Financial Resource

society. Functional civil society must be constituted by the broadest possible array of educated, dedicated, engaged, principled, informed citizens. And in the absence of thoroughly educated, dedicated, engaged, principled, informed citizens, you and I will have to do the best we can along with everybody else. The other option is the oligarchic rule of experts and elites, which is the antithesis of civil society. Sadly, the proliferation of experts and the dependence upon them actually damages civil society by spreading apathy, passivity, voluntary disenfranchisement, and silence.

The Emancipation of Civil Society

We live in an expanding universe. Our societies face profound change, serious challenges and unique opportunities. Technological, social, political and economic change offer us innovations as well as disruptions. In order to grasp opportunities as well as manage and solve problems, we need to build stronger communities of engaged citizens. Among a variety of new opportunities, the internet provides us with new spaces to speak and powerful new ways to broadcast our voices. Healthy civil society needs to be emancipated from experts in order to enable the widest possible participation. Civil society, activism, public debate and good governance must be practiced, not lectured or taught.

Complex problems and opportunities require the engagement and commitment of a knowledgeable, responsibility civil society. We must be willing to examine and evaluate many positions. We must be willing to debate, to disagree, and eventually to compromise. Experts are often necessary to this process. But they should not dominate it; and we cannot apathetically surrender the process to experts. A large, diverse, engaged body of citizens is more valuable than any number of experts. Our societies need the combined wisdom, energy, interest and passion of multitudes. We live in an expanding universe. There is room in the expanding universe for each of us to engage and speak and act. But the growing specialization and technicality of the expanding universe can be daunting. Experts can amplify those fears – to everyone’s detriment. We cannot allow experts to rule the expanding universe.

Pages: 1 2