Recently on the World Socialist Forum
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/WSM_Forum/
someone posed a challenge: describe in no more than 12 words the
essence of democracy. Some would say impossible, others would rise to
the challenge and I would bet that quite a few would at least mull it
over in their minds. I spent a few moments wondering whether to
bother and remembered something I'd read which had caught my
attention about what democracy, or maybe it was socialism, should be
– an equality of unequals – or words to that effect, so I
composed my reply:
“Democracy - an equality of unequals;
equal voices, equal access, equal everything.”
This required a rider because without a
serious amount of thought or a few explanatory words the message
could be seen as too flippant, too simple, too unfocussed.
However, isn't this what most of our
interpersonal lives are about – an equality of unequals? None of us
can do everything for ourselves. None of us are experts in
everything. None of us would have the time to do all that's required
in our lives alone. Life is full of intermingled interdependent
entities sharing the experiences of the many tasks we set ourselves
in life. Friends and neighbours have no problem in helping each other
out with no thought of material reward. Volunteers abound locally,
nationally and internationally for all manner of tasks from the
mundane to the positively exciting. Why do they do this with no hint
of reward? Because the act is reward in itself, the act has a
positive influence on the individual, the act is part of our social
interactivity.
It's about structure. See how the
world's all-encompassing system is structured. We have a system
called capitalism which requires money for pretty well every
transaction we need to make. Without money or with only a subsistence
wage people become surplus to requirements, they can't fit in to the
required norms but that doesn't stop them doing things to enable them
to carry on living – scavenging, eating, procreating. Within
society we find many levels of ability among the people which allow
them to be active participants in capitalism. Some may have to spend
many more hours every day than others to survive. Intelligence,
education, innate ability or talent, individual circumstances, home
environment, local conditions, national or international economic
conditions, physical or mental ability or impairment are different
measures of our 'unequalness' and they also are all factors
contributing to the individual's ability to survive and, with good
fortune, to thrive within the system. These recent years have been
another of the recurring periods in capitalism that have seen huge
numbers fall from reasonable comfort to a precarious existence.
So the system as it is structured now
reveals the extent to which society is ruptured by a system of
inequality – 'unequalness' - by sheer fact that there is no
recognition of the innate differences rendering individuals unequal
and that it is the structure of global financial organisation that
determines the various levels of inequality.
Socialism - and democracy - embraces
the equality of all humans whilst recognising the various unequal
innate conditions peculiar to each individual. The structure of
socialism will depend on the extraordinary talents of all its unequal
individuals in communities world wide to contribute according to
their ability. In essence an equality of unequals. That's democracy.
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