Shantung Compound by Langdon Gilkey

Author:Langdon Gilkey [Gilkey, Langdon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2012-11-09T08:00:00+00:00

Those of us who were on committees at the beginning had been appointed to our posts rather than elected. Although I was a convinced believer in democracy, the fact that I was appointed had hardly bothered me. Nor did it at first occur to me that a more democratic way of choosing our camp government might be preferable. I liked my job; I was delighted to be a “big shot.” The thought of a possible election probably signaled more of a threat than a promise to the average committeeman.

I soon noticed, however, that my own attitude was changing, as was that of the other men in similar work. The remarks people made to us when we sought to deal with them did the most to effect this change. When we tried to move anyone, or change anybody’s status for the worse, we were met by suspicious questions about ourselves:

“Where do you get the authority to come in here and tell me to move?” someone would say. “Why aren’t you moving, too, if it’s so all-fired important that we move? And why aren’t your friends being moved? Incidentally, I notice those other committeemen aren’t moving either!”

Such a fog of suspicion could never be dispelled so long as we held office by appointment. Then the question “How did you get your authority?” was not answerable. Our authority derived merely from the other committeemen and not from the persons with whom we had to deal; in the most concrete sense, it was an illegitimate authority.

One reason that democracy is essential as a form of government suddenly dawned on me: under it, authority is derived from the very people who suffer from its exercise, and a rational answer can be given to the question of its legitimacy. If I had been elected, I could have said, “How did I get this authority? From you! And if you do not feel we are doing an honest job, pick someone else at the next election.”

Amusingly, therefore, the very men who at first basked in the security of having been appointed found they preferred the risk of elected status. This was not because of “faith in democracy,” though most of us had that, but because of the need to compel the carping public to share in part with us some of the onus for the unpopular actions we must take. As the supplies man remarked: “Then the people who always complain will have helped to put me here in this post. I can more easily overlook their carping at what they call my inefficiency and dishonesty!—because they have elected me, and so it’s their fault as much as mine!”

For these reasons, after six months in camp, it became a regular practice, twice a year, to elect the nine chairmen of the committees. Gradually, the same process of “democratization” took place in all those positions of responsibility where conflicts could occur, where complaints were common and suspicions likely.

Being the manager of a kitchen was, for example, a post of real responsibility.

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