Municipal Election - Reflections on Communities, Individualism and Citizenship

“He said he wouldn’t meet with us, because we are an advocacy organization, and he wants to meet with real Calgarians, with actual communities and that he does this through door knocking.” 

How strange to hear this response to a community organizing alliance. How strange it is to hear this during an election campaign when one of the parties is called “Communities First”

Our Ward Teams have heard a response along this line from several candidates, which makes me wonder if this is something they have been trained to say or if this reflects something far darker - a loss of community, citizenship and democracy. 

 

At the heart of democracy is this belief that people can be citizens - that is, that people can take responsibility for our shared public life and be a part of the decision-making process. For this to exist, there is the assumption that people are not isolated individuals, but that they are already organized into communities. Functioning communities have structure and form; they are to some degree organized. This structure and form enable communities to come together and create a public realm (where they can debate and address polis, the root of politics), with their shared issues. 

It is great in theory, but in practice, it is fragile. A democratic public life has always been threatened by those who will use their power to dominate this public space - whether through the manipulation of communication (propaganda) or more cruder forms of “power over” and violence. 

The greatest threat, though, comes from the citizens themselves. Hannah Arendt, in her classic - On Totalitarianism - wrote how when people become isolated and unthoughtful, this becomes fertile ground for the rise of totalitarianism. The isolated individual or family sequestered in their homes, fed managed communications, isolated on their doorstep, listening to someone’s job pitch,  is not a real community, or a real democracy - on its own, this sort of isolationist democracy’s great threat because of how it opens people to manipulation and control. 

Community Organizing arose in the 1930s as a way of revitalizing democracy. It recognized that communities to thrive, they need to already be organized into institutions like faith communities, unions, community associations . . . These, in turn, must be organized so that they can stand up to those who would accumulate power to serve their own interests instead of the common good. All of this depends on people being both citizens and leaders. That is to take responsibility for our common life, and to do the relational work of gathering people together for action. 

No, an individual on their doorstep is not what democracy looks like. Democracy looks like citizens standing with teachers so that we can all have a quality public education system. Democracy looks like people from across our city sitting in a meeting, trying to figure out how everyone can have economic opportunities in our city. Democracy looks like our Mayoral forum - where we gather as communities to ask candidates if they will commit to work with communities to address the issues that citizens have together prioritized (not issues designed as wedge issues to get votes). 

Democracy matters - but it rests on organized communities, organized citizens, and leaders committed to the common good.