Nurture Democracy focuses on the core principles and foundational ideas of Democracy, in part through outlining the context and ideas of its founding thinkers and their intellectual descendants. The motivating premise is that more knowledge of the history of Democratic principles and ideas and even the “emotion” of Democracy can help with the always urgent struggle to support it in the world of today.
This Third series focuses on the history and process of how the idea of Democracy was kept alive, even though it had ceased to exist as system of government.
This section is about the connection between the war in Ukraine and democracy. In this horrific war, we are viscerally reminded of the power and agency that derives from the desire for freedom and self-determination. We have seen Ukrainians give up their homes, belongings, and livelihoods, tear apart their families, and literally sacrifice their lives. This is done with indescribable pain, yet with force and stunningly powerful determination and intentionality. So, out of a desire for Democracy and love of country, we are seeing many Ukrainians give up everything. Democracy is an enabling mechanism and love of country is at base love of the community of people that comprise a country. The war has roused out of our complacency. We have had our pettiness, partisanship, and narcissism challenged. We are called to care and act about Ukraine but also about our own community, our own country, our own Democracy.
This Fourth series will explore and describe how Democracy was reborn in a place entirely unknown to the Athenians and at a time so far in to the future as to be difficult for the human mind to easily comprehend.
This section focuses on the issue of Power in our species. It takes a particular stance regarding why there is the problem and benefit of the notion of power. We are driven, literally compelled to seek all manner of power for many particular or proximate reasons but there is one essential or constitutive reason. We seek power in all its forms to due to perhaps the most fundamental fact of our existence - we will die. This meta or foundational reality is the contradictory dyad of life vs death.
In this second series, I continue outlining the early years of Democracy. The prior 5-part series, The appearance of Democracy - birth to infancy in Greece, covered the development of the seeds and some saplings (750 to 500 B.C.). This section, The appearance & construction of Democracy - childhood to maturity in Greece, moves forward in time to the growth of a fully formed tree. (500 to 322 B.C.).
This section is the beginning a series of posts outlining and discussing the initial development of democracy. The first one is here. The era of focus is a slightly more than 400 year period, beginning about 750 BC. While this start is in the far past in human terms, nearly 2800 years ago, the issues raised are remarkably relevant to the challenges facing democracy in the present day.
