“You Tell Me It’s the Institution…”
A Classic Study in Institutions
In 1971, a Stanford psychology professor gathered twenty-four undergraduates for an experiment studying the psychology of prisoners and prison guards. By the end of six days, the “Stanford Prison Experiment” had to be stopped because of the severe abuse and mental disturbances that arose in both the “prisoners” and the “guards.” Guards became exceedingly cruel, despite not being allowed to physically injure prisoners, but figured out ways to cause suffering and humiliation to the prisoners anyway. Prisoners, at first rebellious, became frightened and docile, accepting the abuse given by the guards. But none of the people involved were beforehand found to be prone to this sort of behavior. All subjects were selected as the most mentally and emotionally stable of the original pool of volunteers, and were assigned randomly to the roles of “prisoner” and “guard.” The subjects» were acting out the roles and norms that inhere in the institution of prisons. These were not evil or crazy people. Rather, the evil came out of placing human beings in a collection of roles and norms – collections called institutions – to which human beings may be ill-suited. Keep reading >>
This is What Democracy Looks Like: Communal Councils
We here at Philosophyhelmet bring you the latest in democracy! Venezuela’s communal councils, assemblies of hundreds of citizens for the administration of their own neighborhoods, are at the forefront of democratic rejuvenation in the world. Communal councils originated in the attempt of the Venezuelan government to institutionalize participatory budgeting after adoption of Venezuela’s new democratic constitution in 1999. The government sought to establish administrative organs in municipalities called Local Public Planning Councils that would be the site of participatory budgeting. However, you can’t legislate democratic participation, only cultivate it. By 2005, the Planning Councils had been conquered by municipal bureaucracy. Yet already existing were a multitude of community organizations – local committees for health, education, etc. In 2006, the National Assembly provided “communal councils” to unite all of the diverse local committees into singular self-managing neighborhood assemblies of citizens. Today, (perhaps) one-third of all Venezuelans have organized themselves into communal councils. Keep reading >>
This is What Democracy Looks Like: Participatory Budgeting
I’ve been promising discussions on genuine and innovative democratic institutions since the beginning of this blog. I don’t want this blog to be just a litany of the world’s alterable problems, and then say, “We’ve got to start thinking of solutions.” Too many people do that. Here there are solutions. They are solutions that address the root of problems, the structure of society and institutions. Keep reading >>
The Democracy of Ancient Athens
It is commonly claimed that the story of democracy begins in ancient Athens, but this is pretty clearly false. Generalizing from technically simpler cultures still existing or having been recorded before their destruction by Europeans, democracy in various direct forms was probably pretty widespread in early human history. The turn towards authoritarianism in human societies has been speculated to have been the result of sudden shifts in the material basis of that society. The ways and means of getting what is needed to live were rapidly eroded, perhaps due to various changes in local ecosystems. But I’m no anthropologist. What is important about Athens is that it is one of the best recorded democracies available, and one of the most extensive. The ancient polis is the paradigmatic democracy. Keep reading >>
5 Myths in American Politics
Hard times can make people pretty crazy. Instead of steeling themselves and putting their mind to solving their (in our case, myriad) problems, they can do a whole lot of frothing and screaming crazy nonsense. Here are just five of myths that remain ideological obstacles to solving our many, many current problems. Keep reading >>
A Sample Declaration of Rights for the United States
I have added a sample “Declaration of Rights” that might serve as a model for a future such bill of rights for the United States. The “Sample Declaration” can be found in the Reading Room for your reading pleasure. I attempted to address all the failures of our current government regarding the protection and advancement of our rights and liberties, which is why the document is so long. This is what we the people have coming to us, though, and have had coming for some time, even if it’s been denied. Only collective mass political action can make it real. Keep reading >>
The United States is Not a Democracy
We do not think of our Constitution as something that we can alter to improve its procedures, to meet our own needs, or to assert our rights. Americans, alone in the world, declare our constitution to be sacred and unchangeable, with only a handful of amendments in 223 years. When someone brings up democracy in the United States, somebody will pull out that tired cliché, “the Founders» established a republic, not a democracy.” And they would be right – the United States has claimed the mantle of democracy without actually achieving it, but this is not the whole story. The Founders did talk about founding a “republic,” even though they did not have any good idea what that meant, besides not being a democracy. They wanted an oligarchy» ; they didn’t want YOU to govern yourself. These Founders, we have been repeatedly told, sat down in Philadelphia, in 1787, with august wisdom and omnipotent foresight, to draft the Constitution of the United States that would last forever. But, in fact, this was not predetermined, and the eleven years that passed between the Revolution and writing of the Constitution was one in which our democratic forefathers and the aristocrats we call the Founders struggled for supremacy. Keep reading >>
How to Enhance Your Memory for Significant Moments in Your Life
We attach great importance to memories. We collect pictures and other mementos to help us remember significant events in our lives: weddings, funerals, the birth of a child, family reunions. These mementos help us to retrieve our memories, re-experience them and share them with other people. Your memories tell the story of your life.
Not every moment of a person’s life is memorable. Sometimes I find myself unable to recall what I was thinking a moment ago or what I did yesterday. Sometimes the days blend together. When I’m asked: what did you do over the weekend, it may be a real chore to figure that out.
The inability to remember day-to-day events in your life (what psychologists call episodic memory) has a bearing on your self-conception. It is difficult to live deliberately if you can’t remember what you’ve done.
Few of us can remember everything we do. Nor do we necessarily want to remember everything. We want to remember the significant moments. How do we do that? Keep reading >>
The Devil in Haiti
As you know, Haiti was recently struck by a tremendous earthquake. While any place would be devastated by an earthquake over 7.0 on the Richter scale, it was particularly destructive of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, which had become a vast shanty-town during the latter half of the twentieth century. The earthquake was severe, but it was Haiti’s extraordinary poverty that made the natural disaster so horrible. But why is Haiti so poor, after all this time? And what can be done to cure such poverty? Keep reading >>
Health Care Reform and Two Freedoms
The health care reform bill has recently been the subject of a ridiculous show called a “health care summit.” The proposed reform is mostly garbage. It does next to nothing to stem the rising costs of health care imposed by the private health insurance system. Even worse, it imposes penalties for not having health insurance; this is the Massachusetts model that is currently failing after only a few years of operation. The reason we supposedly have this wretched bill is because Americans won’t accept “government health care,” despite numerous polls consistently showing large majorities over decades showing that we would, and that we would pay higher taxes for it. Keep reading >>
