China is the Origin of Democracy...News&Opinion

The International Institute of Nonviolence

By: Rev. Jermano

Finding the origin of Democracy and its meaning has been a surprising research endeavor. Just who invented Democracy? Where did it originally begin? Many people are said to be comfortable with the idea that Democracy originated from America. Just where did the founding fathers of America really get their ideas about Democracy?

The Founding Fathers are said to have had strong educational backgrounds. Some, like <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />Franklin, were largely self-taught or learned through apprenticeship. Others had obtained instruction from private tutors or at academies.

About half of the men had attended or graduated from college in the colonies or Britain. Some men held medical degrees or advanced training in theology. For the most part, the delegates were a well-educated group. A few lawyers had been trained at the Inns of Court in London, but most had apprenticed to an American lawyer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_Fathers_of_the_United_States

Yet we do know that Americans were really British at one time and traveled across the Atlantic to the North American Continent to live. England was very well aware of Democracy well before the English Founding Fathers arrived in the North America.

For example: The rise of democratic parliaments in England and Scotland: Magna Carta (1215) limiting the authority of power holders, First elected parliament (1265), The Levellers political movement, English Civil War (1642-1651), Habeas Corpus Act (1679), English Bill of Rights and Scottish Claim of Right (1689). See also: other documents listed at the Constitution of the United Kingdom, History of the parliament of the United Kingdom. Simon de Montfort in 1265 introduced the idea that power holders are responsible to an electorate — (although only landowners were allowed to vote in the 1265 English election) Renaissance humanism was a cultural movement in Europe beginning in central Italy (particularly Florence) in the last decades of the 14th century. It revived and refined the study of language (First Latin, and then the Greek language by mid-century), science, philosophy, art and poetry of classical antiquity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_democracy

Democracy can be found to have started in Greece, in Athens in 508 BC, along with many believing Democracy began in Mesopotamia or Iraq in 1728- 1686 BC. This would prove George Bush is wrong in having said he was bringing Democracy to Iraq.

India also predates Greece from Ancient Indian History to have valid examples of Democracy....therefore proving their democratic origins.

http://www.nipissingu.ca/department/history/muhlberger/histdem/indiadem.htm

Rev.

http://cache.search.yahoo.net/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=Ancient+India+is+the+Origin+of+Democracy+Hindu&rp=Ancient+India+is+the+Origin+of+Democracy&sado=1&y=Search&fr=ush1-mail&u=www.hccanada.com/brahmindemocracy.pdf&w=ancient+india+indian+origin+origins+democracy+hindu&d=VGWXERg5RMGt&icp=1&.intl=us 

Rev.

 More interesting and compelling are the nations in our present world who are Democratic. There are 195 countries in the world and http://geography.about.com/od/countryinformation/a/capitals.htm

out of that number 140 are Democratic. 82 of that number are true Democracy’s. http://cache.search.yahoo.net/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=Beginnings+of+Democracy+in+S.+America&y=Search&fr=ush_mailm&u=www.mygreencard.com/downloads/Democracy_in_Latin_America_2004.pdf&w=beginnings+beginning+begins+democracy+%22in+s%22+ins+america&d=dQramRg5RUkF&icp=1&.intl=us

 

So the world is really batting about 50/50 in being Democratic, while about 25% favors Democracy and the other 25% does not have Democracy. That is an interesting comparison I think.

 

Considering Russia, Lenin was a revolutionary social democrat. 1905 http://www.bolshevik.org/Pamphlets/LeninVanguard/LVP%201.htm

Even Stalin practiced Democracy in his life. Stalin’s revolutionary life began in 1898, at the age of nineteen. He had not yet heard of Lenin, but joined the Messame Dassy, one of the many petty bourgeois socialist groups active in Russia then. His father was a shoemaker and mother was a washerwoman who wanted her son to become a priest and so sent him to a church school.

His result was exceptionally brilliant and this got him to the Theological Seminary of Tiflis, Georgia, run by Jesuit monks. His attitude regarding the oppressive atmosphere of the Seminary and its priesthood was rebellions.

But, he started studying Darwinian biology and Economic history already, books forbidden in the seminary, and became member of the Messame Dassy. He was expelled from the Seminary in 1889. For a time, he took a job in the Tiflis Observatory. It was in fact his secret shelter. From what little is known of this period, it appears that socialists in Georgia, including members of the Messame Dassy, were divided on almost similar lines as the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks – and that young Stalin was nearer to the Bolshevik line, without knowing it.

In 1900, he and his colleagues organized the first May Day demonstration in Tiflis. Before the May Day in 1901, the tsarist police discovered and raided Stalin’s ‘‘secret office’’ at the observatory and arrested others. But Stalin escaped and addressed the May Day rally in the centre of Tiflis.

He was soon elected to the Social Democratic Committee of Tiflis and it sent him to organize the workers in Batum, where he took the name of Koba.

Within just four months, as the tsarist police record says, ‘‘As a result of Djugashvili’s activities, Social Democratic organizations began to spring up in all the factories of Batum …’’ After spending 18 months in tsarist prison, he was exiled to Siberia but escaped and arrived in Tiflis again in 1904. He ‘‘traveled from one prison or place or exile to another’’, in his own words, including Siberia, for several years between 1901 and 1917.

http://www.northstarcompass.org/nsc0509/stalin.htm

What is far more interesting is that the oldest known civilization in the world PR China began on Democratic Principals. It was called the Abdication System.

As life in Prehistoric Times was hard and full of challenges, people lived together to fight against terrible weather conditions and all kinds of natural disasters. The Chief was chosen according to one's ability in a system that was called the Abdication System. Shun was recommended by the previous chief, Yao, and became his successor. Later, Yu became the chief because of his contribution to controlling floodwaters. This system continued until 2070 BC when Boyi was recommended by Yu and Qi. Yu's son killed Boyi and made himself the king. Thus the Abdication System ended. The first dynasty - Xia hereafter became the forth ruling family in Chinese history. http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/history/prehistoric/

Just what is the Abdication System?  The best person should lead us is selected or chosen. I don’t know about you, but that is what Democracy is supposed to be isn’t it?  We decide who the best person is and we choose him or her to lead us. In all intended purposes here I wish to illustrate that basically nobody invented Democracy. It is something that has been with civilization since the oldest known civilization in the world having been founded in China.

In fact I would go as far to say that really Democracy has always been a test of wills with it self. Never mind the idea we give it another name called Communism, or Nazism, or Fascism or Imperialism.

Hitler a prime example was voted into power by the auspices of Democracy, a sad revelation but true.

Politically, Hitler acted from a dictatorial stance to enforce what he called "positive Christianity." The original twenty-five point party program, a Constitution of the Nazi party, included a demand for liberty "for all religious denominations in the State" and that it stood for "positive Christianity." Hitler insisted and declared the twenty-five points as unalterable [Toland p. 218] (in spite of the anti-Catholic feelings of Martin Bormann). Hitler got his way.

Hitler stressed the importance of a strong, well-organized Evangelical church which would work in close cooperation with the state. He conceived of creating one large united Protestant church to stand parallel to the Catholic Church. And to the Catholics, Hitler wanted their freedom of spiritual and educational power, as long as they did not come in conflict with the political will of the government. Thus, the Nazis and the Vatican worked for an agreement, conducted by Eugenio Pacelli (Pope Pius XII). On July 20, 1933, the Nazis and the Vatican singed the Reich Concordat, establishing the freedom and power of the Catholic Church in Germany. http://www.nobeliefs.com/hitlerchristian.htm

But we know Hitler was crazy when he started his assault on the world always reflecting on the Old Testament toward his political decisions with war.

He was mad with Violence instead of Nonviolence, and somehow as our society moves forward with its preconceived ideas of Democracy, nothing has really changed much except the rule of the Abdication System; may the best man or woman lead us.

http://www.sacu.org/religion.html

Rev.