The Evolution of Democracy Requires A Revolution In Our Minds! = (R)Evolution of Democracy.

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
(Mohandas Gandhi)

Democracy has been labelled as the best and the worst of all systems.
Some have claimed that it is far from good, but is better than any of the other systems tried in the past and anywhere else.

The reality is that democracy depends upon the people, as the definition is in fact "the power of the people".
This means that we the people have a responsibility to be be responsive and proactive, to accept responsibility for our actions or lack of actions, to take responsibility for our decisions.

What ever the case may be, for democracy to evolve into its true form, there needs to be a revolution in our minds, in our views in the way we perceive our role in our nations.

The list below is something I c/p back many years ago, approximately a decade ago, when I was reading up on some of these topics. I actually surfed the net to find out about examples of these actions that people have taken to evoke a sense of responsibility and change.

The (R)Evolution of democracy is obviously a process and it depends on each and every person.

When you ask yourself "What can I do?"...

Well, read this list and think about it, where you could have to date been a part of changes, no mater how local or global they may have been and then think about what your actions are going to be tomorrow....

Formal statements
1- Public speeches
2- Letters of opposition or support
3- Declarations by organizations and institutions
4- Signed public statements
5- Declarations of indictment and intention
6- Group or mass petitions

Communications with a wider audience
7- Slogans, caricatures, and symbols
8- Banners, posters, and displayed communications
9- Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
10- Newspapers and journals
11- Records, radio, and television
12- Skywriting and earthwriting

Group representations
13- Deputations
14- Mock awards
15- Group lobbying
16- Picketing
17- Mock elections

Symbolic public acts
18- Display of flags and symbolic colors
19- Wearing of symbols

This list, with definitions and historical examples, is taken from Gene Sharp,
The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Part Two, The Methods of Nonviolent Action.

20- Prayer and worship
21- Delivering symbolic objects
22- Protest disrobings
23- Destruction of own property
24- Symbolic lights
25- Displays of portraits
26- Paint as protest
27- New signs and names
28- Symbolic sounds
29- Symbolic reclamations
30- Rude gestures

Pressures on individuals
31- “Haunting” officials
32- Taunting officials
33- Fraternization
34- Vigils

Drama and music
35- Humorous skits and pranks
36- Performance of plays and music
37- Singing

Processions
38- Marches
39- Parades
40- Religious processions
41- Pilgrimages
42- Motorcades

Honoring the dead
43- Political mourning
44- Mock funerals
45- Demonstrative funerals
46- Homage at burial places

80 Gene Sharp
From Dictatorship to Democracy 81

Public assemblies
47- Assemblies of protest or support
48- Protest meetings
49- Camouflaged meetings of protest
50- Teach-ins

Withdrawal and renunciation
51- Walk-outs
52- Silence
53- Renouncing honors
54- Turning one’s back

THE METHODS OF SOCIAL NONCOOPERATION
Ostracism of persons
55- Social boycott
56- Selective social boycott
57- Lysistratic nonaction
58- Excommunication
59- Interdict

Noncooperation with social events, customs, and institutions
60- Suspension of social and sports activities
61- Boycott of social affairs
62- Student strike
63- Social disobedience
64- Withdrawal from social institutions

Withdrawal from the social system
65- Stay-at-home
66- Total personal noncooperation
67- Flight of workers
68- Sanctuary
69- Collective disappearance
70- Protest emigration (hijrat)

THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION :
(1) ECONOMIC BOYCOTTS

Action by consumers
71- Consumers’ boycott
72- Nonconsumption of boycotted goods
73- Policy of austerity
74- Rent withholding
75- Refusal to rent
76- National consumers’ boycott
77- International consumers’ boycott

Action by workers and producers
78- Workmen’s boycott
79- Producers’ boycott

Action by middlemen
80- Suppliers’ and handlers’ boycott

Action by owners and management
81- Traders’ boycott
82- Refusal to let or sell property
83- Lockout
84- Refusal of industrial assistance
85- Merchants’ “general strike”

Action by holders of financial resources
86- Withdrawal of bank deposits
87- Refusal to pay fees, dues, and assessments
88- Refusal to pay debts or interest
89- Severance of funds and credit
90- Revenue refusal
91- Refusal of a government’s money

Action by governments
92- Domestic embargo
93- Blacklisting of traders
94- International sellers’ embargo
95- International buyers’ embargo
96- International trade embargo

From Dictatorship to Democracy 83

THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION :
(2) THE STRIKE
Symbolic strikes
97- Protest strike
98- Quickie walkout (lightning strike)

Agricultural strikes
99- Peasant strike
100- Farm workers’ strike

Strikes by special groups
101- Refusal of impressed labor
102- Prisoners’ strike
103- Craft strike
104- Professional strike

Ordinary industrial strikes
105- Establishment strike
106- Industry strike
107- Sympathetic strike

Restricted strikes
108- Detailed strike
109- Bumper strike
110- Slowdown strike
111- Working-to-rule strike
112- Reporting “sick” (sick-in)
113- Strike by resignation
114- Limited strike
115- Selective strike

Multi-industry strikes
116- Generalized strike
117- General strike

Combinations of strikes and economic closures
118- Hartal
119- Economic shutdown

THE METHODS OF POLITICAL NONCOOPERATION
Rejection of authority
120- Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
121- Refusal of public support
122- Literature and speeches advocating resistance

Citizens’ noncooperation with government
123- Boycott of legislative bodies
124- Boycott of elections
125- Boycott of government employment and positions
126- Boycott of government departments, agencies and
other bodies
127- Withdrawal from government educational institutions
128- Boycott of government-supported organizations
129- Refusal of assistance to enforcement agents
130- Removal of own signs and placemarks
131- Refusal to accept appointed officials
132- Refusal to dissolve existing institutions

Citizens’ alternatives to obedience
133- Reluctant and slow compliance
134- Nonobedience in absence of direct supervision
135- Popular nonobedience
136- Disguised disobedience
137- Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
138- Sitdown
139- Noncooperation with conscription and deportation
140- Hiding, escape and false identities
141- Civil disobedience of “illegitimate” laws

Action by government personnel
142- Selective refusal of assistance by government aides
143- Blocking of lines of command and information
144- Stalling and obstruction
145- General administrative noncooperation

From Dictatorship to Democracy 85
146- Judicial noncooperation
147- Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by
enforcement agents
148- Mutiny

Domestic governmental action
149- Quasi-legal evasions and delays
150- Noncooperation by constituent governmental units
International governmental action
151- Changes in diplomatic and other representation
152- Delay and cancellation of diplomatic events
153- Withholding of diplomatic recognition
154- Severance of diplomatic relations
155- Withdrawal from international organizations
156- Refusal of membership in international bodies
157- Expulsion from international organizations

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT INTERVENTION

Psychological intervention
158- Self-exposure to the elements
159- The fast
(a) Fast of moral pressure
(b) Hunger strike
(c) Satyagrahic fast
160- Reverse trial
161- Nonviolent harassment

Physical intervention
162- Sit-in
163- Stand-in
164- Ride-in
165- Wade-in
166- Mill-in
167- Pray-in
168- Nonviolent raids
169- Nonviolent air raids
170- Nonviolent invasion
171- Nonviolent interjection
172- Nonviolent obstruction
173- Nonviolent occupation

Social intervention
174- Establishing new social patterns
175- Overloading of facilities
176- Stall-in
177- Speak-in
178- Guerrilla theater
179- Alternative social institutions
180- Alternative communication system

Economic intervention
181- Reverse strike
182- Stay-in strike
183- Nonviolent land seizure
184- Defiance of blockades
185- Politically motivated counterfeiting
186- Preclusive purchasing
187- Seizure of assets
188- Dumping
189- Selective patronage
190- Alternative markets
191- Alternative transportation systems
192- Alternative economic institutions

Political intervention
193- Overloading of administrative systems
194- Disclosing identities of secret agents
195- Seeking imprisonment
196- Civil disobedience of “neutral” laws
197- Work-on without collaboration
198- Dual sovereignty and parallel government

Changes begin within the individual.
Changes and progress are initiated by the individual.

Each and every person is needed if we are to leave a better world for the next generation, as it is what we leave them that shall be upon which we are judged.... this shall determine our success or failure.