Is it worth making an effort - or should we accept that most people are stupidly hooked on 'bread and circuses?

Concerning local or grass-roots democracy a correspondent wrote;

i think it will be as problematic as the current system, as the basic problem is that people mostly are not *involved*, they passively look for entertainment, and are not educated in the qualities to look for, and this will always mean bad choices will be made, *whatever the system*...

Thanks for your comment - it helped me clarify what I think we should be doing.

IMHO - Keeping the masses uninvolved, not least via bread and circuses, has been the trick all along - by those who have managed to shift the vast majority of wealth to a tiny percentage of the population – here, in the US and in many countries.  Have we forgotten the idea of abolishing the extremes of wealth and poverty?  In the UK . 

The answer to un-involvement is involvement.  The answer to alienation is meaning and bridge-building.  The answer to passivity is action.  The answer to stupidity is education.  Otherwise we should just give up. 

I suppose giving up on democracy altogether and going for a dictatorship might bring the greatest good for the greatest number - that's worked so well in the past!

Democracy is the worst form of government except all the other forms that have been tried from time to time – Winston Churchill

On the issue of replacing negatives with positives a certain spiritual teacher advised us that when a negative thought came we should replace it with a positive one.  Recently Thelma sent out this wonderful video (Thanks Thelma);

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