It is perhaps an inherent problem wherever the universal franchise is unaccompanied by widespread virtues such as honesty, self-control, providence, prudence and self-respect. Greece is therefore a cradle not only of democracy, but also of democratic corruption.Read of the rest of the article here. The American Founding Fathers knew the score: Democracy ends when the mob becomes corrupted. It's not just the bankers and politicians which are wicked, so are the people.
The Greek demonstrators did not understand, or did not want to understand, that if there were justice in the world, many people, including themselves, would be worse rather than better off, and that a reduction in their salaries and benefits was not only economically necessary but just.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Athens Burning
It's an old article but a good one and pertinent once again to contemporary financial events.
The "rest of the article" link goes right back to your own website.
ReplyDeleteLink Fixed.
ReplyDeleteThe American founders, scattered though they were from Deism to various forms of Protestantism to Catholicism all would have scoffed, some violently, at the notion of human perfectability. All of them knew all too well of the evil that men can do. And so the American Republic was constructed ingeniously to pit interest against interest, government branch against branch, diffusing power as widely as possible while remaining workable.
ReplyDeleteMany of those protections were chipped away starting about 100 or so years ago, and yet there is still some semblance of the old Republic. One of the weaknesses of pure, unicameral, proportional legislatures or parliaments can be seen at work in Greece.
And yes, the people, bless their dirty, sinful hearts, are just as prone to do evil as any banker, any general, any rabble rouser. Which is why they must have some authority, but not too much.
Many of those protections were chipped away starting about 100 or so years ago,
ReplyDeleteI still think universal suffrage was the most toxic change.