Upon Each Citizen Rests the Fate of the Nation
#CreativeFreedomAct #CultureShiftAct #CreativeSocietyAct
Here is an article about one of my sayings I came up with years ago.
‘Upon the Citizen Rests the Fate of the Nation’
There are phrases that condense a whole philosophy of civic life into a single line. “Upon each Citizen Rests the Fate of the Nation” is one of them. It reads like a maxim, but behind it lies a demand: to see democracy not as a distant institution but as a living contract carried on the shoulders of each of us.
The Disappearing Center of Gravity
Too often, the nation is imagined as something “above” us - an abstraction managed by officials, parties, and courts. Citizens recede into the background, spectators of a political theater staged somewhere else. But in a republic, that inversion is fatal. When citizens forget their central role, the center of gravity slips upward, and power accumulates in the hands of a few.
The truth is plainer: a nation is not stronger than the habits, imagination, and courage of its citizens. Its fate rests not on monuments or armies but on the feet and the spines of ordinary people who practice their citizenship responsibility in daily life.
Citizenship as a Living Practice
Citizenship is not a status conferred by birth or naturalization alone. It is an active practice. Voting is the most visible form, but not the only one. Reading critically, holding leaders accountable, showing up in the life of one’s community - these are all acts of citizenship.
When we say the fate of the nation rests upon the citizen, we mean that no institution can permanently guarantee liberty, justice, or fairness. These values must be renewed, one generation after another, by citizens who refuse apathy. A healthy republic is not maintained by heroic leaders alone but by countless small acts of attention and integrity carried out by ordinary people.
The Temptation to Abdicate
It is tempting to outsource responsibility. To assume “they” (the politicians, the courts, the activists) will handle the crisis while “we” remain bystanders. But history’s warning is sharp: when citizens abdicate, nations decay. Tyrants thrive in the vacuum left by disengagement. The tragedy of modern democracies is not only corruption from above but neglect from below.
Reclaiming the Burden as Honor
To say the nation’s fate rests upon the citizen is not to place an unbearable weight on the individual. It is to elevate ordinary civic duty to its rightful dignity. Far from being a burden, it is an honor. Each of us carries a fragment of the republic’s destiny and its dream. In tending it - by thought, by vote, by protest, by compassion, by practice - we tend the whole.
A citizen’s responsibility may feel small but each of us is responsible for the ground where we stand. Taken together these fragments are the architecture of freedom. If citizens stand upright, the nation stands. If they collapse into indifference or neglect, the nation falls.
The Call of the Present
We live in an era when democratic institutions are strained, when cynicism is thick, when it feels easier to retreat into our own private lives. Yet precisely here, the saying resounds: Upon each Citizen Rests the Fate of the Nation.
The nation is not an abstraction - it is the sum of our daily choices, our willingness to see ourselves as custodians rather than consumers of democracy. The republic will not be saved by a savior. It will be saved - or lost - by citizens.
Closing Thought
When we speak of citizenship, let us not speak of paperwork or party labels. Let us speak of a calling: to stand where we are, to engage, to imagine a better future, to take up responsibility without waiting for permission. The fate of the nation rests not in marble halls but in our hands, our voices, our actions.
And if that sounds heavy, let it also sound liberating. For if the fate of the nation rests upon the citizen, then so too does its possibilities.
In whatever we do morning to night we are a citizen that the nation depends on and all of us depend on each other. We express it in our actions or regard for one another, in our fair dealings with each other, in our willingness to lend a helping hand, to watch after our neighbors, to see and treat each other as equals with the same respect and dignity we expect for ourselves as a citizen. In whatever we do we are representing the nation as a whole. Let us act the part and aspire toward the ideal of citizen as we come to understand it.
Myself, I am a studio artist and a citizen. My job and my duty is to start the conversation and seed the imagination. It is up to others in the right places to nurture it into a reality. We all have a part to play. What’s your part? Do it.
Hashtags to use: #CreativeFreedomAct #CultureShiftAct #CreativeSocietyAct
web address: https://www.touchonian.com/s/creative-freedom-act
As always, excellent to read this. For my part, I've not been able to do much studio art these years, other then small collages for Mailart. Ive spent my time doing postcards to voters, making them as creative as I can, to satisfy my need to make, and in the hope that recipients will find the cards fun and pay attention to the message, to get the heck out an VOTE. I do this in groups on Zoom and in person, and at night when we're watching TV. It's been stress relieving and satisfying. AND I hope it makes a difference.
You are so right, and I believe there are other ways we can participate as well. Not only can we participate in public protests, sending letters, etc. we can seek to end the divisions that have kept us apart from each other. This has largely been a campaign to separate citizens from each other, so, we are also engaged in idiological civil war, which weakens our strength as a nation. Let's also start engaging in repairing our unity.
I haven't ever put up an American flag because I felt it symbolized that I was a right-wing conservative, but this is my country and my flag, and I have a right to show my patriotism in my own way. I now have my American flag in front of my house with a blue ribbon. I was thinking about decals or bumper stickers that are American flags with statement sayings, something like "It's mine, too." or "One Nation, INDIVISIBLE" or "I Am A Citizen, too".
Another proactive thing you can do is call your Senators, House Representatives, Governors, and high ranking officials through https://5calls.org/, a website that promotes making your voice heard through providing the phone numbers to the people that make decisions about what is important to you. They used to also provide pre-written scripts (I'm not sure if they still provide them) so all you have to do is call and leave your message. Over 10,000,000 calls have already been made.
Thanks, Cecil, for your important statement: “Upon each Citizen Rests the Fate of the Nation”, a necessary and motivating call to action.