Jay Hanson wrote:
>
> >definition a social being if you are human. The most efficient
> >society is a fully democratic one, in which everybody has
>
> Most efficient? We ask, with David Hume, how do you know you are right?
>
> ( Hint: corporations, armies, football teams, etc. are not democratic. )
>
> Jay
I would agree. Democracy is often a luxury.
General Patton's troops did not liberate
Bastogne (Xmas 1944) by democratic process.
In wartime, the classical Athenians would
appoint a General to lead them. Etc.
*However*, as even that arch-enemy of democracy,
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn acknowledged at his
Harvard Commencement Address, June 1978:
So long as we live under a peaceful
sun, we must lead an everyday life.
For social process to not cultivate democracy
as assiduously as possible *when there is not
a real crisis* is a betrayal of the reasons
we temporarily give up our right to participate
in democratic process to secure in
times of danger the basic
conditions of life without which democracy
is not possible.
What I find inexcusable is "people" who
invent emergencies to manufacture
situations in which we are *unnecessarily*
deprived of democracy (and life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness in general).
I once had a manager who said: "When you see a
ball lying on the field, don't ask if it's your
job to pick it up. Pick it up ant run with
it." *However*, as with Paul Harvey (who turned
80 a couple days ago...), there is a "rest of
this story": After the game is over, then
one needs to go back and find out who dropped the
ball, and deal with said person through
an appropriate court of inquiry, resulting
in appropriate punishment, and, even
more important: corrective action to
minimize chances of (1) similar misfortunes
happening in future and of (2) the persons who
made the mistakes the first time causing
more trouble by contributing new mistakes.
Even in an EMT unit there surely are
plenty of opportunities for cultivation of
workplace democracy *when no crisis is
in progress*.
\brad mccormick
--
Mankind is not the master of all the stuff that exists, but
Everyman (woman, child) is a judge of the world.
Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
914.238.0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua, NY 10514-3403 USA
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