How to Improve Your Community

A Recipe for a Just Democracy

In any discussion of what makes a society “good” or “just” the basic truth is:

educated, enlightened, compassionate and involved rulers bring justice to their societies.

A Democracy is ruled (at least in theory) by its citizens as a whole either directly through plebiscites or indirectly by electing representatives periodically whose outlook, philosophy, and values are chosen by the citizens as best mirroring their own.

So, just as a kingdom is just when its king is educated, enlightened, compassionate and involved, a democracy is just when its citizens are educated, enlightened, compassionate and involved.

Educated

In order to make the best choices for their community, people must know what those choices are. They must know what is the current state of affairs, they must know what are the options going forward, and they must know with some confidence what the results of those options would be.

Education involves two main branches: general knowledge of the world and how it works, and specific knowledge of what are the circumstances of the world right now.

General knowledge

This is where schools come play a fundamental role in supporting the community. But adults who have “graduated” from their formal schools must continue to refresh and renew their general knowledge to prevent it from falling out of date and reflecting old, superseded views as well as to keep from forgetting what they learned.

Specific knowledge

This is where the press plays its role. But the governmental offices also have a duty to keep the citizens informed, and this is why everything the office-holders, diplomats, lawmakers, soldiers, and regulators do must be made public knowledge as soon as possible. Ideally within 24 hours.

Enlightened

Merely having some basic knowledge of subjects is not enough, however. The citizens need to be able to judge and analyze new information (the specific knowledge of current affairs) without undue emotion, cooly, reasonably, “without fear or favor.” The citizens must not succumb to superstition or wishful thinking when considering what is going on.

Compassionate

Cold analysis, however, cannot be all of the citizen’s response. They also need to be able to empathize with their fellow-citizens as well as with foreigners of other lands. This compassion should cross sexual, religious, age, and class lines. It should embody the awareness that we are all human, we are all animals, we are all dwellers upon a common world with more in common than anything that sets us apart.

Involved

Finally, the citizens need to be involved. Not only do they need to be informed as to what their world is like in general and specifically what is going on today, not only do they need to consider this knowledge rationally and with the moderating influence of compassion, but they must also want to. They have to care about what is going on enough to spend the energy and the time necessary to learn and act upon their knowledge.

You

As with all projects to improve your community, “the journey of a thousand souls begins with only one — yourself.”