Topic in Political Science: Deep Democracy: The Inward Journey and Transforming the World

Catalog description

As planet earth becomes an increasingly web linked social network, a global village, with its wonderful potential for increased understanding as well as horrible potential for destructive misunderstanding, exciting debates are emerging across academic disciplines about the meaning of democracy. How does democracy merge as a value in the hearts, minds and actions of persons, groups, and nations? How significant is democracy in the process of creating meaningful paradigmatic change. This conversation has transcended the discipline of political science and has become a vigorous debate in psychology, sociology, philosophy and even theoretical physics. This workshop in Deep Democracy will explore the work of Arthur Mindell and others contemporary thinkers who are challenging democratic thinkers by demanding the implementation of democracy start as a personal transformational process within the individual and the group in which he participates. Understanding the predispositions towards democracy as well as the resistance to sharing its process in our own consciousness is a precursor to creating democratic relationships with others. Proliferating democratic engagements cross-culturally and mediating conflict by deliberative democratic experiences are necessary to reduce dissonance and encourage creative interchange among people. When democratic understanding reaches a critical mass so to speak, transformative shift occurs generating the space and context in which creative possibilities of trans-cultural understanding emerges, shedding light on the path toward formerly unconstruable, more humanly effective institutions.