Co-operation and Democracy

Recently we watched for a second time the movie-documentary ‘I AM’. Tom Shadyac, director of such movies as ‘Nutty Professor’ and ‘Ace Ventura’, had an accident which caused brain damage.  After nine months of excruciating disability, he was ready to die. Life was no longer worth living. But before he went, he wanted to find out - ‘what’s wrong with the world?’. G K Chesterton was asked to write an essay on the same subject. He wrote ‘I AM’. 

Tom Shadyac also asked, ‘What can we do about it?’ He travelled the world with a small film crew and spoke to leaders, philosophers, scientists, linguists and others. Desmond Tutu said, ‘the truth .... is, we belong’. Societies work only through co-operation and democracy, whether we talk about humans or any group of animals or insects.

In our own country over the last few months, we have seen co-operation work to the highest order. For the good of all of us, we gave away some freedoms, knowing that in the long run we would all win through. Those who spouted ‘civil disobedience’ were not interested in the great good, only personal good. Take a good look at those few dissenters.

Why, as a country, were we willing to achieve such an unprecedented result? I believe that it is because, in the main, we arrived in this country as pioneers. We were not running from religious persecution. We were not sent here as convicts, or brought here as slaves. Our forebears chose to come here, knowing there would be hard work ahead. They knuckled down and did it. As we have all just done.

Tom Shadyac found in the end that there is one principal that describes what is good about the world, and that is LOVE. He rephrased the question. ‘What’s good about the world?” And the answer? I AM.