#racy

The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return. ↗

— Gore Vidal

#criticism #democracy #oppression #democracy

Society will develop a new kind of servitude which covers the surface of society with a network of complicated rules, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate. It does not tyrannise but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd. ↗

— Alexis de Tocqueville

#government #serious #democracy

Democracy is always an unfinished experiment, testing the capacity of each generation to live freedom nobly. ↗

— George Weigel

#experience

And every historic effort to forge a democratic project has been undermined by two fundamental realities: poverty and paranoia. The persistence of poverty generates levels of despair that deepen social conflict the escalation of paranoia produces levels of distrust that reinforce cultural division. Rae is the most explosive issue in American life precisely because it forces us to confront the tragic facts of poverty and paranoia despair, and distrust. In short, a candid examination of race matters takes us to the core of the crisis of American democracy (p. 107). ↗

— Cornel West

#democracy #poverty #race #life

Religious dogma creates a perfect fertilizer for the weeds of hypocrisy. ↗

— Steve Maraboli

#fertilizer #hypocracy #hypocrite #religion #weeds

Never sleep with a lady only once, especially in the case of an older lady. -'Rhett ↗

— Rowena Cherry

#humor #racy #romance #rules-for-a-rake #sperm-donor

I was part of that strange race of people aptly described as spending their lives doing things they detest to make money they don’t want to buy things they don’t need to impress people they dislike. ↗

— Emile Henry Gauvreau

#hypocracy #humor

As centuries of dictators have known, an illiterate crowd is the easiest to rule; since the craft of reading cannot be untaught once it has been acquired, the second-best recourse is to limit its scope. ↗

— Alberto Manguel

#dictators #illiteracy #reading #censorship

A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote in a national election. ↗

— Bill Vaughan

#citizen #cross #democracy #election #fight

Illiteracy does not impede the practice of democracy, as witnessed by the success of democracy in India despite the high illiteracy rate. One doesn't need a university diploma to realize that the ruler is oppressive and corrupt. On the other hand, to eradicate illiteracy requires that we elect a fair and efficient political regime. ↗

— Alaa Al Aswany

#illiteracy #india