Democracy

Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.

-G. K. Chesterton, hat tip Terry Teachout

The Democratic Contention

In honor of election day...

The democratic contention is that government (helping to rule the tribe) is a thing like falling in love, and not a thing like dropping into poetry. It is not something analagous to playing the church organ, painting on vellum, discovering the North Pole (that insidious habit), looping the loop, being Astronomer Royal, and so on. For these things we do not wish a man to do at all unless he does them well. It is, on the contrary, a thing analagous to writing one's own love-letters or blowing one's own nose. These things we want a man to do for himself, even if he does them badly.

-G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

The Democratic Contention

The democratic contention is that government (helping to rule the tribe) is a thing like falling in love, and not a thing like dropping into poetry. It is not something analagous to playing the church organ, painting on vellum, discovering the North Pole (that insidious habit), looping the loop, being Astronomer Royal, and so on. For these things we do not wish a man to do at all unless he does them well. It is, on the contrary, a thing analagous to writing one's own love-letters or blowing one's own nose. These things we want a man to do for himself, even if he does them badly.

-G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy