[MD] Barfuesserkirche (ZMM & Dewey)

[Platt Holden]

Arlo,

Sounds to me like typical anti-individual, socialistic utopianism. The tip 
off -- the familiar language of collectivism. Examples: 

collective problem solving
social and human ideals
an inclusive and fraternally associated public
new social order
correcting unfair privilege and unfair deprivation
the life we live in common
people are suffering and exploited
under the heel of oppression
united social action
educate people away from individualistic mindset
freedom through cooperation and collective action

All that's missing is everyone singing Kum Bye Ya.

Better to educate individuals to take responsibility for their own lives 
and succeed through hard work, delayed gratification, individual 
initiative, commitment to excellence, competition by merit, honor in 
achievement, etc. Social engineering has proven a colossal failure 
throughout history. Why people insist on promoting it is beyond me. On 
second thought, the motive is obvious. Power. 

Platt


> All,
> 
> David Granger recently forwarded me a copy of an address he delivered last
> year on "deep democracy". I'd like to share this with the group (having
> received permission from David to do so), but now realize that at 13 pages
> of text, its a bit long to force into one email. So I will offer some
> excerpts and thoughts, and if you are interested in reading David's
> (outstanding) take on democracy and education "[revealing] a clear line of
> influence running from the Danish folk schools to efforts at "deep
> democracy" in this country via Myles Horton's monumental Highlander Folk
> School, [including] an earlier bit on Jane Addams to provide some context",
> I'd be happy to send it on, just email me.
> 
> David's entry point in this essay is "Hull House", a turn of the century
> endeavor in Chicago which "at its beginning, its main purposes were to
> provide social and educational opportunities for working class people in
> the neighborhood, many of whom were recent immigrants. There was classes in
> literature, history, art, domestic activities such as sewing, and many
> other subjects, concerts free to everyone, free lectures on current issues,
> and clubs both for children and adults." (Wikipedia). Local conditions
> "underscored for Addams [a cofounder] the inadequacies of the popular
> liberal ideal of the "natural man" who enters the world a freely-choosing,
> self-sufficient and self-realizing being." (Granger). David continues,
> "Enunciating the means of a more positive freedom, the official charter of
> Hull-House (1889) stated as its purpose to "provide a center for [the
> development of] a higher civic and social life; to institute and maintain
> educational and philanthropic enterprises, and to investigate and improve
> the conditions in the industrial districts of Chicago." (Granger)
> 
> At this point, I'll reiterate a need to understand the "purpose" of an
> educational system. This was discussed here before (in anticipation of
> David's book), with Dan linking several great points from Dewey's
> "Democracy and Education" to Pirsig. I just say this again because I think
> any challenge to the "status quo" must begin with an understanding of what
> objectives "education" has. Is it (to restate some possibilities) to
> develop an informed citizenry? Productive workers? Etc. Just an ongoing
> thought to keep in mind.
> 
> Addams held a belief in "deep democracy", which David contrasts with 
> "economist democracy". "Deep democracy, in near dialectical opposition to
> our present "economistic" or consumer democracy, is actively participatory
> and innately pluralistic. As a form of developmental democracy, it
> emphasizes inclusiveness and mutual transformation through collaboration
> and collective problem solving among persons of diverse viewpoints,
> abilities, and potentials. In doing so it links people's individual
> experiences with the larger social reality, in particular, with sites of
> democratic struggle and intervention. ... Though such deep democracy has
> never been fully realized, it has, notes Green, "been partially achieved at
> certain times and places, giving rise to certain institutional forms [e.g.,
> public education and universal suffrage] that have the potential to promote
> its fuller realization" (Granger)
> 
> David make a comment at about this point in his narrative that reflects
> over to the "Capitalism" thread, and the understanding that social
> restrictions on the market were *a response* to conditions. Moving from
> Addams to Myles Horton, David writes, "[Addams] acknowledged the growing
> intransigence of the social, political, and economic forces associated with
> what Dewey famously called "the eclipse of the public," whereby the
> atomistic individualism of the private market economy fosters "conditions
> which halt the social and humane ideals that demand the utilization of
> government as the genuine instrumentality of an inclusive and fraternally
> associated public."
> 
> Horton started the Highlander Folk School (now the Highlander Research and
> Education Center) in Appalachian Tennessee "to provide an educational
> center in the South for the training of rural and industrial leaders, and
> for the conservation and enrichment of the indigenous cultural values of
> the mountains" (Wikipedia). "Highlander's formal mission upon its opening
> was to bring together workers, grassroots leaders, community organizers,
> educators, and researchers to develop rural and industrial leaders for a
> new social order." (Granger).
> 
> Calling it a "thinly-veiled crib from Dewey's Democracy and Education",
> Granger recounts one of the first public descriptions of the Highland
> school. "It is the aim of
education to take part in correcting unfair
> privilege and unfair deprivation, not to perpetuate them
it must take
> account of the needs of the existing community life; it must select with
> the intention of improving the life we live in common." Horton also
> espoused the need for "educated hope", "If people are in trouble, if people
> are suffering and exploited and want to get out from under the heel of
> oppression, if they have hope that it can be done, if they can see a path
> that leads to a solution, a path that makes sense to them and is consistent
> with their beliefs and their experience, then they'll move." (Granger) I
> should note that this resonates strongly with socio-cultural theory, a path
> I hope to come back to in a future post.
> 
> Arguing that "democracy, as a social conduit, is not only about rights and
> agency, it is also about the responsibility of active listening and mutual
> acknowledgement" (Granger), David points out the fluidity of the Highland
> school in "its governing concepts, letting the people it serves and the
> times in which they live define precisely what
democracy, mutuality, and
> united social action mean."
> 
> David concludes by pointing out that for Horton "significant social change
> could not be effected by individuals acting alone or by radical political
> analysis alone, Highlander attempted to educate people away from an
> individualistic mindset-another part of the myth of American
> exceptionality-and towards the freedom that only becomes possible with
> cooperation and collective action." (Granger)
> 
> I hope this brief outline was enough to spark your interest.
> 
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