It’s time to start talking about rebuilding democracy from the grassroots
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I helped facilitate two public discussions recently; one delved into a global emergency, and the other a local crisis. Fascinating similarities between them hinted at ways to strengthen community dialoguing and social change.
The first discussion involved a panel of three writers noted for environmental concerns: Mark Leiren-Young, author of The Green Chain; indefatigable activist Guy Dauncey, and Focus‘ own Briony Penn.
We’d briefly sketched how we wanted to explore personal, “psychological” reasons we’re struggling with climate change; essentially, our question was, if most by now know what we can do to prevent worsening climate change, why aren’t we doing it?
I anticipated this frank self-assessing stirring discomfort in us and the audience. So perhaps not surprisingly, once the lights, microphones and our own nervous energies turned on us, we shirked a little from it. Most of our talking simply revolved around science, practical issues and countering denials.
Not that psychological concerns didn’t come up. At one point, Dauncey suggested that if we didn’t believe humanity would survive another million years, then our “cynicism” was blocking positive social change. You could hear backs straighten.
Penn countered that Dauncey himself was cynical partly for contending, in the fight to stop climate change, we shouldn’t protect rivers from destructive “clean energy” projects.
An audience member argued that, either way, positive inner change isn’t inspired by depressing disaster scenarios.
They were all legitimate perspectives worthy of exploration. Nevertheless, the discussion often gravitated away from such self-probing, and back towards, particularly, the practical needs to inform the public about climate science and get governments and mass media on board.
That disheartened me. It probably sounds strange coming from a social issues commentator but, beyond a certain point, I don’t place a lot of hope in government, in mass media, or even in informing people.
After all, those of us who’ve criticized the coalescing of government and corporate power in recent years have similarly criticized media conglomeration. So should we be relying on our government or mass media helping with radical social change? Meanwhile, most people already know climate change basics and, after years of inaction, how much has that helped? Indeed, hasn’t global warming been exposing precisely this conundrum – that all our thoughtful informing can easily be undone by facile government-corporate-media spin? Why take aim solely at media and government negligence, then, instead of also confronting practically everyone’s apparent inner uncertainties about collective action?
This last question remained with me during the next discussion, involving representatives from Victoria’s Association of Family Service Agencies (AFSA) and other non-profits providing supports to children, youth, people with disabilities, and families.
There was no discussion “leader”, and many voices were soon being heard. The sense of crisis lay heavy in the atmosphere, as people spoke of the difficulties their agencies (and clients) were having in dealing with drastic provincial cuts.
Many perspectives were expressed and approaches proposed; unfortunately, none fully ignited the room. As in the climate change discussion, conversation tended to vacillate away from personal feelings and swung back frequently towards lobbying government and getting news media to help inform and rouse the public. This time, it became apparent why this was happening: We weren’t sure where else to turn.
We didn’t have any definitive practical solution. And delving into our personal feelings seemed like just wallowing, when it was already obvious we were all primarily feeling overwhelmed and uncertain how to empower ourselves and rally the public. Therefore, we almost couldn’t help gravitating towards hoping, praying that our media and government would facilitate the necessary societal groundswell.
Then it struck me that this is a central part of many crises our society is confronting, isn’t it? We’re feeling helpless, and we’ve become extremely dependent on the leadership of government and mass media, and that’s undermined our democracy. Now, to solve a myriad of crises, we have to build new, broad-based movements without the help of government and media, and we no longer excel at that.
Yet at the AFSA meeting, something else was also transpiring. There was a simmering background sensation, which occasionally thrust sparks into our dialogue, that it was good to have come together. It felt good to share everyone’s struggles, and to at least be considering ways to unify our energies.
This made me realize that a crucial step back towards democracy would be to begin to openly acknowledge all this. We need more community dialogues, and during those we need to recognize we’re not just trying to solve particular problems but, principally, we’re trying to revitalize enduring community connections and ourselves. We’re coming together to rebuild grassroots democracy.
Recognizing that fact will invigorate our approach to these discussions. If we’re intent on revitalizing democracy, then it’s not enough to impart information, debate some points, and depart with a call to lobby government and media. Instead, we must energetically drive towards deeper, shared understandings of problems, solutions, and best ways to reach others, recognizing that government and media may not help us yet, or ever.
Simultaneously, shouldn’t we begin to include more self-reflection and self-questioning? In that way, inner, personal roadblocks can be discussed and resolved alongside political roadblocks, which are often interwoven. How we’re each personally feeling about various possibilities for change is often the ultimate controller of social change, isn’t it?
Ultimately, then, such an approach could provide fertile soil for new ideas and radical approaches, because we’ll have a shared recognition of the need for precisely such breakthroughs.
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Rob Wipond liked the feeling, and is looking for more opportunities to help facilitate discussions. Contact if interested.
Originally published in Focus, January 2010.