The new state : $b Group organization the solution of popular governmentFollett, Mary Parker
Science
The new state : $b Group organization the solution of popular government
Follett, Mary Parker
Democracy; Political participation; Social psychology; State, The
The whole conception of discussion is now changing. Discussion is to be
the sharpest, most effective political tool of the future. The value of
the town-meeting is not in the fact that every one goes, but in what
every one does when he gets there. And discussion will overcome much
indifference, much complacency. We must remember that most people are
not for or against anything; the first object of getting people together
is to make them respond somehow, to overcome inertia. To disagree, as
well as to agree, with people brings you closer to them. I always feel
intimate with my enemies. It is not opposition but indifference which
separates men.
Another advantage of discussion in regular meetings of neighbors is that
men discuss questions there before they come to a political issue, when
there is not the heat of the actual fight and the desire to win.
Through regular meetings then, and a genuine discussion, we help to
forge the neighborhood bond. But this is not enough. A true community
life should be developed. If the multiplicity and complexity of
interrelations of interests and wants and hopes are to be brought to the
surface to form the substance of politics, people must come more and
more to live their lives together. We are ignorant: we should form
classes and learn together. The farmer in Virginia goes to the School
Centre to learn how to test his seed corn. We need social intercourse:
we should meet to exchange experiences and to have a “good time”
together. We need opportunity for bringing old and young together,
parents and children, for boys and girls to meet in a natural, healthy
way. We need true recreation, not the passive looking at the motion
pictures, not the deadening watching of other people’s acting; we want
the real re-creation of active participation. The leisure time of men
and women is being increased by legislation, by vocational efficiency,
by machinery, and by scientific management. One of the most pressing
needs of to-day is the constructive use of leisure. This need can be
largely satisfied in the Neighborhood Centre. Festivals, pageants, the
celebration of holidays can all be used as recreation, as a means of
self-expression, and of building up the neighborhood bond.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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