The Idea of Democracy

The American Soul, Commentary by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat (Excerpt)

“After briefly examining six American virtues and their shadows (including liberty, independence, and freedom of speech), Needleman focuses on the transcendent ideas and ideals of American icons who contributed to the soul of the nation: Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Walt Whitman. Needleman explains: “It is this goal of bringing people together under the guidance of conscience that lies at the heart of the idea of democracy in its uniquely American form.”

The aim of this book is to look in a new way at the fundamental ideals and values that have shaped the American nation and that now are affecting the entire world. The task is to separate out the political, sociological and economic aspects of “America” that by themselves tend to set us against each other, and to rediscover in the American vision the transcendent ideas that can bring and keep people together, both as individuals and in collectivities, for the purpose of serving the good. It is this goal of bringing people together under the guidance of conscience that lies at the heart of the idea of democracy in its uniquely American form.

But the question that now needs to be asked concerns the interior, human meaning of this fundamental goal of democracy and the inner as well as the outer conditions that are necessary for its realization. Can there be any real and enduring relationship between disparate peoples and nations unless there also takes place within the soul of the individual human being a similar movement of relationship between the disparate parts of oneself? Can there be an American nation unless there also exists within oneself a unified American soul? And if there is a failure of the American vision, with all that this implies for the safety and survival of our world, might it not be because we have failed to understand the metaphysical and psychological requirements of the ideals that have shaped our nation? This is what it means to think in a new way about America.”

― Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat [Jacob Needleman, The American Soul, Rediscovering the Wisdom of the Founders (Book Review by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat on the Spirituality and Practice website)].

Additional Jacob Needleman Quotes

“The world needs to help America. It sounds strange, but America needs the goodwill of the world for its survival and for its role of sheltering the process of the inner search. This inner search can, of course, and will take place in other parts of the world — perhaps even better and more deeply than in the United States. But the preservation of a world order in which that search can take place depends for now on the success of America. Outer America has made the world safe for commerce; but in doing so, it must make the world safe for the inner America and the search for truth. It is called to sacralize this present world by keeping alive the external conditions and by protecting the inner attitudes that comprise the habitat of the growing human soul.”

― Jacob Needleman [The American Soul, Rediscovering the Wisdom of the Founders (Book Review by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat on the Spirituality and Practice website)].