On a recent Sunday evening, Juanita and I gathered with a local Book Club who’d invited us because they were reading my book, Blinded by Progress. One of the Book Club participants joked, “I knew the author was coming, so I wrote out my answers to the questions. I’m expecting a test.” It was a fun way for her to tell us that she was prepared for the night.
Following wine and cheese, then a wonderful potluck meal with a gourmet seafood entree that the host prepared from his Nova Scotia family heritage, all 11 of us circled around on soft seats and chairs in the living room for the 3rd of four discussions this club had planned on my book.
The “questions” Joan had referred to were the “Points to Ponder and Discuss” that follow the chapters in the book. The two chapters assigned for this discussion were “BIG Practice #3: Shrinking the Treasure of Humanness” and “BIG Practice #4: Disguising Corporatocracy as Democracy.”
By the time we got to the “corporatocracy and democracy” part, various participants had shared personal life experiences of how the “treasure” of their “humanness” had been shrunk by the dynamics of the MultiEarth paradigm and economy. Because we hadn’t yet heard Joan share any of the answers from her notebook, I asked her to share what she’d written about the ways democracy gets cracked by the MultiEarth paradigm.
She was enthusiastic, and gave us answers filled with vigor. First she read the claims made for democracy by the proponents of MultiEarth ways; then she gave her concise responses! When I asked her, she quite willingly consented to having her responses shared in this blog. So here they are—right from her notebook.
- American democracy is morally superior to other superpowers. Not true—it has been captured by the corporations and held hostage.
- Corporations bring efficiency and strength to democracy. Not true—they manipulate the system and the people to their benefit. They even convince people to vote against their own self-interest
- Free markets are a natural partner with democracy. No! NAFTA and other trade agreements undermine our economy and our laws. If the TPP is passed our environmental and labor laws will be at risk.
- Democratic freedoms facilitate a robust middle class. Not necessarily. It was a strong labor movement that established the middle class and the corporations’ war on labor seeks to destroy it.
- Democracy and free markets open the way to endless prosperity. Only for the 1%. Free markets depend on cheaper and cheaper labor which is found in developing nations leaving our own workforce unemployed.
- Constitutional democracy is maintained by elections and legislatures. No! It is maintained by educating the public about how they are being manipulated and how corporations are ensuring that prosperity goes to the 1%. It is just not true that democracy can only exist in a capitalist society.
Thank you, Book Clubbers, for speaking your mind, and often from your heart. Owning what we believe publicly impacts our actions. And the real test of the evening comes as we shift our lives ever further out of the MultiEarth paradigm and into OneEarth living. Our conversation animated our awareness and our will to push ahead with that shift.