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Fascinating article Bryce. I'm struck that the Greek word for those who don't participate in civic affairs is "idiot." Your last two paragraphs about non-violent action and the variety of ways from arts, street theatre, public lament and so on are forms of democratic action. I would love to see more about that subject.

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Thank you, Todd! I hope to write about several of those means of nonviolence. My manuscript has a chapter on public lament, using Mordecai as an example. A great book on street liturgy is William T. Cavanaugh's Torture and Eucharist: Theology, Politics, and the Body of Christ.

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Oct 18Liked by Bryce Tolpen

Yes on each point. I prefer voting at the community level. I prefer "anarchy" in it's original sense, that of mutual aid.

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I'm with you on this, John. The works of Buber, Kropotkin, Landauer, and Solnit (A Paradise Built in Hell) on anarchy are compelling. I think Hannah Arendt, who pointed out that "democracy" was a pejorative to replace "isonomy," the Athenian self-understanding of "no-rule," was an anarchist in this sense.

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