It is highly possible for citizens to discuss their way into solutions. But that’s not how the political process works. There you have an agenda and people must dialogue along those lines or they are excluded. But what would happen if an agenda was worked out later in our discussions. This is what happens in real life. Sometimes the answers to our struggles are to be found in third or fourth options, not merely what we are presented by the political class. Community is about conversation; the agenda comes later.

To create meaningful dialogue, good citizens display empathy more than emphasis. To understand and respect where the other person is coming from is one of the hallmarks of civil society – a trait made all to rare these days by a partisanship that’s gone mad. We all have our points of view – interests – and we all need to present them. But above all there is the need to get to the overriding interest of why were attend such gatherings in the first place. Sometimes the best people in such situations are those with respectful characters, instead of those with smart minds that are nevertheless petty.

True dialogue can begin with positions, but it should end in understanding. “Before the tongue can speak, it must lose the power to wound,” said an old philosopher, and we need that insight now more than ever. Free riders come to community engagement exercises with only one purpose: to impose their views on others. They can’t compromise, no matter how well versed they are on the issues – and so the community suffers for their lack of belief in that community. Starting with two monologues is okay, but they must end in dialogue if progress is to be made.

The genius of democracy is not how right, or even how smart we are. It is how open we are to find compromise that will permit us to move ahead as a citizenry. Our present democratic state is mired in rigidity, in policies that won’t budge, and in characters than think having a strong opinion is the same as possessing strong truth. No leader can deliver us from this and no government can legislate an open mind. There’s work to do and humility is the one great essential if we are to succeed.

Just two weeks left in these podcasts, but this is an important one. What happens if we get a chance to build an effective democracy as citizens and no one shows up? Sad to say, this is repeatedly occurring in various citizen engagement activities around the world. The regulars show up, and through their dedication and hard work seek to instill new life back into the democratic spirit. But, in a sad discovery, the learn that the majority just don’t care or seek to involve themselves in the process. How do we get ourselves of that devolving cycle?

Political dysfunction has resulted in numerous efforts at citizen engagement across the board. Yet a sincere questions remains: are citizens mature enough to handle that responsibility? The answer to that seems fairly clear when about half the citizenry doesn’t even vote. We are in an evolutionary phase in the democratic experience – a time when people who no longer trust their elected representatives don’t feel the need to fill in that vacuum with their own efforts. Change is happening, but citizens are not there yet.

It’s amazing that politics has so few referees. In times past it worked because there was a certain sense of nobility, respect, and cooperation among politicians and citizens. No more. As citizens bemoan the divisive partisanship of the political order, they themselves have become harder to bring together for the sake of our country. Like it or not, democracy is predicated on the idea that we can govern ourselves – politicians and citizens. Should we be unable or unwilling to accomplish that, then democracy itself cannot survive.

How we respond to developments is often predicated by how we were heard. Children learn early and instinctively that if they express an emotion that gets a quick and positive response for their caregivers then they are appreciated. Tone deaf parents often leave a legacy of children feeling frustrated and victimized. Citizens experience similar emotions. A community engagement exercise that doesn’t actually listen and respond to what is being expressed is a recipe for ultimate failure. Proper listening, however, might lead to a new and dynamic future.

A collective purpose or elite agendas. London, Ontario’s large citizen engagement initiative, ReThink London, will end up with one or the other of these outcomes. It is a city looking for a new kind of future, but it could end up with the regular special interest groups vying for the dominance of their agenda, or it could draw in a larger citizenry, who for the first time could take part in a large enough project that their voice could make a difference. Either way, the moment is now – and the fate of democracy itself hinges on moments like this.

How is it that Canada – so well-respected for its peaceable efforts around the world – is now failing to bring peace to its own political order? And why is it that citizens, recognizing the tone-deaf actions of the political elites, choose to opt out instead of getting engaged and bringing on a quiet revolution in political affairs? I have been part of peace negotiations in three different continents around the world (not including North America), and I have learned through real experience that respect and a desire for principled compromise has been the only way that peace was achieved and maintained. In Canada, we are heading in the opposite direction.

Great citizens don’t latch out and grab onto rigid ideologies that bring on political warfare. Great politicians don’t either. No one party has all the truth. Neither does any citizen, or group of citizens. Yet as we become more impatient with the political structures of our land, we can often reflect the rigidity of hyper-partisan politics. We must grow as citizens, and to do so will require humility and the admission that we have much to learn if we are to be effective. Political professionals seek to introduce ideological certainty into politics. Such things are false options and we require the on-the-ground sense of living and knowledge each citizen requires each day to live productive lives.