BEFORE THE MOST COMMONLY asked questions about Active Humanism are answered, two attitudes about politics held by millions of Americans must be addressed: "I'm not interested in politics," and "politics has nothing to do with my needs or wants."
These are not only negative attitudes, they are destructively false. You should be interested in politics, because it has a lot to do with your needs and wants. Politics is mostly about money and wealth; who gets it, who doesn't get it, and who keeps it. It's related to how little you make in wages or salary, how much politicians can take of your earnings in taxes, and how much businessmen can steal from you with overpriced products.
Does this sound like something you shouldn't be interested in? Is all of this really unrelated to your life?
In totalitarian countries, where citizens live under brute-force rule and constant fear, rulers take whatever they want of the nation's natural resources for themselves, and tax common citizens for as much as they want. Commoners can do little about the situation without using brute force.
In the United States—which claims to be a democracy—our economic rulers also have taken much of the nation's natural resources for themselves, and our political leaders tax us for as much as we let them get away with. We have the latent power to peacefully do something about it, but we don't. Which is why, in the United States, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Just like in totalitarian countries.
The answer is for common people to get involved in "politics," but not the politics of our "representative" democracy, which is too heavily stacked against us. We should get involved in a system such as a Direct Democracy that allows each and every one of us to participate in determining the values and laws that govern our society.

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What is Active Humanism, and what
is its connection to Direct Democracy?

A successful Direct Democracy can be maintained only by a people possessing a positive, realistic philosophy of life. It is improbable that such a political form of government can be initiated or maintained by people who believe that life on Earth isn't as meaningful as the eternal life-after-death promised them by religious hierarchies.
Active Humanism is such a possitive philosophy. It's a belief based upon reason and common sense. It's a belief the only life for Earth people is here and now on planet Earth and, therefore, it should be one of society's prime functions to educate each and every citizen with the knowledge and skills necessary for each to effectively and efficiently administer and maintain government.
It's a belief that only the active, unified, physical effort of the majority of a nation's common citizens can make it possible to transform their nation into a friendlier, more positive, social environment than the hostile societies produced by hierarchal systems such as monarchies, dictatorships, and phoney "representative" democracies like the United States of America.

Who are Active Humanists?
Anyone who believes there must be a better and fairer way to run the affairs of a people, and is willing to join with other people to actively search for that way can be considered a potential Active Humanist.
Potential Active Humanists include idealistic people who dream of a better world; trusting people who are confused by leaders who say one thing, but do another; poor people who are surrounded by a material glut they can't share; minority People weary of discrimination and prejudice; females who know males fear to have their females equal, and thinking people who understand that existing political ystem are responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people, and the degradation of planet Earth.  

Why should anyone believe
a direct democracy will work better
than a representative one?
All political systems ever to exist on planet Earth, from rule of one, such as in a dictatorship, to rule of few, such as in the Roman Empire, to rule of many but not all, such as in Classical Greece have been "them against us" systems; hierarchical systems; systems hostile to their common citizens; systems that created negative, unhealthy social environments.
What the people of planet Earth haven't seen is a government managed by all of its citizens; a form of organization by which all contribute to mold the values and laws governing their lives. Only such a politically organized society, with its ability to thoroughly diffuse political and economic power holds the potential to create a comparatively classless society; a society in which no individual or group has the power to send other citizens to fight and die in unnecessary and unwanted wars; a friendly society which cares for and nurtures all of its citizens.
The hope of our group is that this site will become a virtual meeting place for discontented American commoners who wish to make this a better country. It is irrelevant whether the cause of discontent is racial discrimination chauvenist abuse, economic injustice, environmental destruction, corporate dishonesty—whatever. Our goal is to unite and fuse these Americans into the country's greatest political force, create a new Americn political system, intiate the common sense changes that our "leaders" stubbornly refuse to make, and then help citizens of other nations to make these changes.
Strategies and objectives are based upon the following six premises:

1. We commoners must actively produce such change ourselves, now, before the corporate rush for global rule removes the opportunity for individuals to do so peacefully;

2. Neither our political leaders, religious leaders, nor economic rulers will ever do it or they would have attempted it by now;

3. The core need for such change is the flagrant bias of the American System for rich, white, privileged males;

4. Privileged citizens of this country have been waging a war against common working Americans for over 200 years, but working Americans of post WWII generations aren't aware of this truth—as their parents, grandparents, and great grandparents were—and they don't understand that their separate battles are merely minor battles that can provide only minor victories.
It is a unified war that must be fought and it is the war against the "American Establishment"—the powerful, wealthy Americans who control the nation's corporate, financial, and political systems.
Nor is there time to wait for various activist groups to realize that all the problems they confront are the consequences of class bias and the misuse and abuse of economic and political power by wealthy Americans.

5. The only way to fight this war is to marshall the forces of those who fight for black rights, female rights, environmental rights, human rights, social rights, labor rights, and family rights. And the only way to win the war is to gain the trust of the millions of voters who have withdrawn from the system and don't vote, and give them a reason for voting;

6. There are no other logical options for thinking people who wish to claim the rights and fair treatment they have been denied for so long, and which only a direct democracy promises to deliver.  

Isn't this revolutionary talk?
Yes, and no! In a way it is, but it isn't a new revolution being proposed. It's a continuation of the the one begun in 1776 and diverted with sneaky words by the American privileged for their own benefit.
It's the change expected by every American colonist who fought to discard rule of the English king. It's the change advocated by the farmers of the late 19th century in their fight against moneylenders and the undue concentration of wealth and power. It's the change advocated by the young Americans of the '60s and '70s in their Port Huron Manifesto. It's the change for right over wrong. It's the change from pseudo-democracy to true democracy. And it's a change long overdue.

Won't control of government by the
ignorant, emotional masses be disastrous
for minority rights? Won't it interefere
with our successful system of deliberation
and debate?
No! That's the propaganda preached by rich minorities of all places and times. But it's not true. Inherent in a functional system of direct democracy is an educated citizenry, for a true democracy would provide every citizen with the necessary knowledge, skills, and discipline to effectively administer government and attend the welfare of society.

  Isn't it impractical, if not impossible,
to have a direct democracy within our
republican form of organization?
Absolutely!
We are a republic and there are too many chiefs and too many powerful self-interests within the republican form of governance. There are fifty states and one federal government, ruled by fifty-one different sets of political and economic gangs. There are fifty-one sets of laws, and fifty-one sets of taxing formulations. Many Americans haven't really understood that the U.S.A. isn't a single country, but merely an association of states (which in Europe are called countries). Nor are most Americans aware that legally they are first New Yorkers, Californians, or whatever, before they are "Americans."
A true democracy would be a single, unified, political structure. One set of laws, one set of taxes, and no professional politicians; the people administer government and make the laws.

Won't a strong, central government
which plans the overall society be
dictatorial? What about "government
is best which governs least?"
Such a statement is neither true, nor relevant, in a direct democracy where the government is us. All of us.
It is true and will always be true, when applied to them-against-us governments such as found in hierarchical social systems; governments comprised of people whose interests are unrelated to the interests of the governed, governments with unregulated powers that allow these people to care for their interests at the expense of the governed.

What can I do to help change our political
form of government to a direct democracy?
Tell one person a day about this site. Begin reading about direct democracy . Visit our sister site Voices for Direct Democracy, and visit the links recommended on our links page to see how many other alarmed and discontented Americans realize it's time for change. Spread the suggestion that it's time to form a true Direct Democracy Party. Not one that merely changes the names and faces of public officials, but one that promises to change the American System—if the people vote it the power to initiate change.
It must be a party built upon a clearly defined plan of change and objectives that the people can understand, not one filled with the same old tired cliches of our two jaded political parties.
You and all the other common, working citizens of the United States are the only ones who can transform the idea of change into the reality of change. But you must help to make the attempt.
Remember, if you don't reach for the brass ring, you can never get it!