Paige Bueckers and the Spirit of Democracy . . . and Dependence
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In this moment, recognizing and highlighting the spirit of democracy alive and at work in the United States strikes me as a vital exercise. We need to recognize its beauty, understand what it affords us and how it benefits us or can benefit us if fully extended and realized, and how more democracy–not less–can solve issues and improve our lives.
I worry Americans have lost touch with the sensibility and spirit of democracy, not to mention an intellectual understanding of our nation’s history and what made the experiment of democracy our founders undertook so remarkable, in theory if not always entirely in practice. Certainly, U.S. history has been marked by the denial of full rights and humanity to women, people of color, LGBTQ people, and others at the same time the nation has trumpeted important principles of democracy, equality, and liberty and justice for all.
Still, realizing democracy, as opposed to abandoning the project before it is finished and turning toward authoritarianism, it strikes me, is the answer to our most pressing social challenges, such as the erosion of civil and human rights and the gross economic inequality characterizing American society.
When it comes to the price of eggs and Americans’ overall economic struggles and feelings of being left out or left behind, the solution, I would suggest, lies in democratizing the economy so all share in the wealth we collectively produce, not turning to an autocracy overseen by billionaires who have never shown any inclination toward addressing the gross economic inequality and class divisions plaguing our nation.
Women’s basketball, especially the WNBA, represents an important cultural and social institution that marks an advance in the nation’s journey toward full democracy, including an inclusive economic democracy. The WNBA as a league creates spaces that celebrate women’s equality, LGBTQ identities and civil rights, and racial liberation–and it is also an economic engine that provides opportunity and inclusion for women that previously had not existed in this developed way (there were earlier leagues that didn’t survive). Check out the documentary Power of the Dream to learn about the key role the WNBA played in challenging white supremacy and saving us from Trump’s authoritarianism in the 2020 elections.
That women’s basketball embodies the spirit of democracy we need to embrace was brought home to me recently hearing Paige Bueckers comment on her performance in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. Responding to questions about her place among the greats in NCAA women’s basketball history, she said,
“I’m extremely blessed and extremely grateful that I even get to play at UCONN and be in these conversations with, like, the greatest of all time. But people see the points, but, like, a large just attribution to Sarah, Jana, Azi, the way they were screening for me, getting me open, getting me looks. Everybody sees the points,but nobody sees the screens set, the passes that were found to me. So it’s, I guess, an individual point total, but it’s really a team effort.”
What is it exactly about this statement that expresses the spirit of democracy?
Well, for one, let’s recognize the way she recognizes the value, dignity, and essential contributions of each member of the team, highlighting the reality of the interdependence of each member of the team; no one individual on the team could achieve what she does without the others. When we talk about all people being created equal, a supposedly foundational principle of America’s democratic experiment, I believe Buecker’s statement recognizing the value of each individual and the way we each make each other’s lives and achievements possible really defines egalitarianism. This or that person may be a better mathematician, doctor, sprinter, musician, three-point shooter–or whatever–than someone else, but that doesn’t mean those others have less value in the world, that their lives matter less, or, perhaps most importantly, that they are less necessary or essential–or that we depend on them less.
Bueckers reminds us of the power, indeed the reality, of the American collective. Put in other terms, that reality is the bottom-line undeniable fact that we don’t achieve anything alone. If we recognize this irrefutable fact, this axiomatic reality, then we look at, experience, and value others as people we need and depend on–as Bueckers does. Put simply, if we sincerely and deeply recognize each other’s value and our inevitable reliance on others for our own well-being and success, then we also recognize our need to support those others and care for their well-being. In social and political contexts, that would mean making sure all people have housing, access to health care, enough to eat, a good education, clean air and water, etc. We exit the meritocratic mindset so pervasive in our culture that encourages us to think some deserve more or less than others, are more or less important than others, and matter more or less than others.
We see this spirit embodied in Bueckers’ getting up at 5 a.m. to cook breakfast during the NCCA tournament for her teammate Jana El Alfy who was fasting during Ramadan. Bueckers doesn’t see herself as a star because she recognizes each individual’s value to the team.
In an egalitarian world, the recognition that all people are created equal entails creating a material social world and political economy that meets the needs and provides for the well-being of each individual.
Bueckers’ statement–and her breakfast-cooking behavior—absolutely elevates and underlines the spirit of democracy precisely because it underscores the reality–too often ignored–of our dependence on one another. Her statement serves as a powerful corrective to the narrow and wrong-headed hyper-individualism that too often rises to the forefront in American culture and thought, traditionally and in the present, tending to foster in us beliefs that some are better than others, deserve more or less, etc.
We tend to obscure or ignore the fact that we exist in and are dependent on a collective. In the context of basketball, particularly women’s basketball (arguably a very different game, or style of game, than men’s basketball, the NBA especially), we can just reflect on the Caitlin Clark phenomenon. Sure, she’s a great scorer and overall player. The media give and gave her a huge share of its attention, particularly during the 2024 NCAA Tournament. And yet Dawn Staley’s South Carolina squad won the championship, and all she ever talked about was the importance of the team–much like Bueckers. But we don’t really see the media elevate or fixate on the team or the importance of the concept of team; rather they promote a hyper-individualism that ignores the reality of the collective and in doing so forward a distorted understanding of our reality.
Bueckers and Staley share in an intellectual tradition with an earlier genius named Albert Einstein, who articulated in detail in 1949 this understanding of who we are and inescapably collective beings. He wrote,
The individual is able to think, feel, strive, and work by himself; but he depends so much upon society—in his physical, intellectual, and emotional existence—that it is impossible to think of him, or to understand him, outside the framework of society. It is “society” which provides man with food, clothing, a home, the tools of work, language, the forms of thought, and most of the content of thought; his life is made possible through the labor and the accomplishments of the many millions past and present who are all hidden behind the small word “society.”
Most profound is Einstein’s insistence that our dependence is an asset, not weakness. This is a powerful corrective to our culture’s conventional way of thinking about dependence, as he writes,
The individual has become more conscious than ever of his dependence upon society. But he does not experience this dependence as a positive asset, as an organic tie, as a protective force, but rather as a threat to his natural rights, or even to his economic existence. Moreover, his position in society is such that the egotistical drives of his make-up are constantly being accentuated, while his social drives, which are by nature weaker, progressively deteriorate. All human beings, whatever their position in society, are suffering from this process of deterioration. Unknowingly prisoners of their own egotism, they feel insecure, lonely, and deprived of the naive, simple, and unsophisticated enjoyment of life. Man can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting himself to society. (Bolding is mine)
The reality of dependence Bueckers, Staley, and Einstein celebrate–and which I think we must embrace if we truly seek democracy–I believe everyday Americans feel and understand on some intuitive level but repeatedly forget, unable to hold in their consciousness, perhaps mesmerized by what seems to be the hypnotic allure–or distraction–of America’s greatest myth of hyper-individualism. Americans rail against corporations and the way they screw over us ordinary folk in inhumane ways in the name of profit, and yet Americans voters continue to put billionaires in positions of power to make their decisions about their lives. Luigi Mangione is elevated to the status of American folk hero for murdering the CEO in the health insurance industry, an industry known for callously refusing Americans’ claims for medical care in order to boost profit margins, showing no regard for human life; and yet Americans continue to elevate oligarch billionaires and failed, fraudulent businessman like Trump, to rule their lives, perpetuating the absurd myth that they’re somehow superior human beings. This myth obscures the reality that “their wealth” and hence the power it affords them is actually produced by the collective workforce of everyday Americans and workers all over the globe.
Recognizing the reality of the collective, of our dependence, means rejecting, as our nation’s founders did, a society ordered as a repressive hierarchy that prevents people from fully developing, telling some them they are fit for only certain stations in the hierarchical order, which ranks and values people differently, unequally. That simply isn’t reality–just as the idea that some strong man or supreme leader is better equipped or more deserving, to be in a position to make decisions about other people’s lives is also disturbingly out of touch with reality.
I’m with Bueckers and democracy. Let’s recognize those who set the screens, make the assists, spread the floor, and take care of all the essentials that make our individual and collective lives possible. This recognition is a key step to fully realizing democracy in America.