and obliterate entire species.” – 3
Peeling away the Layers — 5
Elections Plus a Market…That’s a Market? — 8
Lizzie’s Lessons — 9
Thin Democracy’s Pitfalls — 11
Deeper Dangers — 14
Humility and Hope — 18
2 New Eyes
Human beings don’t walk into a meaning void. That’s not who we are. So if we are to let go of the mental map that is generating Thin Democracy, more is needed than simply acknowledging its frightening pitfalls. We must have at least a glimmer of what can replace it. And that’s not easy, for some of the West’s most influential opinion shapers carry the presumption of scarcity right down to ideology itself. Referring to corporate capitalism, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman declared, “I don’t think there will be an alternative ideology this time around. There are none.”
Neither can one suddenly invent out of whole cloth something as profound as a new way of seeing the world. So the great news is that, as democracy reduced to elections plus a one-rule economy is failing, a richer form is taking shape. By its nature, though, it’s not as easy to describe as Thin Democracy. — 21
Goodness of or in Human Nature? — 25
An Ecology of Democracy: Five Qualities — 29
A Premise of Plenty, a Spiral of Hope — 37
3 What Democracy Feels Like
Martha leads the Study Circles Resource Center, a Connecticut group that’s helped tens of thousands of Americans discover a need—experiencing democracy—that’s so seldom met many of us have forgotten we have it.
Her work tells us a lot about what happens when people remember. In 1999, her center began working in Kansas City with a diverse citizen coalition distressed that high school test scores were sinking and half the students were dropping out. This educational breakdown, they realized, was linked to life in neighborhoods where people felt unsafe, disconnected, and powerless. And they wanted to do something.
So residents from all walks of life—in the end, over thirteen hundred—began meeting in study circles, creating trust and generating solutions to augment a school reform process already underway. Over just eight years, graduation rates rose to 70 percent. Spanish-speaking parents started and now run a “homework help line.” Public housing residents created a tenants’ association and youth sports camp and are helping to rid a neighborhood of ten drug houses. In addition, over one hundred young people, including some school-leavers, worked together to clean up the downtown. — 41-42
Nine Dimensions: Some Glimpses — 42
Why Now? Four Revolutions — 63
Part II – Creativity
A Massachusetts teacher I once knew asked his tenth graders to blurt out the first words that came to mind on hearing the word “power.” They said, “money,” “parents,” “guns,” “bullies,” “Adolf Hitler,” and “Mike Tyson.” And in my workshops with adults, I’ve heard similar words, plus “fist,” “law,” “corrupt,” and “politicians.” Often “men” pops out, too.
As long as we conceive of power as the capacity to exert one’s will over another, it is something to be wary of. Power can manipulate, coerce, and destroy. And as long as we are convinced we have none, power will always look negative. Even esteemed journalist Bill Moyers recently reinforced a view of power as categorically negative. “The further you get from power,” he said, “the closer you get to the truth.”
But power means simply our capacity to act. — 73-74
One Choice We Don’t Have — 74
Mirrors in Our Brains — 75
Power Isn’t a Four-Letter Word — 78
Relational Power’s Under-Appreciated Sources — 80
Drops Count — 83
5 The Art of Power
With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, those outside marveled at the staggering pace of change there. Communism’s political institutions—seemingly as rigid and immovable as the mammoth steel and cement structures that housed them—simply collapsed. Command economies gave way to the market. And the world celebrated when democracy seemed to be breaking out all over.
Yet as the 1990s wore on and the euphoria wore off, it became clear that behind these highly visible structural changes, the reality of people’s daily lives was in many ways worsening quickly. Even life expectancy began to fall. The KGB, the feared Soviet secret police, didn’t dissolve exactly; it morphed into the Russian FSB that many have experienced as a state-sanctioned mafia.
Similarly, consider the tragic consequences of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, ostensibly to “bring democracy.” With no appreciation of, or attention to, the values and norms that make democracy work, the U.S. occupation instead unleashed a nightmare of internecine violence.
Formal institutions can change dramatically, but that is not enough. Something else is needed. — 85
Democracy’s Arts — 87
The Power of Simply Listening — 88
Conflict as Creative — 91
Kids Learn Conflict Is Okay — 94
6 Talking Democracy
Throughout this book, I’ve stressed the power of “frame,” the lens through which we interpret our world. But what creates our frame? Largely, it’s language—the words and metaphors we use every day.
Progressives groan that over the last three decades the Far Right has spun together its own language, creating a frame that resonates across the heartland. “Family values,” “leave us alone,” “it’s your money,” “tax-and-spend Liberals”—all of these phrases create frames of meaning. Yet many Americans who worry about their negative power continue to use terms that fail to communicate a positive alternative. Worse, their terms are heard by others to mean the opposite of what the speaker intends.
In “getting a grip,” a big piece of the challenge is disciplining ourselves to find and use words that convey a new frame, one that spreads a sense of possibility and helps people see emerging signs of Living Democracy that fuel the Spiral of Empowerment. – 97-98
Globalization or Global Corporate Power? — 98
Free Market-Free Trade or Fair Market-Fair Trade? — 99
Regulations or Standards? — 101
Consumers or Buyers? — 101
Part III – Courage
7 Seize the Moment
We humans see pretty much what we expect to see, I’ve argued. We often can’t even register what doesn’t fit our picture of how the world works. Yikes. If that’s true, you may well respond, how is it possible ever to change? Aren’t we frozen in self-destruct mode?
No, I don’t think so. From my own life experiences and from the extraordinary people I’ve met, certain insights about breaking free are coming clear. I’ve witnessed people doing the apparently impossible—perceiving the “screen” through which they now peer, seeing with new eyes, then moving forward with improved vision. — 109
A Downward Spin — 110
A Rude Shock — 113
8 When Fear Means Go
In these moments of dissonance, fear can always stop us dead in our tracks, for it has become the “emotional plague of our planet,” observes French philosopher Patrick Viveret.
To break free, we must understand how we arrived here, and to do that, we must dig. The roots of this plague run deeper than our government’s determination to turn a single heinous attack into a state of perpetual war or that of corporate advertisers to relentlessly fuel our insecurities.
To understand, we have to reach back in time. Way back. — 118
Fear as Pure Energy — 119
Fear and Conflict — 120
As It Is — 123
Old Thoughts, New Thoughts — 125
Inner Applause — 126
9 Sanity in Motion
Even when a task seems monumental—cleaning out the attic or writing a book—I do find the energy to tackle it if I can see first steps. If I can see how a small action—getting together a few boxes or creating a one-page outline—connects to my ultimate goal, an attic where I can actually find things, or a book that might help me find answers. I feel overwhelmed until I have an idea of how to get started and a picture of how it will add up to something.
So as we seek to connect our passions with the world’s needs in ways that really do add up, my hope for this book is that what I find freeing will also help you. — 129
Claiming Our Sanity — 130
Protection — 133
A Cautionary Tale, the Danger of Good Intentions — 135
On Issues Versus Entry Points — 136
An Internal Checklist — 150
Bold Humility — 152
Knowing — 154
An Invitation — 156
Questions to Spark Talk and Action — 157
Recommended Reading — 169
Endnotes — 173
Index — 179
