The Moral Obligations of Living in a Democratic Society

After reading Cornel West’s, The Moral Obligations of Living in a Democratic Society, I got a sense of the perception of power and control, with such a low percentage of people controlling a vast amount of the wealth. This concept proves to be important because our lifestyle today is based on consumption and our ability to obtain what we desire. “Most of human history is the history of elites, of kings, queens, princes, prelates, magistrates, potentates, knights, earls, and squires, all of whom subordinated and exploited everyday people” (211). Those who have, “everything they want” are considered to be higher up in society because they wield the things that the less fortunate wish they had. I say that because, while we spend so much time hopelessly trying to reach these materialistic things, we lose sight of our tradition and the very roots we were grounded with. I don’t know if every human being can be placed into the “same boat”, because of our separate circumstances, yet we yearn all of the same things, and if we lose our traditional way of living, it is almost like we become lost. Typically, when you can’t get what you want, a sense of hopelessness develops, and it can be hard to motivate when you’re at that level. Our separation of wealth causes too much complication in communication. A democracy can’t, and won’t truly prevail for the good of all those involved, if not everyone has a voice to be heard. “The roots of democracy are fundamentally grounded in mutual respect, personal responsibility, and social accountability. Yet democracy is also about giving each person a dignified voice in the decision-making processes in those institutions that guide and regulate their lives” (212). So much is lost along the lines of communicating and when one’s life is dependent on it, it’s important to make sure you have a say in the things that will affect you, as a democratic society should. However, when you become numb to circumstance and just allow the status-quo to be, it damages the possibility of achieving this goal. Eventually everyone becomes only concerned with only their own wellbeing, sometimes to the point of turning against each other. Today our standards and methods are different from what they used to be. As Cornel West said, It is near impossible to speak to the public the way Martin Luther King Jr. did and therefore harder to motivate people to move in the right direction. As a society, if we spend too much time with idle chatter and void of action, our “democratic society” may never function as it should.