Thursday, December 13, 2012

quote for the day

"Who would’ve thought giving Egyptians, who have lived under a military dictatorship for 30 years, the right to choose their own leaders would’ve lead to them choosing anti-liberal, theocratic leaders, who would immediately grant themselves dictatorial powers?

Answer: everyone who knows how people operate.

Guys. Democracy doesn’t work unless the people who are voting understand the obligation of choosing leaders. If people are used to dictatorship, and you tell them they can vote, they’re going to assume that means they get to pick the next dictator, and they’re going to do this. Look at Russia and Eastern Europe and Africa. They don’t know any other form of government. You can’t expect them to.

Democracy isn’t in our genes. It’s something that has to be learned. If you shake down all the autocracies and turn them into democracies, you’re going to get democratically-elected autocrats, and the immediate end to democracy.

America needs to stop acting like a hipster doing a semester in the Peace Corps, and start acting on policies that have a bit more of a world-wise adult perspective of human behavior.

Because history isn’t going to give us credit for stopping the Stalins, if our method is simply letting people choose their own new Stalins."


the Virgin Prince

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