My Czech girlfriend was part of the Czechoslovak Velvet Revolution in 1989. She was a student organizer, mostly working with a university photocopier. She would create, copy, and collate brochures for runners to hand out to citizens on the street about the scheduled protests. These protests were too big for the communists to suppress.
I met her three years later. Being a political junkie at the time, I found her stories amazing — as what she was doing was clearly illegal in her society. She could have been put in prison for using that government photocopier trying to bring down the government.
And yet, she was disappointed with her efforts: the first democratic Czechoslovak elections did not find the results she was hoping for.
She told me: “We should have let the artists run the government.”
At the time, I thought she was just expressing her bias, as she was an arts student at the Masaryk University. I too had my biases: I just could not imagine government dominated by artisans.
This life incident re-emerged from my memory banks with an article by Ray Katz. Ray is a climate change activist. He also believes that we older people need to yield the reins of governance to the younger generation, as he believes they have the ideas and resolve to make the changes we need to make. They certainly have more at stake than we older people. Ray used a music video to make his point. He has two young people — Maggie and Zach — performing the folk song “New World Coming.”
From this video, I saw Maggie as a good singer. Zach is a competent guitar picker. A little internet surfing suggests this duo is making a living with their music, but they are not getting rich or famous. Nothing wrong with that.
Being familiar with Ray’s writings, I started wondering if Ray believed these two young people would be his example of young people we should be electing. If so, then Ray is right on one level. By performing this particular song, it’s easy to believe that Maggie and Zach have better intentions for the world than many of today’s politicians.
But there is another angle to consider. Neither of these two young people just showed up in front of video camera and belted out the song — as if it was a natural thing for young people with right intentions to do. Both of them had spent thousands of hours to bring their musical skills up to a level to deliver a good performance. They have learned how to make music together. They probably spent several hours rehearsing and enhancing that one-minute song that we got to experience. In other words, there is a lot of work behind their works.
If we need time and effort to develop a musical career, should not the same investment be made for a political career? So why do we expect we can just plunk the right person into politics and expect him or her to perform admirably and effectively? Are we really this naïve?
We may think that public speaking is an important skill in today’s politics. And Maggie and Zach’s stage experience is probably giving them skills in this regard. But there is so much more to politics than public speaking. Many of the necessary attributes are not seen by most voters. I have written “Life Inside a Political Party” to explain some of the forces that shape politics.
To summarize “Life Inside a Political Party,” politics is about first acquiring some status, influence, and power — and then implementing some of your good intentions for society. But getting to that influential position is very competitive — and many aspiring politicians never reach it.
Would Maggie and Zach want to move their good intentions into politics? Methinks they will be content to stay on the folk music circuit, hoping their music somehow moves voters and elected politicians in a rightful way. If Maggie and Zach do move into politics, they will find themselves in a much different world than looking for musical gigs. All their good intentions will not be enough for them to succeed in politics.
Would other young people take on this responsibility? Eventually, they will. But to find positions of influence, they would have to embrace many of the principles of “Life Inside a Political Party.” In essence, the current system is training the new people in the ways of the old people. Is this really progress?
The question we should be asking is how do we unleash people with good intentions without having them first navigate through the Machiavellian minefield much too common in western democracies?
Well, I have a solution for that. I have invented an alternative democracy, which I have called “Tiered Democratic Governance” (TDG).
Tiered Democratic Governance
Just like young musicians need to acquire skills for a musical career, TDG representatives will have to acquire a different set of political skills to make the TDG work. The more important of these skills are consultation, collaboration, and consensus to reach collective decisions. There is no charging headfirst to implement rigid opinions in the TDG.
Here’s the kicker:
None.of.us.have.the.necessary.skills.to.make.this.new.democracy.work.
None.of.us.
Myself.included.
So we will have to learn these skills. Building this alternative democracy will be the forum where we can learn, practice, and enhance this new way of doing politics. By being outside of the “current way,” the TDG will not have that current way interfering with the development that this new democracy must go through.
We will learn how to cast aside our desire to implement our own agenda. We will understand why we must listen to other people to find the more effective solutions.
Ray’s article provided us a modern cover of “New World Coming” by modern artists. But it was 1970 when Cass Elliot put this song into the pop charts.
Here is the Youtube link to the 1970 version.
Today is 2023.
Let’s do some math.
It’s been 53 years since this song provided its positive message.
Fifty-three years ago.
Fifty-three years ago.
Maggie and Zach were not born when this song came out.
Fifty-three years ago.
And where are we today?
Should we not conclude that this song did not generate the results the song envisioned?
What went wrong in these 53 years?
Here is my hypothesis:
This song (and other songs like it) lulled people from the 1970s to feel change would come without much effort.
So we only hoped and wished and put out happy thoughts.
Songs about peace, harmony, and love made us feel too comfortable.
Unfortunately, we are still carrying that approach today.
Here is my solution:
We have to get to work. We have to build this new TDG democracy.
If we are still in the hoping and wishing mode of thinking, then history suggests we should expect another 53 years of not realizing the vision and potential of these songs.
As I alluded to earlier, Maggie and Zach would have to develop some new political skills to find political success in western democracy.
But the TDG dynamic is different. Maggie and Zach need only present themselves as they are to their neighbors. If enough neighbors believe that Maggie or Zach are suitable to be the neighborhood TDG representative, then votes will be cast in Maggie’s or Zach’s direction. Maggie and Zach earn their votes on their own merit. They need not campaign or join a political party.
If either Maggie or Zach gets the most votes, they get the position for one year. If they are to rise in the TDG, they will have to demonstrate good skills in TDG governance. Maybe Maggie and Zach already have these skills. If not, then being in the lowest tier of the TDG will be a good place to learn and practice.
Maggie and Zach are probably travelling musicians. So they might not have the free evenings and weekends to serve effectively on the lowest tier of the TDG. There is nothing wrong with that; the TDG will find other capable people in the next election. Or maybe Maggie and Zach will find ways to attend most TDG meetings. Regardless of being elected or how well they serve, Maggie and Zach could still be great spokespeople for the TDG in their public appearances. They may even offer a free concert now and then to the TDG. For sure, they will be wise voters to elect their neighborhood representative.
Back to Velvet Revolution
My Czech girlfriend had the right attributes. She was kind of quiet, yet kind of assertive. She liked chatting with her neighbors. Her intentions were in the right place. Maybe we do need more artisans in governance.
She would not last long in the internal workings of western democracy.
She would be a vibrant contributor in TDG governance.
Published on Medium 2023
