Our Public Life
In 1994, Frances Lappe Moore and Paul Martin Du Bois released The Quickening of America: Rebuilding Our Nation, Remaking Our Lives. They observed:
The biggest problem facing American is not those issues that bombard us daily, from homelessness and failing schools to environmental devastation and the federal deficit. Underlying each is a deeper crisis. Some see that deeper problem in the form of obstacles that block problem solving the tightening concentration of wealth, the influence of money in politics, discrimination,and bureaucratic rigidity, to name a few. These are powerful barriers. But for us the crisis is deeper still. The crisis is that we as a people don’t know how to come together to solve these problems. We lack the capacities to address the issues or remove the obstacles that stand in the way of public deliberation. Too many Americans feel powerless. (9)
Their solution was that we, Americans, first need to learn the concepts and practices that make us effective problem solvers, and then gain the capacity to make our engagement in public life rewarding sustaining. Much of their book is a presentation about ‘ten arts of democracy’—a combination of individual and group skills essential for effective public problem solving.
They begin, though, with a catalog of ten myths about public life that we must dispel if we are to get on with the work of coming together to solve our problems. For each myth, they offer an empowering insight to replace the myth. Sadly, a generation later, the myths below are still with us, and perhaps more engrained than ever in dominant contemporary beliefs about public life and political discourse.
- Myth 1: Public life is what someone else has. Public life is for the politicians, the educated, the experts, and the activists.
Insight: We each have a public life and everyday our behavior shapes the public world - Myth 2: Public life is unappealing, unrewarding, and alrgely a necessary evil to protect our private lives.
Insight: Public life serves a deep human need to know one’s life counts and is as essential to our growth and happiness as is private life. - Myth 3: Public life means ugly conflict and is always nasty.
Insight: The differences and conflict we encounter in public life can be healthy and informative, and offer new perspectives for solving problems. - Myth 4: Public life completes with a satisfying private life.
Insight: Public life often enhances our private lives. - Myth 5: When we enter public life, we must squelch our self-interests for the common good.
Insight: Acting on an understanding of our interests in relation to those of others can lead to constructive and successful solutions. - Myth 6: Public life is only about pursuing our own immediate gain and selfish interests.
Insight: As individuals, we come to understand and fulfill our self-interests fully only when we interact with others. - Myth 7: Power is evil and a dirty word. To be good people, we should avoid power.
Insight: Power is the capacity to act publicly and effectively, to bring about positive change, and to build hope. - Myth 8: Power is zero-sum gain. The more power you have the less there is for me.
Insight: Relational power expands possibilities for many people at once. The more you use it, the more there is. - Myth 9: Power is a one-way force to control others and get them to do what you want.
Insight: Power always exists in relationships, going both ways. In relationships, the actions of each affect the other, so no one is ever completely powerless. - Myth 10: Power is about today’s victories.
Insight: Power is ore than today’s visible results. you can reach short-term goals and still have lost power. Wielding power relationally builds future power.
We each have a public life. We can choose to make it a better one if we discard the myths and shibboleths that hold us back.