This is the next in a series of posts on how to make our
democracy work better based on an article in The Intelligent Optimist magazine
(formerly Ode) by Tom Atlee.
“As with trial juries, they speak with the voice of the
whole—both symbolically and, if the are convened properly, actually. They
become not only lay experts on the issue but an informed, deliberative
microcosm of the whole public. They
speak with a certain legitimate authority about what the citizenry would want
if everyone could and would engage in comparably sophisticated act of
collective citizenship.
“Interestingly, a community of people (whether a group, a
company, a town or a nation) is better equipped to be wise than an individual. As individuals, we are inherently more
limited than a community. Although we can consult books, friends and critics,
in the end we are limited to our own single perspective. We are, alas, only one person, looking at the
world from one place, one history and one pattern of knowing. A community, on
the other hand, can see things through many eyes, many histories and many ways
of knowing. The question is whether it
dismisses or creatively utilizes and integrates that diversity.
“Communities are wise to the extent that they use diversity
well, in a cooperative, creative interplay of viewpoints that allows the
wisest, most comprehensive and powerful truths to emerge. The more we know how
to nurture and use the rich diversity of individual views and capabilities within
our society, the more wise and democratic our society will be. We will resist
small-minded leadership and even the dictatorship of the majority. We will
cherish dissent as a wise individual cherishes doubt, as a door to deeper
understanding.”
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