Democracy is not about getting the "best" or the "wisest", or the most "moral" government. It's about making it as easy as practically possible to get the government we deserve--or think we deserve. If we think we deserve better government, we don't have to raise an armed insurrection, we don't have to conduct massive civil disobedience, we can just go to the ballot box and vote it in.
But we have to do it.
If we tolerate evil, we will have an evil government. If we tolerate being lied to, by the government, the media, corporations, by anyone, we will be lied to. If we tolerate being exploited, we will be exploited. If we tolerate being enslaved, we will be enslaved.
Slaves deserved to be governed by slave-owners.
That is all. You may now return to your dogmatic slumbers.
[T]he superstition that the budget must be balanced at all times, once it is debunked, takes away one of the bulwarks that every society must have against expenditure out of control. . . . [O]ne of the functions of old-fashioned religion was to scare people by sometimes what might be regarded as myths into behaving in a way that long-run civilized life requires.
Pages
▼
Thursday, February 15, 2007
2 comments:
Please pick a handle or moniker for your comment. It's much easier to address someone by a name or pseudonym than simply "hey you". I have the option of requiring a "hard" identity, but I don't want to turn that on... yet.
With few exceptions, I will not respond or reply to anonymous comments, and I may delete them. I keep a copy of all comments; if you want the text of your comment to repost with something vaguely resembling an identity, email me.
No spam, pr0n, commercial advertising, insanity, lies, repetition or off-topic comments. Creationists, Global Warming deniers, anti-vaxers, Randians, and Libertarians are automatically presumed to be idiots; Christians and Muslims might get the benefit of the doubt, if I'm in a good mood.
See the Debate Flowchart for some basic rules.
Sourced factual corrections are always published and acknowledged.
I will respond or not respond to comments as the mood takes me. See my latest comment policy for details. I am not a pseudonomous-American: my real name is Larry.
Comments may be moderated from time to time. When I do moderate comments, anonymous comments are far more likely to be rejected.
I've already answered some typical comments.
I have jqMath enabled for the blog. If you have a dollar sign (\$) in your comment, put a \\ in front of it: \\\$, unless you want to include a formula in your comment.
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.
"Democracy is the theory that the people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard."
ReplyDelete-H.L. Mencken
Gotta love Mencken!
ReplyDeleteThat's why I like the Democrats. They're considerate enough to use a little lube when they're screwing you senseless.