A Question of Authorty

Philosophy Forums Society, Government, and Economics
1

The men of Athens loved to ask the unanswerable questions and then dare to answer them. This is how democracy, a social order, different from that of kings and subjects, came to be. The concept of democracy begins with this question, “How do the gods resolve their differences?”. The philosophers of Athens concluded, reason, is the controlling force of the universe. That is, even the gods were controlled by a universal force of reason. This principle is presented as the laws of nature. It is that of which Thomas Jefferson wrote, when he wrote the Declaration of Independence, “the laws of nature and of nature’s God”.

It was reasoned, we are as the gods, because we can learn and reason. The gods were sisters and brothers, not king and subject. Democracy is an imitation of the gods. A grouping of people in social and political order, order by nature, by reason and universal truths. Unlike kings, and some gods who could arbitrarily make laws, and rule by whim, rewarding and punishing depending of if they were pleased or not, democracy is rule by reason, not whim. Science is to democracy what holy books are to religion. Our idea of truth can change but universal truth is unchanging. Democracy is our best understanding of the truths, and is open to change as our reasoning changes. Ideally we seek to understand universal truths, and base our laws upon them. In fact, the Roman statesman Cicero, said laws made by tyrants are not truly laws. He, as Jefferson, believed true law is self evident natural law.

It is our duty to learn truth and make our laws conform to truth. This isn’t so because anyone says so, but because that is just how the universe works. As Cicero explained, the law of nature is exacting. What happens is always the consequence of the action. There is no one to manipulate or who can change the laws of nature for us. Our justifications, excuses and prays, do not change the laws of reason. It matters not if someone catches us doing wrong or not, the laws of nature are always in force. The moral is always the effect of the cause; and morale, is that high spirit feeling that comes out believing we are doing the right thing. To be demoralized, is have no hope of a good out come.

At one time literacy meant being literate in Greek and Roman classics. This is what brought us to the Age of Enlightenment. The American Revolution began as an intellectual revolution. Our Statue of Liberty holds a book for literacy and a torch for the enlightenment that comes from being literate. Accepting the truth of nature’s law and the God of nature, but coming from a history of king and church authority, they asked, “To whom does God give His authority?”. They looked upon men such as Galileo, who argued, if we are to know truth, we must turn to nature and observe truth for ourselves. They turned to the philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment, Descartes, Locke and Newton and concluded, God, gives His authority to everyone.

To know of such things is to be educated for democracy, and only when democracy is defended in the classroom, is it defended. Jefferson argued, if our Republic is to be strong, we should divide our whole country into school districts and educate all children. Only than can people manifest democracy and have liberty. Democracy can not be spread with military might, because those unprepared for it can not manifest it. You see, democracy does not come from an authority down to the people, it can only be manifest by the people themselves. It is social order, before it is political order. It is not anarchy which reduces humanity to a barbaric state of animals (the warring going on in Iraq now), because it begins with education for determining truth and making good moral judgments, and is not just one big free for all, leaving a power vacuum until someone raises to rule over another by force… Our freedom is restricted by the laws of nature, if we are aware of those laws and the consequences of violating them, or not. Education which internalizes authority, is the first requirement of democracy.

2

Which authority are you talking about, the authority of the individual to take control of his own thinking or the authority of outside forces to control the thinking of the individual?

If it is the goal of a democratic education to internalize authority as laws of nature that cause the pupil to accept without question then there is a lot of room for mischeif.

On the other hand if you are suggesting that the role of education in a demcracy is that the student should be taught to be the sole authority of his thinking then perhaps your essay makes some sense.

3

Thank you for your response.

Like religions, democracy must be taught, before the people can manifest it. If the US were to fall today, what the survivors would put in its place, would not be democracy.

I have attempted to discuss democracy on the Internet for several years, and the closest anyone has come to discussing it, is to argue the US is not a democracy, it is a republic. There is no understanding of democracy being a culture. Government is only one expression of this culture. As long as we educated people to manifest this culture, things went pretty well, but we stopped doing that in 1958, and even the memory of how to educate for democracy is forgotten, because all in the profession are prepared for education for technology and they know nothing, absolutely nothing about democracy being a culture the people must learn, before they can manifest it.

As for your question, go back to what I said about Galileo. If you want to know the truth about the heavens, pick up a teloscope and study the heavens for yourself. Question everything, even what you believe and think is true, and do your own work in getting information and draw your own conclusions. Men like Galileo sought out each other, and would show each other what they had discovered, and ask if they had come to the right conclusion.

I have said the concept of democracy comes from Greek and Roman classics. The later philosophers, better known for giving us democracy, such as Locke, were literate in the classics. To know if I am telling you the truth, google “classical education”. To understand democracy, read the classics. Don’t take my word for anything.

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to understand democracy, watch the people of new orleans after katrina… watch any riot… the mob has spoken.

-Imp

5

Many of the tenets of modern democracy find their origins in the governing stuctures present in parts of North America upon the arrival of the first explorers and settlers.

Concepts of equality and individual rights and representation and consensus all came I think more from contemporary reports from the frontier than from the ancient greeks. I am sure that Locke and his contemporaries read these numerous reports and descriptions and this colored their views as it did the US Constitution.

If you consider that this vast sea change in thinking came about at the same time these reports were circulating freely throughout Europe and the philosophers of the day had to reach all the way back to ancient Athens to find anything comparable in western history…

It is difficult to see modern democracy as just a somewhat delayed adoption of some ancient greek style of government, an inevitable progression of western thinking.

There had to be a catalyst, a shock from the outside, numerous reports of people elsewhere doing things differently for these thinkers to take up these ideas and champion them.

6

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois

ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/

-Imp