Category: Democracy

A full understanding of human history can keep us safe from tyranny’s cauldron.

Nero fiddled, Hitler ethnically cleansed, Lincoln died in preserving the republic and unity, Martin Luther King died in his fight for equal rights, and G.W. Bush used panic and fear to start a needless war. The preceding are just a few examples of a history of humankind that clearly describes some leaders and their leadership as either accidental or intentionally histrionic, and others that strive for unity and equality for all at great cost to themselves.

In the absence of a clear understanding and appreciation for both those sacrifices and moments of madness, modern humans may not understand or appreciate the legacies of those leaders that fought for equality and unity and those that used fear and prejudice to induce panic and support for the suppression of liberty.  Lacking a clear knowledge about both legacies we have only a political publicist’s definition of democracy which misleads us to  stumble blindly from one pothole of damaged governance to another. Those stumbles could, as history has documented, lead us right to the edge of a deep, boiling cauldron of tyranny.

History lessons sometimes come to us in unusual, superficially fictional ways, that are really lively messages of both warnings and celebration. An example is the story, Alice in Wonderland. It is both a delightful children’s story, but also a definitely adult dissertation on political and social failings and dangers. In other words human history does not have to be as bitter and dry as burnt toast. The charge is to present it in a way that gets comfortably and actively established in our memory. Wacky, histrionic politicians suddenly become models of the Mad Hatter. Dedicated, honest and progressive leaders are best represented by themselves in literature and in live news presentations such as Lincoln’s famed and important Gettysburg Address.

Yes, many historical moments have high emotion (anger, sorrow, joy, relief, etc) attached to them, and this is not wrong. This aids in insuring that those critical steps in both our stumbles and our steps forward are remembered as both reminders and lessons. Right now, real history is being severely distorted to suit political advantage or to negate policies or practices some individuals and organizations wish to banish from our memory and conscience. When this happens we are weakened by virtue of our loss of understanding of the continuity of both our progress and our pratfalls.

Is there any hope that we can begin to think for ourselves? Is there a way we can reach back into our memory and recall human history? If we can then  that will serve to both encourage and to also alert us to the proper path we should be traveling to continue our progress and to sustain liberty? Now of course, we must truly understand democracy and how it differs from the ideal concept of a republic which our forefathers crafted for us. We then can use it as a measure of our own nation’s status and future. Without this understanding we stand to either over-react and destroy our republic or under-react and let an oligarchy replace the glorious freedom we have enjoyed and fought to preserve.

Lastly there are those who rely upon our ignorance or disregard of human history to persuade us to accept some twisted mix of an oligarchy and pseudo-democracy to produce a nation that is now governed not for we-the-people but for the elite few. When this happens, history is replaced by histrionics expressed to induce fear, suspicion and acceptance of our own loss of freedom and equality as the inevitable. We, in our ignorance have been duped by the few. We must not let this happen and only our complete understanding of our beginnings and our future will enable our defense of our freedom and well-being.

Listen carefully to the political advocates. Measure their proclamations and promises against the real history of this nation and of humankind. Look well beyond your immediate needs and hopes into the promise of the future. If that promise is not visible then we have been  blinded and our minds imprisoned.


Tyranny’s Cauldron –


The hand, as far as the article is concerned, is governance (local, state, national and territorial). The cradle is the entire spectrum of commerce and industry that represents the economy of a community of people, commonly known as a nation. Rocking the cradle, barring some horror movie contexts, represents part of the parental nurturing process of offspring. Offspring within the context of this article represents all those productive elements of a nation’s economy. Those productive elements include all the citizens of that national entity.  Governance is, of course, all the above when we think about democratic societies, and this immediately imposes a web of interactions and reactions that affect management.

Considering the complexity of the above cradle-rocking process, it is no wonder that there is often more than one hand on the cradle and that each hand has fingers in which each finger represents an array of nurture elements. So let’s look at nurture within the context we have created for this article.

Nurturing with respect to parenting involves a host of efforts from early life sustenance to the process of enabling the growth and development of the offspring. This includes behavioral adjustments, physical enrichment, education, and, in many ways, moral integrity. Multiply the offspring by a population mix of citizens, businesses, educational institutions (at all levels), and a host of governmental agencies (also at all levels) and rocking the cradle is no easy task. Most critically, the hands doing the rocking are equally required to have been nurtured to the same rigorous standards. As history has informed us, repeatedly, it does not always come out successfully; quite often in the area of moral integrity.

So what can happen?

The focus must be on the hands and fingers, in other words all aspects of governance, but especially the hands. The hands are the choice of the people who jointly and cooperatively decide exactly which hands are best to help rock the cradle. This is good and has served democratic nations well and successfully until the hands come under the influence of special interests (groups, industries, financial). When this happens the cradle gets jiggled more than rocked and the hands become impaired because they no longer respond to the people. Obviously the fingers, become confused, and often dysfunctional. When all this comes together, the cradle is no longer rocked, much less jiggled. It is abandoned!

Inside the cradle are all the operations and policies that insure a nation is safe, economically strong, progressive and dedicated to the enrichment of all life, including the environment. Obviously, when the cradle is only jiggled or, worse, abandoned the entire nation suffers. This can have dreadful, long-range effects that can retard the nation’s global standing which in turn has serious economic impact. The nation struggles and shrinks, the crippled hands are overpowered by special interests and democracy becomes just a tattered label.

What to do? What to do?

Well here are five steps that can help restore the hands and fingers and repopulate the cradle with all the important policies and practices that will help nurture the nation back into a strong, progressive and democratic country.

  1. Completely revise the electoral process to insure that the people select the hands.

  2. Insure that the fingers are carefully controlled to serve the well-being of the nation and its citizens.

  3. Respect the presence of special interests, but only within the framework of the will of the people. Special interests must gain approval from the people, not the hands.

  4. Governance is a mutual process that involves people, hands, fingers and the cradle. This must be sustained and never allowed to weaken. This means the people need to be alert, committed, and active in support of rocking the cradle.

  5. Progress is non-political. It is the joint activity of all elements of governance that move the nation forward. Rocking the cradle is the summary of that process and represents the continual nurturing of democracy.

Right now, the cradle is nearly empty, the hands twisted and manacled by special interests and the people all have either turned away or turned on each other.  We better hurry before there is no cradle to rock.

IMAGE CREDIT: The Constitutional Convention (Philadelphia) courtesy of

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