The Allegory...!

Any community that aspires to dwell peacefully in coexistence in the most democratic way needs to learn the Principles of Democracy first, that certainly lie beyond merely voting in elections. As the matter of fact the Duties, Rights and Obligations as a Citizen of a Democratic Republic only start with choosing your legal and constitutional representative for voicing your concerns in the assembly of policy makers. Just as the journey of being a proud parent starts from the moment of starting a family and dreaming of being a parent and the role of parent has no expiry unless one willfully decides to act otherwise – by the way of renunciation – or end of the life. Similarly being a Citizen of a democratic republic is not a one-time impulsive affair but a commitment that is an obligation unless it is renounced!

'Rearing a child and making it independent and self-sufficient in view of enabling it to lead a decent, purposeful and wholesome life' is as a triumph and a pleasure as it is a commitment and an obligation! So is 'being a citizen in a democracy'. In a democracy you do not choose people to Rule you as Monarchs and Dictators but you choose Your that is  People’s Representatives who would serve your cause. Therefore utmost care in choosing those and relentless vigilance of their performance is not only required but mandatory to make any democracy successful. Before any community could do it successfully, it needs to educate itself about the principles of democracy – the rule-book of the game. Only learned and matured people can have a government of the people, by the people, for the people!

The first lesson of any subject deals with its definition and attributes. Today let us try to learn what you mean by Democracy by way of Aesthetic Appraisal of an iconic masterpiece – a series of fresco paintings that depicts Virtues and Effects of Good and Bad Government through illustrations. In the TED talk Anthony Romero explains the painting very well and the talk also has English subtitles which facilitates the understanding of the viewer. A little about the Subject Matter of the Talk –

Between the 13th and 15th centuries the Sienese School of painting flourished in Siena, Italy. Disciple of this school Ambrogio Lorenzetti was an Italian painter who was active from approximately 1317 to 1348. He painted ‘The Allegory of Good and Bad Government’ in the Sala dei Nove (Salon of Nine or Council Room) in Siena's Palazzo Pubblico – a palace in Siena, Tuscany, central Italy.

This fresco panels painting on the side walls of the huge Council Room [296 x 770 x 1440 M] of the City Hall of Siena, as the name clearly indicates, is a pictorial representation of how Good and Bad Government looks with their respective Virtues and their effects on the life of the cities and villages. This mammoth work of art has few text here and there that elaborates the meaning of the figures. The prominent and summarizing inscription reads –

"Without fear every many may travel freely and each may till and sow, so long as this commune [Republic] shall maintain this lady [Justice] sovereign, for she has stripped the wicked of all power.”

Way to go...!

Message...!

A traveller walking through the desert wandered and got derailed. After hours of walk he felt exhausted and ran out of all the water he was carrying. Feeling extremely thirsty he started to look for any source of water, even few drops could have saved his life. The traveller started losing hope as he couldn’t find any humidity as far as he can gaze and the glare of the sun started blinding him. With a dehydrated body and depressed mind the traveller prayed for his life and asked for a ray of hope from the almighty.

As traveller’s eyes were about to close, something flashed from a distance and the traveller, with great enthusiasm, tried to keep his eyes open to focus on what he saw. To his surprise the thing was glittering glass as it appeared from the distance. The traveller pulled himself together and approached the shiny thing with great effort in a time that seemed as eternity. Traveller’s awe had no bounds when he reached the thing and discovered a bottle full of water sealed with a cork wrapped in paper.

When the traveller could set his hands on the bottle, he pulled the cork plug out that made the paper wrapped to it free and come lose in his hands. The traveller was in two minds as he looked at the paper...

‘Should I just throw the paper away and drink the water for my life or should I check the paper first as there might be some message on the paper about the liquid in the bottle...?'

Being a cautious man even in his desperate condition, the traveller decided to read the paper first before soaking his dry throat with the liquid in the bottle. As he unfolded the paper and began to read it, he couldn’t believe what he was reading! It was not just a piece of paper with some rudimentary instructions but almost a manual of life, the traveller thought as he grasped the content and intent of the paper to the extent of his cognitive ability and sensitive empathy.

The paper said that there is a hand-pump installed within 100 steps from the place which would force-out water from its spout when pumped. And there is no limit to the amount of water one can draw as long as the handle of the pump is kept in motion. This simply meant that the traveller need not be content with just a bottle of water but he could refill the bottle he found along with all other water containers he had carried with him and even take a bath to drench himself in abundant water as he would get as much water as he could.

However there was a little star of ‘*Condition Apply’ to this ‘Plentiful Offer’ – The hand-pump must have been dried for being at rest for a long long time, so to set it in motion and make it function to fetch the water from the ground deep down below, it would need some moisture! The only way to add some humidity to the dried mechanism of the hand-pump is to pour the entire water in the bottle in the neck of the pump so that the metal of the machine will work smoothly. This got the traveller thinking.

The piece of glass that seemed to offer solace to the traveller moments earlier, put him in the dilemma now. This was the choice of life... for himself as well for his fellow men that would trail this path sometime in future and find themselves in the same condition as he was in at the moment! So what the completely dehydrated, desperate and exhausted traveller would do? Would he just ignore the message as a prank or something and drink the entire content of the bottle in hand or would he believe every word of the message and follow it religiously...?

What would you do...?

Now are you wondering what is this story about and is there any moral to it? Well, almost everything I share on any platform could be traced to ‘Sustainability’ and 'CSR' in one form or other... so get the hint!

And for the moral of the story... it’s your take to devise a moral of your choice to the story as per your conscious, empathy and understanding of yourself and society you are part of, isn’t it?

A word of caution though... Choose wisely!

Way to go...

Sortition...!

Few years ago when I used to send 'Daily Mails' to about 1000 readers that had some anecdotes, concerns, incidences, insights and lessons of a sort; one of the most popular mail I can remember of was about the story of a Bronze Rat which you can read here; I recommend that you read it first to set the context of what Brett is sharing in the video.

Well, the story about the San Francisco Rat was humorous yet sarcastic and didn't actually offered any real workable solution to the replacement of the politicians, if we the people could do it somehow. Brett seems to have the answer...

Considering the fact that being a Hungarian and talking to the Hungarian people in Hungary, Brett makes his proposition look not only  logical and sensible, but also almost doable with examples of experiments about it around the world he cites. However it seems like a distant dream in this part of the world with the status-quo, we must not lose hope all the same as, it is only HOPE that could bring transformation and change the things for better.

"But in practice, it's [ideal of democracy] not working. And that's the second question. Our politics is broken, our politicians aren't trusted, and the political system is distorted by powerful vested interests..."

"It would not be government by public opinion poll. It would not be government by referendum. These informed, deliberating people would move beyond public opinion to the making of public judgments..."

"We can experiment with sortition. We can introduce it to schools and workplaces and other institutions, like Democracy In Practice is doing in Bolivia. We can hold policy juries and citizens' assemblies, like the new Democracy Foundation is doing in Australia, like the Jefferson Center is doing in the US and like the Irish government is doing right now. We could build a social movement demanding change, which is what the Sortition Foundation is doing in the UK. And at some point, we should institute it..."

"I have hope. Here in Hungary [in India], systems have been created, and systems have been torn down and replaced in the past.Change can and does happen. It's just a matter of when and how..."

Indeed...! Way to go...

Empathy...!

"We all have become complicit in the suffering of others,

and hence accountable in the crime..."

"We all are connected in this world, 

if one suffers, so do we all...!"

Kindness is the language which 

the deaf can hear and the blind can see...!

- Mark Twain