Getting a GRIP

Lappe talks about frames, describing them as, “They [frames of orientation] determine — often literally — what we can see, what we believe humans are made of, and therefore what we can believe is possible. In other words, just about everything,” (6). Lappe believes that our ideas or “mental frames” are help our cultures and societies change and better themselves. These ideas make us who were are as individuals and a society. Without these frames, we wouldn’t have set beliefs, which make us less as individuals. Lappe includes, “These ideas have been drilled into us for centuries, as world religions have dwelt on human frailty, and Western political ideologies have picked up similar themes,” (6). These frames can also be changed over time, for example, over the last 50 or so years, women have slowly gained more respect over time. Even though we’re still discriminated against, it’s not as bad as it was before. Now there are many women in positions of power, and that “frame” would have never been thought of in the 1950’s.

Lappe also talks about a “thin democracy” which is focused on mainly one thing: money. One of the problems is the economy, “By continually returning wealth to wealth, a one-rule economy leads to an ever-increasing concentration of power,” (9). There is a miniscule amount of people controlling all the power just because they have all the money. Monopoly isn’t just a game, it’s a reality. Politics are also getting messed up in our thin democracy because those who have money can influence those in power. These politicians get swayed to do things that may be beneficial for the rich, but harmful to everyone else. For example, something very close to my heart: pharmaceuticals, “pharmaceutical lobbyists helped craft a healthcare law that forbids Medicare to negotiate drug prices — while we pay double what Europeans do for identical drugs,” (13). I’ve often heard from family overseas that we’re paying way too much for everything, and I’m completely jealous of their free healthcare and tax-less lives. It’s difficult to live in a society where money is the main drive for everything, when it should be the people’s needs, which is exactly what a democracy should be.

In order for a “living democracy” to work, we have to take action. Lappe includes five qualities that describe how a living democracy works. The one that spoke to me the most was the third quality: learned, not automatic. Lappe states, “Humans are innately social beings, it’s true, but that doesn’t mean we’re necessarily born knowing how to ‘do democracy’ effectively,” (33). I couldn’t have said it better myself, because there are only a handful of things we are born knowing how to do. If we were born knowing what a democracy was, then we’d just have kid politicians running around. Like everything else, we need to practice to make things perfect, or at least close to it. Usually, we learn about democracy and other politics during high school, which gives us enough time to learn more about democracy before we actually start making an impact in the world. Lappe says, “Young people are among those catching on and leading the way,” (33). Considering that young people are going to be the ones continuing to live in the world, they should be have a say as to what’s going on right now because it affects their future. Why should we live in a world that we didn’t have any input in? Young people need to start being active in a living democracy as soon as possible in order to make their futures better and brighter. We cannot be stuck in the “mental frames” that will be outdated decades from now.