Reviving democracy requires engagement

Democracy is on the ropes everywhere in the world as politics have become extreme, divisive, virulent — just plain toxic.

It would seem like a reasonable, visceral decision not to participate, to not be contaminated or compromised by association. However, like education, where more education is the cure to a lack, a deficit in democratic politics calls for more, not less, political engagement.

In his 1919 poem The Second Coming, W. B. Yeats wrote, “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;” as a description of social and political catastrophe and the failure of usual safeguards in the aftermath of the First World War. He ends the first stanza with: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.”

I believe it’s an apt description of what’s going on today — not new but frightening, nonetheless.

Today what was, and should be, the democratic centre is more a void than a foundation for co-existence and collective good, a hollowness represented by extreme individualism on one side of the abyss and rising authoritarianism on the other. Together they represent a flight from the ideals, values, norms and mores that define and animate democracy as a way of life — inclusion, equality, truth and justice for all defined and embraced by all — what might be called a Yeats-like centre.

Today we have so-called “freedom fighters” who wish to be free from all responsibility to and for others, standing in direct opposition to human togetherness. And in vociferous opposition to any outside constraints on their individual or circles’ whims and activities. They are today’s political separatists, anti-immigrants, anti-vaxxers, home-schoolers, religious fundamentalists and the like — people who want to live life on their own terms without regard or responsibility for others.

Opposite them on the other side of the democratic void are the political fascists. Typically, they are intensely right-wing, extreme nationalists, often openly racist and militaristic with authoritarian leanings. At their worst, they claim to be exempt from the usual strictures of norms and laws, instead calling for total control to force their will on all others and suppress dissent violently, if necessary, sometimes even desirably and preferably. And they are quite willing to endure one-man rule for their economic and social agendas. They are today’s MAGA and Trumpers, a model for others of their same persuasion — people who are quite willing to force their own views in their own terms on the whole of society.

What they have in common is a distrust and disdain for governments, its safeguards and its institutions. They consider the protections built into laws and their enforcement to be a denial of their rights. They consider the institutions and structures created to ensure participation, fairness and tolerance for others to be stifling and obtrusive barriers to their personal freedoms. Truth, scientific evidence and civility hold no sway over them — they know no shame. In short, anything which, and anyone who, challenges their entitlement and self-interest is their enemy. They also share a “passionate intensity,” exactly what democracy now calls for.

Yeats goes on to say, “Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand,” likely a reference to the Biblical belief of an imminent religious and spiritual reckoning, although he eschewed traditional religions. Here’s hoping that “the best (don’t) lack all conviction.

While I don’t claim that people who desire democracy are always the best, I do wish to claim that democracy as a way of life is worth being passionate about, and that all of us who believe that must do our best to revive and rebuild the ideals of a democracy centred on humanity at its best as we know it. We might consider what our “centres” might look like.

Politically, the centre would be non-partisan, where political affiliation deferred to common interest. Where the importance of traditional non-partisan bodies, such as municipal councils and school boards, is respected and supported. Where not-for-profit organizations serving the community would be invited to the table even as they challenged current inclinations.

The social centre would be like the 19th century European salons and Canada’s 20th century, multi-party Royal Commissions, crossing all political and religious boundaries, walks of life and social standings to hear other each and discuss human issues important to all.

Safe centres marked by respect, civility, inclusion and equality where truth, scientific evidence and consensus-seeking prevailed.

Democratic centres would tolerate no one-upmanship, insults, intimidation, threats or violence. A second coming would be refreshing — it’s up to us.

John R. Wiens is dean emeritus at the faculty of education, University of Manitoba.