Personal Democracy Forum Intro

I am sitting at the Personal Democracy Forum in New York City. I took the train down this morning, and on the train, I reflected on my weekend, on the people on the train, and my expectations of the conference. Here are my initial thoughts, as blogged from the conference.

At age fourteen, she stands to deliver a monologue which references G. Gordon Liddy. She holds her hand over the imaginary candle and talks about Liddy’s will not to feel the pain. She has been brought up in a rich community with fancy clothes and private school, yet she feels the pain of the imaginary candle that Liddy willed to ignore. She feels the pain of all the candle symbolizes more deeply than a privileged teen needs to.

The old oriental man sits quietly, confidently and contentedly at the piano recital. His son sits next to him in a pose of chiseled ambition. His daughters rise to struggle their way through their piano pieces

On the train into the city, ennui settles in as all the businessmen, and some women read the daily newspapers’ mixture of death and destruction, sex and sophistication, and a smattering of news and business.

‘The masses of men lead lives of quiet desperation’. ‘The masses wish to be deceived’. Today, I am taking the train into the city to attend a conference entitled, ‘Personal Democracy Forum’.

Jefferson said that democracy requires an informed populace. Are these the voters we are trying to sway, the people we are trying to inform, or as the more cynical say, the consumers we are trying to reach? How do we reach them?

There is the story of the great explorer looking at Africa as a sleeping giant. When asked if it should be woken, he said, no, let it sleep. Do we let the tired businessmen sleep on the train? Or do we wake people up? If so, how do we apply balm to the teenager’s hand without disturbing the old oriental man’s quite confident contentment?

Posted by Aldon Hynes at May 24, 2004 8:19 AM | TrackBack