How can we transform our societies? How can we create democracies built on the agency of everyone?

Rage, a potent emotion, can fuel intense determination and momentum. However, as we contemplate the path to rebuilding our societies, it’s crucial to recognize that rage, far from empowering us, actually renders us powerless and hinders our true potential. It’s a force that can destroy rather than build.

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Inequality is the essence of our societies. It's what they create, not what they try to overcome. In the material we have covered in recent weeks, we have learned about different dynamics that create inequality: power, elites, marginalization, and representation as the way democratic governments are built. Today, I want to look at another one: schooling.

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In the 1990s, administrations began playing classical music in public places occupied by drug addicts, the homeless, and vagabonds. The aim was not to solve the problem, of which these men and women were merely a symptom, but to clear public spaces of those deemed undesirable. The objective was not to overcome marginalization, but rather to sustain it.

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Elites exist. We take them for granted, like sunsets and lunch, as if governance and democracy are impossible without hierarchy and elites. Examining how we establish and utilize elites brings to light a hidden aspect of our daily lives and reveals much about why we are constantly in crises and unable to resolve them.-

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"Representative government as we know it leaves open a 'gap' between governors and governed, so that despite being represented, the people remain outside." 1

Politics is all about competition. Competition between people and parties; a contest for votes, headlines, and airtime. It is a common misconception that politics is about the best ideas or the solutions to pressing issues. These things are marginal and only a means to gaining power and influence.

This misconception is by design.

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It was an evening among a collegial supervision group of facilitators. We were reflecting on transformation and power. One of my colleagues struggled with the word 'power' itself. He found power to be an amoral, almost destructive force in our society, our families, our communities, and our way of dealing with nature. So, vehemently, he refused to use the word.

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First, let us think of a few possibilities.

• Imagine a scenario in which your children are self-directed learners. Instead of being forced into a social construct known as school, they are supported in listening to themselves and following their own developmental paths. They do not need to adhere to a curriculum defined by someone else, which does not accommodate their biological development, needs, or the realization of their potential.

• Now, imagine that you can actively determine what taxes your society collects and where your state or city spends that money, instead of being obliged to pay taxes without any say. Imagine that the direction of your society is not shaped by billionaires and their financial interests, or by international organizations like the World Bank or IMF, but by the people who live in that state, whether they are citizens or non-permanent residents.

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"Tell the Iroquois about obedience to the king, and he laughs; for he cannot reconcile the concept of submission with the dignity of man." ¹

From the point of dignity and self-responsibility, our democracies are far from true democracies. They are not built on paradigms like agency, autonomy, self-responsibility, and accountability. Instead, they are built on different mechanisms, especially the ones of majority, representation, obedience, and control. All of them lead to a loss of individual power and self-efficacy. In fact, agency and autonomy threaten common political structures, whether dictatorships or democracies. They are contrary to how most institutions and societal structures are built.

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