Do You REALLY Know What 'Democracy' Means?

But if fundamental conflicts are never resolved peaceably by democracy, then what is democracy all about? The answer to this question is that democracy, meaning a way for people to settle differences peaceably with every citizen having equal status in the process, can only apply to people among whom there is no fundamental conflict. Non-fundamental conflicts, in contrast to fundamental ones, can indeed be resolved peaceably by compromises worked out with some kind of majority-rule or consensus rule system.

Democracy, therefore, makes sense when applied to the vast majority of Americans who agree on the fundamental values of equality and mutual aid. Democracy should be thought of as the way people with these shared fundamental values make decisions with every one of these citizens having an equal status in the process. It is the way they reach compromises when there are differing views. It is the way they decide how to shape society by their shared values. And it is the way they decide how to apply force, when necessary, against those who oppose their shared fundamental values.

In a true democracy, the people in it understand that it is based on certain shared fundamental values. They understand that their democracy is of, by and for the people who share those fundamental values; it is not of, by or for the people who oppose those values. To think that their democracy is of, by and for absolutely everybody would be a big misunderstanding.

An egalitarian revolution has the goal of creating a true democracy of, by and for the great majority of people who want to abolish class inequality and shape society by the values of equality and mutual aid. Equality means people have equal status both economically and politically: equal status with respect to enjoying the wealth of society and equal status with respect to making social and economic decisions that affect them; mutual aid means that people help each other as friends rather than compete against each another as enemies. Those who disagree with these fundamental values, who think society should have a privileged wealthy minority on top of everybody else, or that people should be pitted against each other to make them more controllable, are not welcome members of the democracy for which egalitarian revolution aims.

For more about egalitarian revolution please visit www.PDRBoston.org .

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