A few days ago I went to a talk 
at the University of Southern Maine by Dr. Eboo Patel called Strengthening Democracy Through Pluralism.
Here’s what I learned.
- Eboo Patel is a terrific speaker. And he likes the Grateful Dead. It was super-fun to hear his band analogies; how the Grateful Dead are a model of pluralism.
- Pluralism is acceptance of multiple beliefs; different from “I know what’s right and you should conform.” Pluralism says “We can both be right and coexist.”
- Variety is written into the nature of the universe. Eboo argued that we should adopt pluralism in our governance and in all manner of things because that’s how the universe is designed. The natural world is ALL about variety and coexistence. It works well. So that’s the model we should follow.
- Diversity is written into the nature of our nation. Our Constitution has ideals such as religious freedom and freedom of speech specifically to encourage diversity of thought.
- Particularity is sacred. You don’t have diversity if you don’t have particularity; that is, seeing and honoring the particular characteristics of individuals. It’s not okay to make broad categorizations and generalizations.
- Pluralism takes work. It’s really hard to get people with diverse beliefs to work together cooperatively.
- Diversity is not just the differences you like.
- Not a melting pot, a potluck. The idea of the United States as a melting pot – where we all get blended and pushed to conform to a single culture – is not helpful. Rather, we should celebrate our DIVERSITY of cultures here in the United Stated. THAT’s what makes the United States strong and special. In Europe, each country had a religion and every citizen was expected to fall in line with their county’s religion. That’s what the founders were fleeing.
- It’s critical to have spaces that bring people together for non-controversial activities that require cooperation. Examples: train stations, sports events, libraries, etc. In these places, we coexist peacefully in spite of holding widely-different ideologies. We can do it!
- Let’s create spaces where it’s easy for people to be good. This is what I try to do as a facilitator.
- Eboo told us how he used to think that social justice was the cause of the left; owned by the liberals. Then he met a group of pro-life conservatives who explained to him that actually, THEY were fighting for social justice. Each one of us thinks we’re fighting for social justice.
The thing about the Grateful Dead is that there’s no single right way to play the song. Each song is a plurality of musical instruments and even belief systems, and it worked well. It’s okay to gather the gifts of the moment and make it up as you go along.
Dr. Eboo Patel is the founder and president of Interfaith America and is the author of five books on diversity and democracy. He lives in Chicago.
Dr. Patel was the inaugural speaker in the USM Forum on American Democracy, hosted by USM President Jacqueline Edmonston. This year’s focus is on pluralism. The next talk will be by Raj Vinnakota, President of the Institute for Citizens & Scholars. The topic is Pluralism in Practice. November 5, 2026. 5pm. Hannaford Hall. USM. Learn about it here. I’ll be there.
USM Reads (the University book club) will discuss Dr. Patel’s latest book We Need To Build on September 30 at noon in Glickman Hall, Room 103, on the USM Portland campus.
