8 - In the Footsteps of Cleisthenes

Summary

The most radically revolutionary idea in the world remains the notion that “we the people” are capable of governing ourselves. This idea began with Cleisthenes and the ancient Athenian democrats, but it is only partly fulfilled today. Human rights have meaning only if they have genuine content. It is in the exercise of rights with content through genuine democratic participation that our natural capacity for self-rule can be enlarged and we can become more capable of self-rule. In sharing the capability, knowledge, and potential that each of us possesses, we can confront the real world and cooperate to make it into a better world. By acknowledging our unity as one species, accepting our place as a part of nature, and asserting control of our technosphere, we can become one global network. As it is, we comprise a living system, a universal agent of systems thinking, and, through collective action, we can become a much more successful one. Full democratic participation can accomplish the fullest effectiveness of this living network. It can produce sustainable development. If everyone participates, then the benefits of this collective action will be maximized; but if some are left out then their knowledge and potential will be lost to the whole, and thus the network will be less capable of making a sustainable world. The billions of people who are invisible must be made visible by expanding the circle of our moral imagination, and all must be enabled to achieve self-liberation by participating in their own governance.