| Holochrestian Democracy |
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Holos means the Whole. Chrestian comes from a Greek word meaning ‘useful to’. Holochrestianism is about ‘being useful to the whole’ or ‘serving the common good’. By Democracy we mean that political influence is widely distributed. We believe power should be shared among a large number of people. Nevertheless we also believe that power should be wielded by those most able and inclined to wield it to good effect. This implies both that people need to work at developing the ability to be good political actors and that not everybody will have the same abilities or should wield the same amount of power. What we believe Holochrestians believe that there is a psychospiritual aspect to existence and that this is of primary importance. In other words we believe that the feelings, thoughts, emotions, pleasures and pains that are described as the internal life of a person are objectively real and that what is ultimately most important is that people have a good experience of life. Holochrestians believe that the welfare of all people and other living beings is of importance. Holochrestians believe that there is a natural law which derives from the innate nature of things. This natural law shapes whether any particular actions will have good and life-enhancing results or not. Achieving Holochrestian Democracy Holochrestian Democracy can only come about if there is a Holochrestian Demos. The Good Society which creates the conditions for the Good Life can only come about if there is a body of people working purposefully and intelligently to create such a Good Society. Building the Holochrestian Demos The Holochrestian Demos is the politically active population working in association to further the common good. The Holochrestian Demos: 1. Is composed of members able to work in association on a common project (who are able to communicate and collaborate with each other and are not divided by mutual antipathy). 2. Is composed of members desirous of achieving the common good (rather than only be concerned for their private benefit). (This requires suitable character formation). 3. Is composed of members with the ability to discern what is the common good is and how to achieve it. (This requires suitable education or personal development) Movements for the creation of the Holochrestian Demos Holochrestian Democracy is not just a way of running a society but also a project to create the conditions that a Good Order of Society be achieved – in other words primarily the creation of the Holochrestian Demos. This process is one that could happen from the grassroots upwards with many individuals working to build little ‘droplets’ of the Holochrestian Demos. Each droplet being a small cluster of people orientating themselves to the task at hand, growing the strength of their association, strengthening their mutual bond of trust, discovering and developing the group culture and modes of action and greater resilience in adversity. Then educating and developing themselves to serve the wider common good with greater commitment to the goal of a well-ordered society, greater enlightenment to reality and greater capability of useful action. A religious movement? Such a process is one that will be or will at least look similar to the growth of a religious movement. In the first instance it is up to each leader of each droplet to decide on his own religion. Nevertheless the chances are that they will find assistance within the long-standing religious traditions such as Jesuchristianity and Mithraism. This blog promotes Mithraism (or Zoroastrianism) as our preferred religious tradition while recognising the huge contribution that Christians have made and continue to make. In particular we recognise the value of the Christian Social Teachings also known as the Catholic Social Teachings which are largely based on a natural law approach and are relatively accessible to non-Christians. We also see a lot of common ground between our Holochrestian Democracy movement and the older Christian Democracy movement. February 2013 CE / 4013 HE |