#democracy

Anarchism? You bet your sweet betsy. The only cure for the ills of democracy is more democracy. Much more. ↗

— Edward Abbey

#democracy #anarchism

The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. --as quoted in THE RIVER OF WINGED DREAMS ↗

— Abraham Lincoln

#angels #civil-war #democracy #destiny #determination

I believe in political equality. But there are two opposite reasons for being a democrat. You may think all men so good that they deserve a share in the government of the commonwealth, and so wise that the commonwealth needs their advice. That is, in my opinion, the false, romantic doctrine of democracy. On the other hand, you may believe fallen men to be so wicked that not one of them can be trusted with any irresponsible power over his fellows. That I believe to be the true ground of democracy. I do not believe that God created an egalitarian world. I believe the authority of parent over child, husband over wife, learned over simple to have been as much a part of the original plan as the authority of man over beast. I believe that if we had not fallen...patriarchal monarchy would be the sole lawful government. But since we have learned sin, we have found, as Lord Acton says, that 'all power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.' The only remedy has been to take away the powers and substitute a legal fiction of equality. The authority of father and husband has been rightly abolished on the legal plane, not because this authority is in itself bad (on the contrary, it is, I hold, divine in origin), but because fathers and husbands are bad. Theocracy has been rightly abolished not because it is bad that learned priests should govern ignorant laymen, but because priests are wicked men like the rest of us. Even the authority of man over beast has had to be interfered with because it is constantly abused. ↗

— C.S. Lewis

#government #monarchy #religion #equality

La democracia, como yo la veo, es una forma de oligarquía en la que el pueblo, ignorante, cree participar, pero en realidad las elecciones no son más que una coartada para que, aunque rotando, manden siempre los mismos. El secreto de la democracia reside en hacer creer al pueblo que piensa y decide, no en hacerles pensar y decidir realmente. ↗

— Pedro Santamaría

#democracy #español #political #politics #política

I think the Iraqi people have shown extraordinary patience and courage in the last few months. They have really put a political system on the way to success, to a real democracy here. ↗

— Paul Bremer

#democracy #extraordinary #few #here #i

Democracy may mean something more than a theoretically absolute popular government, but it assuredly cannot mean anything less. ↗

— Herbert Croly

#anything #assuredly #cannot #democracy #government

As you know from reading many of these Negro writers, we don't deal too much with the discussion of democracy and what it means and how improvisation fits in all that. ↗

— Stanley Crouch

#democracy #discussion #fits #how #improvisation

Now undoubtedly, we face some very British challenges when it comes to infrastructure. We rightly cherish our back yards and green spaces, and we'll defend them passionately when projects are announced. We live in a democracy, and we like to debate these things, often for many years. ↗

— Evan Davis

#back #british #challenges #cherish #comes

I'd like people to be educated on the voting machines, making sure that our democracy isn't being hijacked by computer technology. There's no reason there can't be a paper trail on those machines. ↗

— Eddie Vedder

#computer #democracy #educated #hijacked #i

We in universities are not in the democracy business. What we do, when we're doing it, is teach and learn. ↗

— Stanley Fish

#democracy #doing #learn #teach #universities