News and Insights
Democracy in Season
August 5, 2024
“Democracy is not a noun. It is a verb.”
So it was elegantly stated by the luminous poet Richard Blanco at last week’s College of the Atlantic (COA) annual ideas festival the Summer Institute.
And as that essential verb, democracy is so many collective and individual actions. From fostering the free exchange of ideas, the active keeping of a social contract, to the creative energy invested into the power of arts and culture that help us better understand each other and to have empathy. Democracy is an amalgam of infinitives we think of as essential. To Listen. To Learn. To Care. To Advocate. To Vote. The manifestation of democracy is really a sport of Olympic proportions, but with consequences far beyond ceremony.
Each year, in the rarified breeze of Bar Harbor, Maine, the Summer Institute welcomes artists, philanthropists, academics, journalists, students, elected officials, and business leaders who gather to share their ideas on the idyllic campus of COA for conversations and robust discussion on the most important ideas of our time. This year’s topic—urgent and looming is ‘Questions of Democracy.’
For one lively week, the Institute delved into core issues around Democracy—verb, noun, and otherwise … fundamental questions around what kind of country we want to live in, how do we navigate self-interest vs. public good, and the rights and responsibilities of freedom of speech. Heady stuff. Speakers examined the changing role and complexity of religion in political life, access to voting, innovative philanthropic instruments, the shrinking of newsrooms, frameworks for interpreting the Constitution, the history of amending the constitution—Harvard historian Jill Lepore pointing to the root word “mend” within that process.
For those of us who care deeply about the future of democracy, these questions are urgent. Our actions, individually and collectively, will shape our very future, not just of our nation, but of the planet. The work we do at FINN—elevating the voices of science, creativity, reason and truth all matter. The actions we take in our communities and in our polity are at the core of a thriving democracy.
And as a community, the College of the Atlantic itself is an emerald—a gem nestled sustainably into the shore of Mount Desert Island in DownEast Maine. Islands in general are extraordinary. It is both their vulnerability and their separateness that drive resilience and adaptation—literal and figurative. The cinematic grounds and earthy bustle strike the visitor immediately as an ideal incubator for a protopian society. The vibe that instantly hits is that we as humanity will be made a bit better as a result of the focus and freedoms of this intimate campus community.
COA has one major, Human Ecology, taught through a convergent lens of myriad academic disciplines, with sustainability, food systems, art, energy, resource management all leveraged to investigate and improve the relationship between humans and our natural, built, social and technological environments. It is a lab for experimental farming, was the first institution of higher education to go carbon neutral (2007!) and is home to world-renowned sculptor Andy Goldsworthy’s Road Line, a mesmerizing installation of Maine granite curb stone that runs from Eden Street to the dock at Frenchman Bay, which was a centerpiece of the last Summer Institute focused on Reimagining Exploration. The new president of the college Dr. Sylvia Torti is a scientist, author, academic and the kind of convergent thinker that is surely poised to spark transformation.
In the course of the conversation on democracy, it was former Member of Congress and now MSNBC host Joe Scarborough who shared that former Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) when asked what had changed in American politics his answer was that we used to operate from a common set of facts.
Now we fall prey to disinformation. How we decipher, process and share information is a critical component of democracy. As my brilliant colleague at FINN David Krecji has said “there is a machine out there that wants you to be confused, upset and angry. You are being gamed.” Boy are we ever. And from the COA stage President and CEO of the National Constitution Center Jeffrey Rosen suggested that “posts based on passion spread more quickly than those based on reason.” An eloquent take on a frightening reality.
FINN has launched its own monitoring and modeling capability to help our clients to manage that complex landscape that is filled with folly, pitfalls, and mis- and disinformation. Blame the algorithms if you will, but much of this is intentional and intended to drive wedges among us and weaken the very democracy we work so hard to defend.
Rosen talked about how freedom of speech is both a right and a responsibility. He called himself a radical evangelist for deep reading and urged us to go back to read original texts, be more informed, really explore philosophy. Humans struggle with passion versus reason, spirit versus ego, our better and lesser angels. Call it what you will.
The intellectual quicksand of our current information landscape creates unsure footing, with risks both perceived and unknown. Without common ground and a focused dedication to civic virtue we have seemingly lost the ability to communicate agreed upon truths.
Much like COA’s multidisciplinary approach to problem solving, I think about the work we do at FINN. Our mantra has been to do good in the world by building interdisciplinary solutions to the increasingly complex challenges in the marketplace and marketplace of ideas. No longer can we “hammer and nail” problems. A sophisticated and multi-dimensional toolbox is required. Tackling the grand challenges of our time requires convergence of sectoral and subject matter expertise, state of the art communications monitoring, modeling and tools, policy models, iterative messaging and strategies that are as agile as the environment is dynamic.
In the closing session of the Institute, Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said of democracy that it is the system that we all take care of together. And yes, Democracy is a verb. And a rallying cry for our individual imperatives. We must be. And think. And say. And act. And to close as this began, with Richard Blanco:
“Everything counts.”
POSTED BY: Jessica Berk Ross
