Hampton Town Hall

I don't know whether the Hampton Town Hall is real, or an owner's joke. It stands beside Highway 52, in a field, reminding us of the way we have taken to get to our democracy.

We have come through the family: autocratic families. Strong fathers who provide for, and rule over, their families. Fathers who give their daughters to other men, to found other families.

Autocratic politicians are nothing more than traditional autocratic husbands and fathers, writ large. Kings are just autocrats wrapped in divine rights and splendid clothing. Many families, and much of politics, is still autocratic. There are benevolent husbands and heads of state, and despotic fathers and rulers. The New Testament admonition to families is not to equality, but for the autocrat to be kind, and the wife (or wives) to be thankfully subservient. Some families are still like that: consider your church, or Promisekeepers. Some nations are still like that: they often have religious support.

When families change, marriages become collaborative. The partners negotiate with each other about their roles. One will work, or both will work. One will do most of the cooking, and the other will walk the dog. There may or may not be children. There may be a house, or a condo, or parents to care for. They negotiate and collaborate.

There are political equivalents of collaborative family life: they are consensus societies; usually fairly small, often almost just clans, or tribes, writ large. People gather and talk, in places like Hampton Town Hall, and try to come to agreement, or at least a truce.

Cities are only about ten thousand years old, at most. Cities are, by definition, a lot of people living in proximity, relatively permanently. It is impossible for a big city to be a consensus society. There is too much variety, too many voices to be heard, to many possibilities and opinions to be ironed flat. Cities might still be dominated by autocrats, but if they are modern cities, as there are modern families, the collaboration and consensus has to take new forms. People talk, wherever they are, and a poll is taken. People vote. They agree, beforehand, that they will do what most people want. In really large cities and nations, they may elect representatives to do a lot of the specific negotiating: they form Councils, and Houses, and Senates, and Parliaments.

Autocratic families make for autocratic nations.
Authoritarian fathers make for top-down decisions.
The sweet taste of collaboration makes for human equality,
both at home, and in the Hampton Town Hall.

Comments

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