Democracy Versus Citadelization

I am writing this on election day in the US.  Democracy is defined as majority rule whereas citadelization is the atomization of rule into many autonomous layers closest to purpose and action.  Even though the US is not a true democracy (it is a representative democracy), exploring the relationship and opposition between the two is helpful to reveal how the two strategies of majority rule and citadelization co-existing is healthier than one alone.

Democracy’s main ally is personal wealth and well-being. There is no valid argument against the fact that our representative democracy within western civilization has brought wealth and abundance here in America and worldwide.  There is also no valid argument against the fact that in the process the world has become more homogenized and many unique cultures have been willingly or forcefully abandoned for the hopes of a single lifestyle and culture as expressed by the west. And no one can argue that this apparent abundance has not been fueled by debts at all levels that can never be repaid.

Citadelization’s main ally is the Constitution with its Bill of Rights. The original colonies and first states would not ratify the constitution that created our current form of representative democracy without the specific amendments added to the constitution known as the Bill of Rights.  These rights specifically limited the ability of a democratic tyranny over citizens’ individual rights and freedoms.  At the same time,  there was the acknowledgment that the Articles of Confederation were not strong enough to create a unified country whose laws within the continent would not allow for competing citadels to be created and maintained.  Another Europe of persistent warfare was to be avoided even if it meant other compromises.

Recently, both the left and the right have serious concerns about our democratic representation being hijacked by corporate and special interests imposing divisive policies for their benefit and using the tools of government and media to propagandize a majority to enact laws that rule all.  Abortion rights and vaccine mandates are the latest grievances from opposite sides of the political spectrum where “my body, my choice” should create an alliance within a growing distrust and disgust of a captured government.  Instead, we see the effects of mind control and manipulation keeping the two wings of populism from uniting in co-empowerment.

Unity comes from a common culture.  North Korea is a common culture captured and manufactured by the state.  Democracy can be a tool of enslavement too.  How many perfectly healthy human cells have been enslaved by and killed by a rogue mind that has captured the democracy of the individual human?  A human’s main counter to this propensity of an organization to evolve into majority rule (and all its horror stories) is to escape through separation and division, when possible.

So like a human cell born within an organization we cannot escape, modern humans can no longer run to some open and free land to escape tyranny.  Majority rule and personal self-interest, democracy and citadelization must align for an individual cell or a citizen to thrive.  We must find our proper place of service guided from within.  At the same time, we must find our own tribe because humanity has always been a group project. There is too much advantage to grouping to walk off into the wilderness alone if we still could.

Democracy and individual rights will always be in opposition except where there is a larger purpose expressed by a common culture that both an individual and a majority can surrender to. The solution that life has forced upon humanity is to collectivize into citadels of self-policing, and self-interest. When westerners showed up on the North American continent that is the balance they discovered.  Small tribes that grew or diminished based upon common purpose, open communication and good leadership. 

When superior cohesion through the attractive forces of win-win cooperation arises then that group becomes a small zero point for more and more humans to coalesce around.  The Muslims did it with religion to great success. The West did it with technological superiority.  And as long as the culture remains connected to the zero point like the eye of a hurricane it can remain an organizing and expanding force.

It appears the west has reached the end of the road of technological domination with its promise of material abundance now sustained upon more and more debt.  Democracy has become a fight over limited resources and the natural result is a fallback to citadels of self-interest and co-empowerment.  

This makes me sad. But so does the idea of death. Even though I fully understand the renewing power of death, I feel it a failure to find reconciliation into a greater form of life and harmony.  It appears, now, on this morning after election day that the promise of renewal into a new and greater harmony is less likely simply because there seems to be a diminished ability for our democracy to express the vitality of strong feedback and change upon our democracy.  

Citadelization it is then.