The Breath Eternal: Earliest Emotions in the Making of Democracy

Before Democracy there was AWE.

AWE was surely universal among beings self-ascribed as human.

AWE resided in the individual being before that AWE, felt by that being, was shared within the group.. The group became therefore the bearer of a collective Awe, on its way to develop Faith and Reason.

AWE likely existed before FAITH.

AWE precedes FAITH. AWE precedes REASON.

One may likely come to FAITH -- as a consequence of AWE.

Beings, many among us, come to faith, after AWE.

But EQUALLY, the one and the group may come to INQUIRY, DOUBT, SKEPTICISM and REASONED KNOWLEDGE as a consequence of AWE, instead of coming to FAITH.

FAITH and DOUBT are equal options, following upon AWE.


Faith is the prerequisite of Religion. Without Faith, continuing in Faith, a state of Faith, there can no Religion.

Doubt is the prerequisite of Science. Without Doubt, continuing Doubt, a state of Doubt, there can be no Science.

Faith requires Surrender, Science requires Doubt.

It was likely that within the group, not merely within the individual, that the notion of a shared universality of Breath was given shape and substance.

It was likely in the group that aggregated beings discovered the Breath Eternal. They came near to one another to collectively discover Breath.

What united them was Breath. What separated them from Death (known all too well among them) was Breath.

That each being, each one among them, shared Breath in common with all living others others and all of observable nature, was likely felt, noted and uttered.

The Breath Eternal likely became the basis of the social bond, Breath became the basis of community, Breath became the basis of endeavor to promote the well-being of the individual and the group, Breath became the ground of language, art and science.

In all instances, whenever or wherever Breath was perceived to be limited in scope, or adjudged to be possessed by few instead of ALL of Nature and the universe, Breath likely became deployed as the basis for violence and misery, injustice and want.


The Breath Eternal, from the earliest days of its acknowledgment, by individuals within groups, as part of the individual, as shared by the group and was universal, became the fountainhead for the making of Democracy.