The work of the OMNIBUS is grounded in the Extended Definition of Art, which,
oriented toward the essence of freedom, enables people to throw off the structures
of outside domination.

The OMNIBUS, always together with More Democracy, is conceived as the instrument
of a new foundation of the idea of democracy within each person – hence the idea that
every person acts, with equal rights, as a responsible and capable co-shaper of society.
Joseph Beuys’ statement that “every person is an artist” is also in reference to that.

This new foundation of democracy can only occur directly; hence, direct democracy.
“Direct” means that it can only sprout within the human self, and that it can also only be
implemented directly by him or her, in the form of direct votes on all essential questions
which concern everyone. The principle of “election” must be supplemented at all levels
by the principle of “referendums.” The suitable form for that is a three-stage structure:
the popular initiative, the petition for a referendum, and the referendum vote.

Without this complementary element, merely parliamentary – i.e. indirect – democracy
steadily degenerates into party rule, which is increasingly experienced by people as
outside rule – as non-democracy. We have also long-since known that it has provided
a maneuverable force to be used in the interests of capitalist profit and of its power mono-
polies. The view that people are incapable of self-determination and self-government is
the fundamental error which, combined with a capitalism unfettered by democratic controls,
results in the devastating damage which we are familiar with as the ecological crisis, the
social crisis, the financial crisis, etc. These are all global catastrophes, not least among
their causes being abbreviated concepts which together yield an abbreviated concept
of humankind, which is in turn expressed in the dominant power structures. But people
are destined for liberty – not in its abbreviated form, but as creators of a higher form.
To fail to recognize this means to face demise, not only one’s own, but that of the
earth and all creatures living on it.

The question of democracy, posed thus directly, is an identity question. A very current
example of that is the question of a European identity transcending national boundaries.

The OMNIBUS journey out of Germany to the southeastern countries of Europe,
sponsored by the Goethe Institute in Athens, is a coherent picture. Wherever it goes,
it is not only a voice, but also an ear. How can the various languages transmit their
messages? Listening thoroughly to the voice of the other means starting anew in a
strange land, the origin of the idea of “democracy” – direct. And at the same time,
a recalled sense of the origin of this idea, 2500 years ago in Greece.

This is the path which the OMNIBUS for Direct Demo cracy in Germany is following,
together with MORE DEMOCRACY.

Johannes Stüttgen, Easter 2009