(1.2) Personal Democracy - Shape the Future

THOMAS Paine opened Common Sense with words that still ring true today.

"Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but [they] have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher. Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil, in its worst state an intolerable one."

I wholly agree with Paine. By seeing the difference between society and government, we can discover our personal power to shape the future.

The history of society is the story of humanity learning to accept responsibility for liberty. If people governed their own lives sensibly, there would be no need for a high government to control our lowest impulses. If we all lived with compassionate regard for one another, if we loved and respected others as we want to be treated, we’d barely need any government at all. That’s not our current reality.

Our reality today is a world filled with hate, violence, exploitation, and suffering. Why? Society reflects the web of mass consciousness woven daily by what we think, say and do. Our daily actions impact ourselves, our families, workplaces, communities, nations, and planet. The harmful habits of our minds and hearts are reflected in society, and society reinforces those harmful habits in us. It’s a vicious circle. To break the cycle, we need to transform our consciousness. Happily, such a worldwide change in our thinking is happening now.

In an era of globalization, two specters haunt our world, the spirits of absolute tyranny and genuine democracy. We live in the spectrum between. On one side are corporations and religions ruling us through puppet governments that prey upon our addiction to authority. On the other side is a grassroots movement for peace and democracy through enlightened spiritual awareness of our global oneness. Which way goes society and government depends on which way goes each of us. Our daily choices decide the fate of life on earth.

(1.1) Personal Democracy - 9/11 inspires Global Sense

The discipline of desire is
the background of character.
– John Locke

FEAR, rage and grief consumed me when two hijacked airplanes slashed into the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001. Standing dumbstruck before my television screen at home in Denver, I watched the live news feed from New York at 9:03 AM as United Flight 175 banked gracefully into the south tower and burst into a ball of flame. When the twin towers collapsed that morning, the debris cascading down looked like two inverted mushroom clouds.

As the day wore on, TV news began to echo the drumbeat of war emanating from the White House. Because I’ve worked for years as a journalist reporting on media and politics, because I’ve studied and taught the tools of public relations and propaganda, I saw an ominous trend. With Americans feeling terrified, the president was pledging an “endless war on terrorism” while implying the air attack justified a crackdown on U.S. society—for our own safety, of course.

I picked up my phone and called my representatives in Congress. I left messages urging them not to sacrifice our civil liberties on the alter of homeland security. They did not call back.

In the weeks that followed, I began drafting an essay on the future of democracy in America and the world. I wrote that most of us are ripe for plucking by tyrants because we feel afraid and insecure. As I wrote, I confronted my own dark shame and pain, the hidden shadow of self doubt that for years has kept me small and weak.

In late September, I recalled using Thomas Paine’s Common Sense in 1997 as the framework for an essay at my new website on the need for democratic governance of the Internet. In a flash of insight, I saw that Paine’s classic work was a perfect vehicle for talking about how global thinking empowers us for freedom. Inspired by Paine as if he was leaning over my shoulder, whispering in my ear, I started writing the book, Global Sense, voicing my soul while praying to touch your heart.

INTRODUCTION: Why update Common Sense?

Had the spirit of prophecy directed the birth
of this production, it could not have brought it forth
at a more seasonable juncture, or a more necessary time.
– Thomas Paine (2nd edition of Common Sense)

"PERHAPS the sentiments contained in the following pages are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor," wrote Thomas Paine to begin his introduction to Common Sense. "A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason."

Thomas Paine in Common Sense voiced the vision of the Enlightenment movement in the 18th century. His radiant reasoning fits the Global Enlightenment movement of the 21st century. I’ve updated his essay to help us define a new vision of democracy that puts our highest ideals into practice today.

Back in 1776, a dark time for the friends of freedom, Paine’s essay revived hope and inspired action. For all progressives and libertarians today who mourn the loss of freedom, who want to restore democracy by uniting personal growth and politics, this update of Common Sense likewise can renew hope and inspire action.

Common Sense persuaded colonial Americans in 1776 to fight for independence. Without Paine’s essay, historians agree, the American Revolution would have failed for lack of public support. Kings and other masters, Paine argued, unduly claim for themselves the right to decide our future for us. He believed that an abuse of power calls into question the right of the abuser to hold power. Those suffering abuses have a natural right and a moral duty to reject their abusers.

Similarly, we have a right and duty to examine our personal habits and look into why we worship our rulers. Do we create governments to rule us so we can avoid responsibility for ruling ourselves? In this book we’ll expose what I call authority addiction. We’ll see how our hidden fears drive us to sacrifice liberty for security.