I'm reading the book "Death of the Grown-up" by Diana West. The gist of the book is how America's arrested development is bringing down Western culture. She takes a look at how we are becoming a nation of children rather than adults. Interesting read and one that I would highly suggest. She makes a lot of sense in what she is saying.
As I was reading and writing in the margins of the book this morning my thoughts were led back to this tread. I'll share some thoughts of my own and some quotes from the book. Hopefully they will link together nicely to give us a look at why our present government is doomed to failure.
My notes:
For democracy to work properly there must be accepted the presupposition that all men desire the same thing. This, in turn, presupposes the same moral/ethical influence across the masses. This is why democracy will fail.
Here I was thinking back to the video that ONESONEK shared.
From the book:
The paradox is that less restraint doesn't necessarily deliver greater freedom. ............................. . That's because while personal restraint once curtailed displays of sexuality, it also made democratic society workable in the first place.
My thought is that sexuality can be replaced with anything and give the same outcome. Personal responsibility is not being taught nor expected at several levels of our culture. Just think of the kids that you observe when you go out in public.
From the book quoting Walter Berns:
To speak in a manner that is more obviously political, there is a connection between self-restraint and shame, and therefore a connection between shame and self-government or democracy. There is therefore, a political danger in promoting shamlessness and the fullest self-expression or indulgence. To live together requires rules and a governing of the passions, and those who are without shame will be unruly and unrulable; having lost the ability to restain themselves by observing the rules they collectively give themselves,they will have to be ruled by others.
This statement makes me think of our present leaders, especially the parts of the statement in bold. To some degree this can reflect the majority of both parties. I personally think that the Democratic party is more guilty of this attitude and promoting the same.
A quote in the book from Mary Ann Glendon:
When regime-threatening questions might come to mind, the oligarchs have authorized a modern form of bread and circuses, an array of new ........freedoms to compensate for the loss of the most basic civil right of all--the right of self government.
There is truly nothing new under the sun.
Based on the fine definitions of types of government in the short film that ONESONEK linked us to and what I've been reading the strength of argument for Republican government has increased in my thinking. The BIG question, "How do we return to that form of government"?
