The Case for Pro-Democracy Rituals
Humans are not natural hermits. We’re group creatures, craving connection, yearning for belonging. We seek like-minded souls, hoping to become part of something greater than ourselves. It’s primal, instinctive, part of what makes us human.
That impulse runs deep within us, imprinted into our behavior over thousands and thousands of years of our ancestors engaging in a specific activity that, when done properly, produces the most powerful social glue we’ve ever known.
That glue is called ritual. It’s a binding agent, taking disparate parts—individuals—and smooshing them into a cohesive group with a sense of shared purpose and an intertwined identity.
Rituals are therefore a potent force, sometimes enlisted for good, other times not, but always able to sway us. Crucially, whether it’s religious ceremony, sporting superstition, or marking a milestone with family tradition, they make us feel good. At their finest, rituals provide one of the great joys of what it means to be human, the thrill of togetherness, a sense of unity in a world where too many feel alone.
Here’s the problem: the political right and authoritarian movements have perfected the art of the ritual. They have tapped into this ancient wisdom, harnessed it, used it to mobilize their members and fasten them together. And it works.
The political left and pro-democracy movements, by contrast, have often unilaterally disarmed, jettisoning rituals, even looking down upon them, then scratching their chins with perplexed bafflement as to why they keep losing battles that they should be winning. “We’re the party of reason,” some will say. Congratulations! But reason isn’t fun.
Secular progressives are naturally suspicious of ritual. With good reason, it must be said. They can give rise to the excesses of Granfalloon Politics. At their most pernicious, the brainwashing effects of extremists rituals—including Nazi salutes—have been used to aid and abet every worst “-ism” that our species is capable of, with hateful nationalism even culminating in genocide.
For some, then, ritual is a dirty word, associated with conformity, a tool to turn individuals with the gift of independent critical thought into groupthink lemmings. “I’ll keep my individual identity without the need for any meaningless group,” they proclaim with an aloof smugness. “Let the sheep enjoy their rituals.”
Enjoy them they do. But we should too. Rituals are not to be shunned, but celebrated. They’re fun. If we don’t satisfy our intrinsic craving for them, demagogues may swoop in and fill that void.
Let’s see how rituals work, why we need them, and how we might use them to fight back and build a more just, democratic world.
