To all FWers. Good health and good attitude for 2002. May we continue this exchange/conversation for some time.
Arthur Cordell -----Original Message----- From: Ray Evans Harrell [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, January 01, 2002 12:22 AM To: Brad McCormick, Ed.D.; Keith Hudson Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: FW List as a democracy Well, I got my posts posted and I reread some of the posts in the process. All I have to say is that I hope that 1002 will be a wonderful year for pleasure, growth, music, prosperity and all of "our friends and relatives." Happy New Year Futurework list. With great affection: Ray Evans Harrell, artistic director The Magic Circle Opera Repertory Ensemble, Inc. [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- Original Message ----- From: Brad McCormick, Ed.D. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Keith Hudson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2001 9:20 AM Subject: Re: FW List as a democracy > Keith Hudson wrote: > > > > I'm beginning to think that FW List and other similar unmoderated > > discussion groups on the Net are about the only democratic activities left > > in modern developed society. Any subscriber, whether thoughtful individuals > > who express themselves carefully and try to back up their arguments with > > facts, or vindictive personalities who can only attack others in nasty > > ways, are all allowed their say in truly democratic fashion. > > > > This is to be compared with the "democracy" of the mass electorate in > > Elections in developed countries. > [snip] > > It seems to me that the word democracy should be reserved > for situations where persons (the demos) govern > themselves (do ocracy). > > In _The Human Condition_, Hannah Arendt wrote that, properly > speaking, the classical Greek polis was an anarchy (no government), > because there was no special group of persons who > governed the rest of the people. > > I think what we have in The United States would more accurately > be called something like: a representativocracy, i.e., > government of and by a group of elected representatives. > > Elections strike me as having the interesting > property of being "fair", "legitimate", etc., only > insofar as no individual's action determines the > outcome (as they say in elementary calculus: > the limit of 1 divided by x, as x grows larger, is ZERO). > > It seems to me that the very fact of coordinating the > lives of large numbers of persons makes it difficult if > not impossible for individuals to straightforwardly > shape their lives (as opposed to "making it in the > system", "working the system", etc., which forms of > individuality can exist in any form of political > organization...). > > This is obvious, but that does not > make it unimportant -- and it seems to me there > may be opportunities to increase real democracy > (persons governing themselves as an intrinsic aspect > of their daily life activities)at the "micro" level, > in the workplace, the schoolroom, etc. via carefully > deconstructing hierarchical relations between > employees and their managers, students and their > teachers, etc. and reconstructing these in more > dialogical (peer-with-peer) ways, even if the > overall life of > 6 billion concurrently living > persons must be done thru alienated > mechanisms such as representative "democracy". > > \brad mccormick > > -- > Let your light so shine before men, > that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16) > > Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21) > > <![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
