Youth, Gender,
The Environment And The Separation Of State, Religion And Business DAVID RALPH MACKERETH dmackereth@canimac.com
Democracy provides all eligible voters with equal influence in
“Believe that many precepts are better than much wealth; for
elections, as the esteemed Rousseau outlines in his 1762
wealth quickly fails us, but precepts abide though all time; for
‘The Social Contract’, “Each of us places in common his
wisdom alone of all possessions is imperishable.” Isocrates
person and all his power under the supreme direction of the
(436 – 338 BCE)
general will, and as one body we all receive each member as an individual part of the whole. […] In a State of truly free, the
“Everything is known, not according to itself, but according to
citizens do all with their own arms and nothing with their
the capacity of the knower.” Boethius, The Consolation of
money.”
Philosophy (c.524 AD).
For this process to be its most effective, democratic decisions
“There is a world of creatures […] in the smallest part of
require accurate information that is increasingly becoming
matter. Every portion of matter can be thought of as a garden
diluted by the sheer volume of data available in real time to
full of plants […] But every branch of the plant, every part of
anyone with an appropriate device. Angst is felt in what to
the animal, every drop of its fluids, is another such garden
read, study or how to be entertained. Rousseau astutely
[…]” Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Monadology (1714).
assists, “Speaking generally Emile will have more taste for the books of the ancients than for our own, just because they
“The artist is always engaged in writing a detailed history of
were the first, and therefore the ancients are nearer to nature
the future because he is the only person aware of the nature
and their genius more distinct.” Emile, or On Education (1762)
of the present.” Wyndham Lewis (1882 – 1957). “As the writer Toni Cade Bambara put it, the role of the artist
“About the gods I have no means of knowing either that they
is to “make revolution irresistible.”” Mary Annaise Heglar,
exist or that they do not exist or what they are to look at.
Here’s Where You Come In, Wired (April 2020).
Many things prevent my knowing. Among others, the fact that
“Industry without art is brutality.” John Ruskin (1819 – 1900),
they are never seen.” Protagoras (481 – 411 BCE) essay, On
a leading Victorian era art critic.
the Gods “Our present economic, social and international arrange“Nothing exists except atoms and empty space, everything
ments are based, in large measure upon organized loveless-
else is opinion.” Democritus (c. 460 – c.370 BCE)
ness.” Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy (1945).
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MBE BUSINESS MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2020
W W W. M B E F O RYOU. C O M
