I know we are supposed to read this article and contemplate it as a whole as we would poetry or art, so I hope I am not breaking the rules when I pull the following statement out of the article for more in depth conversation.
"When citizens (on either side of the gate) are daily and thoroughly seperated from those who are 'different' from them (in terms of race or class, homelessness or joblessness), it requires an inhuman amount of imagination to have a genuinely democratic public." (Bickford, 363)
"The United States is the longest-surviving extant constitutional republic, with the oldest wholly written constitution in the world. Its government relies on representative democracy through a congressional system under a set of powers specified by its Constitution. However, it is "not a simple representative democracy, but a constitutional republic in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law." (Wikipedia) I might need a refresher course on how to quote sources
I would argue that if we lived in a genuinely democratic polity the divergence in which the author writes would be greater. While we like to blame our elected representatives for the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, I can't imagine what this country would look like if we trusted every issue to the will of an uninformed and generally uncaring democratic public.
I'm sorry Paul, I guess that means you'll need to continue to live on that farm 35 minutes from the city if you want your neighbors to watch your kids jump on your trampoline. Of course with 10 acreas in Johnstown... I have a friend that is a developer... we could write into the CC&R's that trampolines are OK!!! We haven't met yet, so I should let you know that I am just having fun!! But it kinda adds to my argument. Good Night All!
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2 comments:
Karrick,
I think that you hit the nail on the head so to speak. the United States is NOT the democratic polity that Bickford argues we live in. This is a solid point, in my opinion, that was swimming around in my brain and you put into words.
~R
Given our diversity, one of the things I'd love to see more of is a greater breadth in the kinds of housing we provide. Think of cars... I can buy a minivan if I've got six kids, or a station wagon if I've got two dogs and some mountain bikes, or a Boxster if I want to blaze around on the country roads, or a Hummer if I have... umm... masculine compensation issues. But our housing is more and more alike, based on market norms. Real estate people I know say that the more unusual a house is, the harder they have to work to sell it (even to the point of intense colors for walls or drapes). We seem to want big beige separated boxes.
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