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
Neighborhood organization must then take the place of party
organization. The neighborhood group will answer many of the questions
we have put to a party organization which has remained deaf to our
importunities, dumb to all our entreaties. We have asked for bread and
received the stone times without number. The rigid formality of the
party means stultification, annihilation. But group politics, made of
the very stuff of life, of the people of the groups, will express the
inner, intimate, ardent desires of spontaneous human beings, and will
contain within its circumference the possibility of the fullest
satisfaction of those desires. Group organization gives a living,
pulsing unity made up of the minds and hearts and seasoned judgments of
vital men and women. Such organization is capable of unbroken growth.
And when this vine of life, which sends its roots where every two or
three are gathered together, has rooted itself in the neighborhood,
faithful care, sedulous watching, loving ministration will appear with
it, will be the natural way of living. Its impalpable bonds hold us
together, and although we may differ on countless questions, instead of
flying asunder we work out the form in political life which will shelter
us and supply our needs. Faithfulness to the neighborhood bond must take
the place of allegiance to party. Loyalty to a party is loyalty to a
thing—we want a living politics in which loyalty is always intrinsic.
And from the strength of this living bond shall come the power of our
united life. Always the actor, never the spectator, is the rule of the
new democracy. Always the sharer, never the giver or the receiver, is
the order of our new life.
Do you think the neighborhood group too puny to cope with this giant
towering above us, drunk with the blood of its many triumphs? The young
David went out to conquer Goliath, strong in the conviction of his
power. Cannot our cause justify an equal faith?
Is our daily life profane and only so far as we rise out of it do we
approach the sacred life? Then no wonder politics are what they have
become. But this is not the creed of men to-day: we believe in the
sacredness of all our life; we believe that Divinity is forever
incarnating in humanity, and so we believe in Humanity and the common
daily life of all men.
-----
Footnote 86:
The war has shown us that our national agricultural program can best
be done on a coöperative neighborhood basis: through the establishment
of community agricultural conferences, community labor, seed and
implement exchanges, community canning centres, community markets,
etc.
Footnote 87:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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