Future of Democracy
The Social Science Sections of Brazil and Dornach, Switzerland, in cooperation with the initiatives ‘Dinero&Conciencia’ and ‘Banca Ética’, organized an online event in mid-October. The relationship between global autonomy and democracy was looked at from the perspective of economy, natural resources and education. Gerald Häfner was invited as a guest speaker.
What relationship do Brazilians have to democracy? Can issues be moved differently there?
Brazil is a country torn between extremes. Between rich and poor, as well as between left-wing politics (Lula, PT) and right-wing politics (Bolsonaro, Alianca). Politics is loud, hard, corrupt. But Brazilians are rather soft, sensitive, musical. More and more people are longing for a form of living together that is no longer built on power, violence, superiority and submission. That’s where we as a section are very much needed.
What is a key point in the relationship between autonomy and democracy?
Only from their polarity and higher connection a community can be shaped in a contemporary way. Democracy is the compelling consequence of human freedom, perhaps the most radical form of making self-determination the starting- and endpoint of shaping society. It is the social form of ethical individualism – the overcoming of every superiority and subordination of people to the will of others.
Do we need the association of these two for the future? What are the new common actions of it?
We are only beginning to understand and live democracy deeply enough. There is still a lot of group-soul in party democracy. That is why we are working on more contemporary forms, qualities and instruments. The goal is to combine genuine self-determination with legal equality and democracy – as a result: the rising of every person to the status of (co-)legislator, to sovereignty.
Under the following link the video of the contribution of Gerald Häfner from 11.10. can be viewed in English: View