The Art Of Being Democratic

The woods would be silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.

John Audubon, the naturalist and painter, had a special relationship with birds. His collection, Birds of America consists of 435 life size prints. Audubon took the collection to Europe in 1826, and it became an instant hit. John understood the importance of diversity. He sensed his connection to bird consciousness, and spoke for them on the world’s stage. He promoted their worth, beauty, and freedom. He gave them humanistic personality and charm, and the world began to recognize the nature of their unique consciousness. Audubon was a political statesman for the bird world, and he never compromised that role.

We elect fellow humans to speak for us on the national political stage, but invariably our voice is swallowed by the chirps of lobbying hawks and doves. We are taught to elect a select group of featherless orators because we believe they are trained in the art of communication. But the paint in that art has been spoiled by a conforming drudgery that drips through our dualistic system. These suited orators’ debate, and then act like they sing the songs of the people. They color themselves in varying shades of partisanship. Our songs quickly turn into babbling rhetoric when these representatives nest with birds of the same feather in Washington.

As we listen to them speak from that nest, we find ourselves scratching our heads, and wondering why we thought their skillfully crafted interpretation of our song would clearly and truthfully include our intentions. Somewhere in the two-party process, our voice gets lost in a vulturine type political atmosphere.

This type of yes I will, but now I can’t, power system has been operating for centuries in societies around the world. Most of ask how can our voice be heard when it is in the smothered in the bird-do of lobbying voices?

Lao-Tzu, the Chinese philosopher, gave us a hint over 2,000 years ago:

The sage manages his affairs without ado, and spreads his teaching without talking. He denies nothing to the teeming things. He rears them, but lays no claim to them. He does his work, but sets no store by it. He accomplishes his task, but does not dwell upon it. And yet it is just because he does not dwell on it nobody can ever take it away from him.

We are expanding our awareness of the self that replaces a combatant mentality with a connected mentality. We are realizing that the term the good of the people is an objective oxymoron. We are beginning to understand that the will of the people is really the will of the powerful covered in a candy coated economic wrapper.

Our elected eagles act like bald and babbling combatants. They appear like saviors that protect the integrity of the system. But, the only thing they end of protecting is their own disconnected thought process. Audubon’s eagles put connection first. His birds use only what they need. They feed the hungry, and respect the nature of all consciousness.