And Stuff,The Nature of Democracy

And stuff ,,, is an expression I have come to use very extensively,
and loosely it would translate to: I'm not sure where this starts
and how it ends,  so who knows.

So to begin with, when I began this, I kind of suggested that
democracy is somewhat inaccessible, but really it is more than
just the idea being difficult.  There is a reference in this blog
to the idea, which is the relationship between the folks living
in the country, and those who live in the city, where this idea
of democracy or at least the word developed.

So, for example, you can use this term to belong to a category of
things, like political systems.  But that only takes us from a bit
vague, to a lot more vague.  So for now I will just include this
notion as a thing.  Democracy is a thing, okay.

Now,  the nature of things in general, is a thing, when actually observed
or considered would really be best described as a process really,
because the nature of things, common to all things, is they are mostly
or in fact all changing.  Even something like a proton is changing and
so it can be applied to all kinds of things.

So in the U.S., we are all of us the guardians of the process, and our
main concern must be what in what direction is the process
proceeding.  Is it evolving toward something better that it is
right now or is it devolving into something less.  How can we
accurately assess or determine that?

Well, I think it needs to be evaluated at the level of values or
attributes to which we can ascribe to it and so we ask are
these values reflected in the process being supported and
enhanced by the process.   You can see this is not an easy
thing to evaluated because first you need a list of these
values.   I can throw out one that is quite important for
everyone and that would be justice.  Is justice the value
being supported and enhanced by the process we are
encouraging and participating in?  There are certainly
others, but I am just throwing this out as something
we need to consider individually, but most probably
best to be considered collectively and cooperatively
as well.

There is certainly more to this kind of evaluation,
which includes, what are those institutions which
are responsible for this process we call democracy?

How do we break out those institutions?  For example, some
might be media, science, religion, medicine, business, education.
And finally now, who is really in charge here? I would say
it would be the individual, but beyond that the individual
is supported and re-informed and re-enforced by those
around him.  What is really important is that we come to
a place where  our engagement with the process and the
nature of our involvement becomes more important
really than what we somehow attempt to add it all up
to be.  In other words, what we all are doing and how
we are doing it becomes the arena of the highest
concern and the subject closest to our attentions.

So, I just need to add, that if we are not all somehow
connected to these processes in a genuine way, then
the conclusion would be, it is not really democracy
that is at the core.