Chapter 3b
Our Process Is Our Most Important Policy
Being democratic is our most important task

Any politically oriented group will naturally seek to establish an agenda of positions and policies. Sub-groups will naturally advocate for positions and policies that represent their own interests. Coalitions and factions will form, to align their influence and votes so that their shared interests will prevail. Strife will inevitably occur, as even if people remain dedicated to moral enlightenment, honest and sincere disagreements will animate our human passions.

If we accept that Democracy is a means of sharing power, and that strife is inevitable among humans that seek to share power, then we must deduce that Democracy must provide the means for people to disagree. Democracy must provide the means for people to hash out their disagreements in a manner that all will perceive as equitable. If a democratic system fails in that regard, Democracy will break down, strife will accelerate into open conflict, the strongest will grab whatever power they can, and the weakest will either leave, (if possible), or else will stew in an angry festering resentment that will infect the entire body politic. Moral enlightenment will be completely obscured.

In a nation the weakest cannot easily leave, (although in extreme conditions many do), but in an organization, that is what will happen. Once Democracy breaks down, and the strongest no longer have regard for the interests of the weaker, the latter will simply leave. The organization will hence be smaller and weaker, and the interests of all, the stronger and weaker alike, will be harmed.

It is very hard for many, especially those among the strongest faction(s), to see that in an organization it is not just the weakest that are harmed when Democracy breaks down. Those whose selfish regard for their own stronger interests, and lack of regard for the weaker interests of others, caused the organization to grow smaller and weaker, will be harmed as well. (A falling tide lowers all boats).

If Democracy is to be successful in its primary purpose and goal, which is to facilitate a group’s disagreements in order to protect it from undue conflict, so that it can identify and adopt policies that are acceptable to all, then the group must resolve from the outset, and must constantly and assiduously reinforce that resolve, that Democracy itself is the group’s most important policy.


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