Beneath Two Countries

 

When considering the first line of the poem in the context of the secret of The Secret, “Beneath two countries,” could refer to American democracy, which is based on Greek and Roman democracies. This also fits with the Liberty Bell. 

I liken democracy to a political thermostat. We tend to think of a thermostat as keeping our house at a particular temperature, say, 72 degrees Fahrenheit. But that’s not the case at all. Heaters and air conditioners don’t like to be cycled on and off every minute or so. This would damage the mechanism. They have to run for at least five to ten minutes, giving us what amounts to a temperature range of something like 71 to 73 degrees in this example. Even though it doesn’t perform exactly as we would like it to, a thermostat is far better than not having one at all, in other words, having just an on/off switch. It would be incredibly inconvenient having to turn the system on and off throughout the day and night. The temperature extremes would quickly get out of hand during times that we were unable or unwilling to attend to it. 

Democracy as it relates to politics is much the same. Democracy helps to keep governments from getting out of hand, becoming too extreme, or just generally out of whack. If some economic policy fails or if a leader becomes unfit, the electorate changes political direction and keeps the country on track. It doesn’t work exactly as we would like, but it’s much better than nothing!

Athenian democracy, the first democracy in the world, was surprisingly hands-on. Not only was every non-slave male citizen able to vote, they were able to vote on each and every law. This made free speech in the general population essential. The most interesting detail I came across in reading about Athenian democracy was an opinion expressed by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus who noted that while living under tyranny the Athenians had been an unremarkable people. They only became a great society, the most powerful and influential Greek city-state, when they were granted free speech. 

Again, though Athenian democracy and how it relates to American democracy is very interesting and important, it’s not a secret. Next I decided to follow the obvious direction given at the end of the poem. 

Seek the columns

For the search.