As we continue to watch events unfold in Ukraine and our own civil society under siege at home, the question of whether democracy will survive is now ever present on our minds.
Recently at Trinity Spiritual Center in historic Southport, CT, French philosopher Raphael Liogier boldly asserted that democracy will flourish, if we lean into the original vision that our Founders shared for this nation. His full analysis of these times will not be published until next September as a 1000-page book entitled The Anguish of the Void. Until then, here is the essence of his thinking.
As a result, a global culture of material determinism now threatens to destroy democracies around the world, and the U.S. is the epicenter of the battle over whether the principles of the Enlightenment and modernity will prevail. To preserve democracy, Liogier contends that we must now lean into the entire set of ideas that informed our Founders’ thinking and reject the distortion of their vision that we have invented.
So where did we go off the rails, and how do we get it right?
One of our first mistakes was to interpret the Age of Reason as being defined by rationality, because we feared the freedom and responsibility that the modern era made visible in making transcendence a universal quality that everyone can experience. We had never known such freedom before.
Unable to face the responsibility that comes with our own liberation, we turned a movement that was originally conceived as spiritual by the great thinkers of the Enlightenment (John Locke, Immanuel Kant, Thomas Paine, etc.), into the worship of concrete things that we could enumerate.
“At its core was the idea that there is transcendence in the world, but we are afraid of the empty space that we must enter into in order to experience the sublime,” says Liogier. “And because we were unwilling to embrace the void, we filled it in and advanced a global culture that deifies vast quantities of things. We became obsessed with success through the visible and measurable accumulation of possessions and status.” This kept our anxieties at bay until the 1950’s.
Our obsession with success opened up a schism within us, however: we pretended that we still believed in the spiritual principles of the Enlightenment, and the ideals underlying our democracy — life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness — at the same time acting in ways that were completely contrary these beliefs. “Kind of like saying Santa Claus exists, when we know he doesn’t,” comments Liogier.
Eventually, we arrived at a point where we knew that everything everyone was doing was fake, but that didn’t stop us from continuing to idolize success. In fact, we began to invest even more magical powers into people whom we judge to be successful by “virtue” of the wealth, power, or fans that they possess (or appear to possess). As an example of this idolitization process, Liogier cites Reality TV shows whose “stars” often have accomplished nothing yet we follow their recommendations and leadership regardless of their merit.
Lately, the fear that we were repressing has resurfaced (as any psychotherapist will tell you it will). And because we now know that everything is fake, things have become even worse. People have become so desperate about the crazy state of things that to escape our current quandary, we can be convinced to take stupid, unconscionable action. We begin to fantasize about past states of being (that never existed) as possible ways out.
We know what it looks like when this schizophrenia between what say we believe and what we do occurs, and a desire for retro-topias emerge. It looks like Nazi Germany. And we know how that story ends.
We are now in a global culture where these dynamics are playing out at a scale we have never seen before. The question is whether we have the will, like our Founding Fathers, to believe that our democratic society will enable the transcendence that lies within and beyond us all, the unified field that animates all life, to move through us and create the solutions we seek. Will we finally step up to the freedom and responsibility that such a society imparts and become the masters of our own destinies?
Liogier believes that we can do this, but we must be bold and step into the void. He proposes a four-step process for enabling a renewed form of democracy to emerge:
Step 1: Instead of trying to drive and control how this unfolds, we must let go and let transcendence move through us. Things may unravel (creative destruction) before they arise anew. This is the realm of the mystic, the artist, the most visionary entrepreneurs. They can be our guides.
Step 2: We must develop a concept for a modern way of being (not a replicable model as is preached by business schools and VC’s). If we operate within a structure that supports individual rights and common responsibilities as proposed by the Constitution, the forms that will enable the full promise of the Enlightenment, and the solutions to the many problems before us, will begin to emerge.
Step 3. We need to express joy and happiness that we feel as we live into our freedom. The arts will play a central role in animating and inspiring the ongoing renewal and unfolding of the spiritual principles that underlie our being.
Step 4. Democracy will emerge as the political system that is the mystical expression of the transcendent, individually and collectively representing “the will of the people”. Our unity will be strengthened, and the republic will finally thrive.
Finally, he asserts that if we do not have the courage to step into the void, as the men and women who founded this country did, it is very likely that we will see the continuing devolution of civil society, an increase in empire, totalitarianism and the social ills that beset us.
A couple critical additional points.
First, it is important to acknowledge that the Founding Fathers were both visionaries and human. They had flaws that were shaped by forces that were both internal and societal. Their limitations as men had a significant negative impact on women, African-Americans, indigenous peoples, and populations that were judged as “other”. We now have the opportunity to live into the full vision and promise of democracy, “with life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and justice for all.”
Second, this framework that Liogier has laid out for bringing forth a new way of building community that allows transcendence to create innovation works. It is the middle way that unites people and turns them into a force to be reckoned with, as we saw in the U.S. 250 years ago, and are witnessing in Ukraine now. It is the power that can restrain a dominance-based global culture of power, aggression, and exploitation that governs so much of our experience and causes so much harm.
A more detailed understanding of Liogier’s thinking will emerge with the publication of his book in the Fall. Until then, a video recording of the discussion with Liogier at Trinity Spiritual Center can be found here.
Previously Published on Medium
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Internal image Alane Kelly
