Clubhouse Democracy is not Democracy

Looking at conflicts from the middle East to Ireland to South Africa, a pattern emerges.

The common denominator of successful solutions like Ireland and South Africa are Democratic Institutions that assure Equal Participation based on Ethical Principles that go beyond the exclusionary values of closed groups.

The common denominator of failures and conflicts is Clubhouse Democracy that excludes some groups from equal voting rights and denies them civic and legal assurances of the level playing field required to assure opportunities for a free social life, pursuit of individual and group values, and economic opportunity.

Areas in conflict will remain so until they are willing to make a serious effort to implement True Democracies rather than just Clubhouse Democracies limited to those who share exclusionary values, ethnicity, religion, or heritage. The historically successful solutions share a history of input by charismatic leaders who emphasize Ethics above personal and group values, and multilateral arbitration that emphasizes diplomacy over force, not unilaterally imposed military solutions.

Science and Religion Do Mix

Science provides the underpinning of the ethics behind the enlightenment - unbiased arbitration of differences based on due process and documentation of facts as best can be achieved at the time. Religion remains very important as sets of closed value systems with internally and hierarchially administered rules within that value set. The two address two very different and equally important human needs - for both values - love of the home team - and ethics - love of fair play beyond the scope of the home team. We need both, rather than try to make either into the other.