These are exercises in thinking about public matters with the conviction that publics matter. Publics are where we fulfill our highest human capacity: to speak and act in association to shape our common world. The institutions that guarantee, protect, and comprise our publics matter. They deserve the ongoing critical and strategic thinking of all of us who would be citizens.
Monday, September 11, 2017
Hierarchy or Republic
I just read and commented on the recent Bannon interview on 60 minutes.
We have two opposing governing principles demonstrated here. One is the principle of a democratic Republic, the other that of a hierarchy (divine monarchy, plutocratic aristocracy, totalitarian authority). In a democratic Republic, neither culture, religion, life-style, tribe, nor class are relevant to the functioning of government. What is relevant are the decisions of an inclusive, engaged, critically thinking public. In a hierarchy, what is relevant is the unchallenged opinion of a faction (party, class, tribe, religion) as interpreted and coalesced by the One. Bannon and Trump do not even meet the definition of a citizen of a democratic Republic who at least aspires to a unity based not on a specific faction, but the good of the public.
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