Democracy

[Desiderius Price]

I came across this quote during some other research, seemed poignant given today’s...leadership.

Quote

“Democracy… while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.”

– John Adams

 

[BronxWench]

John Adams had the benefit of a classical education, and was more than passing familiar with the example of ancient Greece, and the representative democracy of Sparta. Rule by the people without a parliamentary framework tends to fall apart, as can be seen in the case of the Athenian democracy. We don’t educate our children as well these days, which is why we are in the state we’re in. We haven’t learned from history, and we are therefore doomed to repeat it.