I feel that these quotes are important, because they show that for a long time, people have wondered about the virtues and shortcomings of our current political system. We now have quite a severe disconnect between the voters and the politicians. Current faith in our leaders is pretty low and has been for a while. Perhaps the answer to how to reinvigorate our leadership model lies in some of the comments below, as they were (mostly) made by people much wiser than myself.
The first one is funny and it reminds me of the GOP primaries alot! No one (except perhaps the "Ron Paul Legion Of Unwavering Support") is voting for a candidate they truly believe in. They are just scared the wrong lizard may get in otherwise... (wake up, the wrong lizard is any lizard except one you really believe in!)
"It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see...."
"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said Ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't the people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in."
- Douglas Adams, in So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish (1984) Ch. 36
Here is a true classic, and one which sums up the real problem in a nut shell.
"Democracy is the worst form of government, except all the others that have been tried."
This one nicely exposes why we all accept the rule of someone who has approval ratings far smaller that the democratic majority.
When people put their ballots in the boxes, they are, by that act, inoculated against the feeling that the government is not theirs. They then accept, in some measure, that its errors are their errors, its aberrations their aberrations, that any revolt will be against them. It's a remarkably shrewd and rather conservative arrangement when one thinks of it.
this one is really good, considering the worldwide polarisation we are seeing now:
We are now forming a republican government. Real liberty is neither found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments.
Something for the libertarians to think about:
Democracy is necessarily despotism, as it establishes an executive power contrary to the general will; all being able to decide against one whose opinion may differ, the will of all is therefore not that of all: which is contradictory and opposite to liberty.
This one is what im currently really worried about.:
Tyranny is usually tempered with assassination, and Democracy must be tempered with culture. In the absence of this, it turns into a representation of collective folly.
Again a nice comment which today holds as true as in 1977 when it was first coined
The way people in democracies think of the government as something different from themselves is a real handicap. And, of course, sometimes the government confirms their opinion.
In the case of a word like DEMOCRACY, not only is there no agreed definition, but the attempt to make one is resisted from all sides. It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it: consequently the defenders of every kind of régime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using the word if it were tied down to any one meaning. Words of this kind are often used in a consciously dishonest way. That is, the person who uses them has his own private definition, but allows his hearer to think he means something quite different.
A personal favourite which sums up one central issue nicely:
We have really put the duh in democracy, creating a perverse equality that entitles everyone to speak to every issue, regardless of how much they know about it.
Democracy has turned out to be not majority rule but rule by well-organized and well-connected minority groups who steal from the majority.
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