Democracy is an emotion. Like any other emotion, its presence is recognized through our feelings. Just as someone knows when she is angry or sad, every person carries within her an instinctive recognition of that state which signals saftey from all forms of oppression, a place of true liberty.
Democracy represents the triumph of every individual’s potential. It enables people to cultivate friendships and relationships as well as individual self-development. Democractic societies value mutual aid, because they understand that in helping others, a person creates the very same conditions which will provide her with assistance and comfort when she requires it. Mutual aid encourages the cultivation of brotherhood and the forming of steadfast interpersonal bonds. It creates community.
Democratic societies also value self-determination, the idea that every individual should have the privilege and responsibility of governing herself, and that a person can do what she wants so long as she causes no harm to others. This means that in a genuine democracy, there is no police force other than every individual’s conscience and inner voice, and no legislation other than the exchange of mutual consent.
Democracy means the absence of fear. Fear arises when things appear to be unstable or impermanent, or when one feels threatened. This is how we know that we currently do not live in a democracy: there is too much fear in modern life. We have become especially afraid of terrorism, and this fear serves to justify a military apparatus that is now killing many people all over the world. Democracies do not need militaries because democracies are not afraid. They cannot be threatened by any enemy. Rather, citizens in democratic societies recognize that their capacities for liberty and love, honed by a truly free way of life, can overpower any potential aggressor.
More than terrorism, however, there is also a deep fear of life in modern society. We are all afraid to live. Instead, we seek security wherever we can find it, even if such security — a soul-burning job, a burdensome relationship, money tainted by blood — causes us more harm in the long run. Because we are afraid to live our lives in a free manner, we have become afraid of death. The fear of death runs deep in modern America, and expresses itself in our obsession with youth and with the paranoia concerning the supposed terrorist threat. When a person lives her life to the fullest, cultivates friendships and relationships, engages in self-knowledge, creates things with her mind and her hands, and revels in the precious moments of life, she will be able to die fulfilled, and she will not waste her time with anxieties over her passing. Thus, in genuine democracies, the fear of death is also unknown.
Democracy is a synonym for co-existence. By respecting the boundaries of others, a person comes to understand that her own boundaries will be respected as well. By tolerating the individuality and distinctiveness of others, a person can rest assured that her own quirks and idiosyncrasies will also be tolerated. By acknowledging the shared community of the human race, a person comes to see how important it is that every person be provided her basic needs, and how the fragile planet must be taken care of lest every individual perish.
How we should long for this feeling. Like two lovers separated by circumstance, we emerge onto this planet with a deep desire for that freedom which only a democracy can provide. And no amount of television or government propaganda can hide the fact that in the absence of democracy, we remain terribly oppressed.
