Democracy Then and Now

The founding fathers sought to create a nation where one's own avarice and willingness to exploit would define who becomes a social elite. By drafting a constitution that did not allow African Americans, Native Americans, women or non-landholding whites to vote, they also ensured that the government would work hand-in-hand with private interests to always serve the interests of the new elites.

The colonies were founded as investments, funded by London bankers and the British monarchy, seeking as high a return as possible on their investment. The Revolutionary War allowed the new elites to leave aristocratic Europe behind, but the model of doing business ventures where no consideration is given to human or environmental consequences continued unabated. In fact, through his land speculation (i.e. pressuring Native Americans through various means to relinquish their lands), George Washington was soon among the wealthiest men in the country.

The founding US principles of the sacred right to pursue one's own personal avarice to its always vanishing endpoint, the "conquest" {sic} of nature and the scientifically risible invention of "race" are now running their course. A culture that pursues such ideas is, in reality, pursuing ecocide, misery & alienation &  attendant drug and alcohol abuse, empire, militarism, a police state, as well as a host of other unsustainable conditions that are now collapsing under their own weight.

Democracy must morph into inter-relationship with a land base by people and fellow beings and places who know each other and who maintain a fluid conception of leadership. I do not believe that mass society – defined, in theory, in the political realm by leaders and citizens – has any future. It appears to be a mode that is in collapse. True and direct democracy is where the needs of all, of future generations, and of nonhumans are considered. In short, democracy will return to land-based communities of scale where The Whole (as Gary Gripp terms it) is part of daily living and daily decision-making.