The civic is an answer to a question. What question? Well, a different question than the usual inquiry about what we have. That is a property question. ‘What do we own?” “What is yours?” and “What do you hope to acquire?” The civic question is not about having, but about relating. “How are we related?” and “What does this relationship mean?”
Moveon.org has begun a campaign to restore the American Dream as a way of moving citizens to become engaged in progressive politics. In spite of their good intentions, I think this campaign creates more problems than it solves.
It may seem that the uprising of peoples in the Middle East and Northern Africa represents a desire of millions to have what we in the United States already have. To assume so would be a giant mistake.
As we watch the millions of Egyptians gathering throughout the cities of Egypt, I wonder if we are witnessing a true civic revolution—a revolution based on inclusion, human rights, and human dignity. If so, this should be an inspiration to us in the United States. We had a civil war, of course, but not a civic revolution. We are still waiting for it, just as the people in Cairo’s Liberty Square are waiting for theirs.
Sometimes the health care reform debate appears to be limited to two options: libertarianism or socialism. There are more options. Just as there are two different kinds of libertarianism: property based and civic based, one could also speak of a property and a civic socialism.
Marvin T. Brown, Ph.D teaches business and organizational ethics at the University of San Francisco and Saybrook University in San Francisco.
This book is the culmination of 30 years of teaching and writing on business and society from a communicative perspective. Visit workingethics.com for more information.
Adam Smith American Dream Atlantic trade banks biosphere citizen Citizens United civic civic conversations civic economy Civicism civic membership civilizing the economy Commons corporate citizen corporations democracy disagreement economics of property economics of provision Egypt health care reform human dignity invisible hand John Locke libertarianism Libya living wage membership money moral equality property property relations protection Scotland slavery slaves Smith and slavery Smithian economics sports sustainability system of provision the civic tobacco trade Wall Street