We acknowledge that some conflicts might be permanent and may never end, so collective decision-making doesn’t only take the form of consensus. It’s through conflict that there are resolutions and new agreements. In order to generate new outcomes, there must be a commitment to and acceptance of conflict. It doesn’t make sense to embrace conflict just to get to the end of it, in the form of a final battle, because there’s no “end of history”. It’s still continuing today and will continue tomorrow.
We understand democracy as the most harmonious, free, fair, and responsible way possible to have conflict. It’s something that’s constantly being produced and reproduced collectively, not mechanistically. In that sense, our political vision isn’t an end; it’s a continuation. Democracy is a means.
