About providing a means to break from the entrenched system and begin the transformative journey back to our heritage of inclusive democracy.

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Silos

If you are from the Midwest, you grew up with silos scattered across the landscape to store crops and protect them from the environment. Some crops are left to ferment slowly in the silo turning into silage to feed the livestock. Other silos are simply to store harvests for transportation later. They are good for what they do, but they can also be dangerous, producing deadly fumes. Their ultimate value is to use the content of the silo for something useful in the outside world.

More recently we have a more modern version of the silo as silo mentality, commonly described as separate entities that stockpile information and resources and effectively seal it in. It is in this context that I want to discuss the dozens, if not hundreds or even thousands of organizations that are formed to combat perceived flaws in the current systems of governance and economics. I am referring to local, state and national groups formed to deal with environmental issues, or with social justice issues, or with political reform, or any number of very noble causes.

Within each of these groups you have like-minded, and often passionate people who are willing to work tirelessly on a particular issue hoping to make a significant change and to gather other supporters as well as financial and other available resources to move their cause forward. In order to have the most effect, they focus their attention on one issue, although they may care about several others that are also of importance. If they do not focus, they will simply become too scattered to be very effective. They build up an entire justification for the primacy of their cause.

Other causes and organizations operate in much the same way, and the result is that, in the communities in which they exist, every group is drawing from the same pool of resources, creating a sense of competition and perhaps even frustration.

Such a process has created a set of silos within the communities and across the state and nation. Silos supporting the same cause may communicate and perhaps share resources, but the communication between silos erected for other causes is not very good or very effective since they are in competition for the same resources. They are also in competition for the attention of the same decision-makers.

Now, it is easy to see that all of their issues are of importance and would make a difference in our lives if dealt with adequately, and each group probably feels that its cause should be the first to be dealt with.

The 99%

Taking a step back, let us consider the larger problem confronting us. How can the 1% continue to dominate the 99% in terms of policy, direction and social consequences? If you stop to visualize the nation dotted with silos, you can see why. The 99% have separated into 99 different projects and each has their own isolated silo, or set of silos, trying to make what they see as the necessary changes.

The 1%

Now step back even farther and see the total environment in which these silos are located. We are living in a political and economic environment that has been developed and established over several decades and is dominated by an economic elite in which value and worth are determined by economics and power. That system has existed for so long that it has become entrenched and is pretty much immune to any attempts at any substantive change. It now controls the economic life of the society, the politics, and the internal structure of nearly all of the institutions of the society. The system is enclosed in a protective wall. That wall is nearly impregnable and is built stronger every day as the elite find more ways to thwart any changes except those that give them more power or wealth.

This entrenched system even has an effective way to deal with those within the silos who are working so diligently for change. They commend those who want change on their hard and noble work and perhaps give them some small or partial victory. They also remind them that, in what they refer to as "our democracy", the other ways to get change have proscribed processes, one of which is to elect those who support that change in great enough numbers to be able to get a bill through Congress, have the President sign it and the Supreme Court sign off on it. They fail to remind us how completely they control that political process. They may even offer jobs or other rewards within their system, to some of the most effective leaders developed in the silo.

The existing system is based on abstract values of wealth and power and kept in place with propaganda, manipulation and intimidation. What all of these other issues are about is a return to a humanizing focus, which is the very heart of democracy

Alternatives

If you step even farther back, you may be able to see that there is a limit to the extent of that system, and, although they say the edges of that system cannot be crossed since nothing of value exists beyond those borders and life could not exist "out there". Perhaps you may glimpse something familiar "out there", or some of the older folks remember living "out there". They remember that life was different and perhaps better, "out there". You may even see that there are people actually living "out there".

Numbers

The one thing that has, by now, become quite apparent is that numbers matter. Unions succeeded and created the American middle class by unified action that could not be ignored. This gave ordinary people, the workers, a voice that required attention politically.

Here comes the interesting part. How can we get all those noble causes coming together to travel in the same direction to make all of their causes realistically possible?

What is missing in the environment of the current system, is democracy. This is not an unknown idea in this nation. It has simply been ignored and weakened in the pursuit for power and control by an economic elite. The economic elite have built a nearly impregnable system to protect their power and have pretty much walled out the ordinary citizens, making decision-making an elitist project.

We know that there must be some way to get back to our democratic heritage and we have caught glimpses of it frequently enough to know that it still exists, but it is located outside the environment of this current system.

************************************ The Train

How can this change occur? What is an appropriate vehicle? It is the train. We can still see the old tracks that lead back to our democratic heritage and some of the old engines still exist and are now being refurbished. And there are plenty of train cars for us.

The unifying idea is that none of these noble issues will succeed in the current system until a real democracy is restored. The clarion call is "Democracy First" so that there is an inclusive process for resolving these humanizing issues. So, the train back to sanity is the trusty "Democracy Local" that takes us back to the democratic environment of our past. When we realize that if we all help fuel that train and couple our cars to that train, that train will be immense; it will represent the united power of the 99% that cannot be stopped.

This train is the means to take all these diverse resources to the political marketplace.

Even within the present system the economic aristocracy will have to take notice. Politicians, above all else, know how to count. When they see so many of their constituents boarding that train back to democracy, they will rethink their positions if they want to survive. There will be other representatives who welcome that new direction and elections will once again begin to reflect the will of the ordinary citizens.

So, what is the "All Aboard" impetus, the inspiration? It is the realization that no change can occur within the environment of the present system. That system simply will not allow it if things remain as they are.

So how do we get their attention? An old phrase is that "Boots on the ground trump money in the bank." We just need to consolidate the 99% while still allowing them to value and protect the hard work they put into their issues.

All that is required is that all passengers are willing to give some of their energy and resources to fuel the engine taking the train back to democracy, because they understand that without a government of the people, by the people and for the people, any significant progress on any of their individual issues is very unlikely.

There will be individual train cars for the members of each silo. How many cars will environmental supporters fill? How many cars will be filled with those who are working on social issues? How many cars will be filled with those working on political reform. How many cars will be filled with each of the other issues? There will also be cars for those who support the change and the journey but who do not operate within any silo. All who want to go back to a sustainable democracy will be welcome. We will surprise the nation and ourselves.

The silos will empty, and the train cars will fill. The isolation will be broken. The transformation will occur, and the journey will begin. We will once again be able to work together to solve problems and build a sustainable future. And all of this will be driven by the engines of change fueled by the simple resources of the ordinary citizens, a renewable resource, leaving behind the pretense of energy through domination and wealth.

And not a moment too soon.

Authors Website: http://substack.com/@bobpassi

Authors Bio:

I have been a lifelong observer of American democracy and a passionate advocate for civic engagement and social responsibility. Born at the start of World War II, I grew up witnessing the high points of the New Deal, the promise of postwar democracy, and the slow erosion of those ideals in the decades since. I am a retired educator, consultant, and social commentator, and I am able to bring decades of reflection and historical perspective to my work.
My new book is Saving Democracy: From the Warnings of 2016 to the Urgency of 2025, an updated and expanded edition of his original 2016 book that examines how the United States arrived at its current political crossroads-- and how citizen action can help reclaim the democratic promise.
I writes regularly at www.perspectives-bobpassi.org and on Substack at bobpassi.substack.com, where I write about democracy, personal empowerment, and the deeper cultural narratives shaping our time.