To clarify up front: I am addressing these thoughts basically to anyone who wants to count as an equal citizen in our nations and our world, but primarily to those with the time and means on their hand to engage – they carry a particular responsibility. I am also primarily communicating these thoughts to fellow citizens living in nations in which one can still express one’s opinions freely without fear of being imprisoned, tortured, and killed. My deepest respect to those who fight for their freedom, for equal rights, dignity, and democracy despite such oppressive circumstances.

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A society needs a functioning system to organise itself.

Especially in difficult times it is important that this system works effectively, or ideally optimally, for society to stand a chance to cope with the severe challenges it is facing. Without an effective system to organise itself, society must end up in chaos and probably destruction.

Democracy is government by the people, by you and me, by all of us together. It is an invaluable gift but, even if we might have thought so and taken it for granted for many years, the gift does not come for free.

“Government by the people” means, you and I, we all together are responsible to make the system with which we govern work effectively. We must take time to engage.

If you want to be a person of equal rights with everyone else and if you want to protect your personal interests in a society, you must carry equal responsibility in the task of making the system with which we organise society, the system with which we identify, weigh, and solve public policy issues, effective.

So far, you might consider yourself powerless and as not having much influence on such “big issues” as politics and democracy.

But the key for you to become effective as an individual citizen in making democracy work for society, is to join your individual power and resources with others who also want to make the system, with which we organise society, work effectively for the people.

Joining forces and resources means in practical terms that if you want to maintain a  functioning democracy and a decent society, especially in hard times, you must create and join a “Democracy Society” or “Democracy Network” in your community and town. This is already being done and happening, it is feasible. And your network must join up with others to form an effective national Democracy Network capable to make democracy work for the people.  (We actually also need effective supra-regional Democracy Networks and even an effective common Global Democracy Network.)

Creating and joining such a Democracy Network in your community is especially important if you have children and grand-children and if you want them to be able to live in a sound and decent world. It is important for anyone who cares about leaving our societies and the world in a good state for future generations.

Systems Thinking tells us that no system works effectively without the stakeholder behind the system shaping it effectively and driving its performance. (Any entrepreneur and restaurant owner knows this.)

Democracy is government by us the people as equals. This means it is us personally who must shape our political system in such a way that it complies with our needs and expectations as citizens. It is us personally who must create an effective system to supervise the performance of our democratic system.

Many people protest against something in our time, be it against the cost of living, immigration, wars, or the destruction of our planet through humanity. But protests are only “against” something, they are not constructive, they do not build what we need as a society, a highly effective system to organise society and to solve the problems we are facing.

Democracy all over the world is in grave danger. If you want to maintain a decent society and a decent world for yourself and for later generations, you must join in an effort to make the system with which we organise our society work as effectively and efficiently as only possible.

Your society and the world depend on you now joining up with fellow citizens in taking this step.

We will discuss in our next entry, what our Democracy Society or Democracy Network needs to do to achieve the aim of making democracy effective and to maintain democracy in a sound state.