Is Democracy Good or Bad?
A member was trying to make the point that Democracy is a bad thing and the U.S. Founders were against it and gave several quotes to support his view.
Quite a few conservatives have this view, but I believe they are mistaken. First let us look at his quotes from Thomas Jefferson
First quote: “A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51% of the people may take away the rights of the other 49%.”
This is a fabricated quote, evidently made up by someone who didn’t like what Jefferson really had to say about Democracy.
Let us look at his second Jefferson quote:
“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”
This is another fabricated quote.
This seems to be a quote that applies much more to communism than democracy.
Here are a few of many examples of what Jefferson really thought about democracy.
“The fundamental principle of [a common government of associated States] is that the will of the majority is to prevail.” Thomas
Jefferson to William Eustis, 1809.
“I subscribe to the principle, that the will of the majority honestly expressed should give law.” Thomas Jefferson: The Anas, 1793.
“Where the law of the majority ceases to be acknowledged, there government ends; the law of the strongest takes its place, and life and property are his who can take them.” Thomas Jefferson to Annapolis Citizens, 1809.
“[Bare] always in mind that a nation ceases to be republican only when the will of the majority ceases to be the law.” Thomas Jefferson: Reply to the Citizens of Adams County, Pa., 1808.
“Absolute acquiescence in the decision of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism, “ Thomas
Jefferson: 1st Inaugural, 1801.
Now let us look at the rest of his quotes.
“When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.” Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
This is also most probably a false quote and the closest thing to it was originated by Alexander Fraser Tytler, a contemporary with Franklin. No one seems to find this quote being attributed to Franklin before 1988
That said, let us see if this applies to democracy in our age. It doesn’t, but it does apply to our Republic for this is happening in the here and now before our eyes. We have a small minority having power to vote themselves money and benefits and this, not the majority, is causing our financial ruin. The majority of the people are very concerned over this abuse.
“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.” Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
Another false quote. There is no record of Franklin saying this.
There are a lot of flaws in this quote that Franklin would have seen. For example, what we have now is a dozen wolves voting what to have for dinner with none of the lambs being able to vote at all. Since lambs outnumber wolves then a democracy would wind up protecting the lambs.
I’ll assume the rest of these quotes are accurate, as I do not have time to check each one. So far it looks like anti democracy people just make up quotes to fit their need.
Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist Papers gave these words against democracy: “We are a Republican Government, Real liberty is never found in despotism or in the extremes of democracy…it has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this. The ancient democracies in which the people themselves deliberated never possessed one good feature of government. Their very character was tyranny; their figure deformity.”
Hamilton is dead wrong on this. Where has there ever been a democracy that was a tyranny? Never. Mainly because there has never been a democracy in the history of the world. The closest thing to one was Athens, but even this was a representative government with each potential voter representing at least a dozen people who could not vote.
Even so Athens created the greatest example of freedom and enlightenment the world had seen up to that time. Nearby Sparta was a dictatorship and very little light came from there compared to the more democratic Athens, the center of enlightened philosophy.
John Adams: “Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”
Adams didn’t know what he was talking about. There has never been a democracy.
James Madison: “Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their death.”
Yeah, right and the opposite of democracy like North Korea, Cuba and the old Soviet Union are really compatible with personal security and property rights.
John Quincy Adams: “The experience of all former ages had shown that of all human governments, democracy was the most unstable, fluctuating and short-lived.”
The same could be said of freedom. Wherever freedom surfaced in our world history it only lasted for a short while because all the powers of the beast fought against it. The one great example of a group seeking freedom during the Roman Empire was led by Spartacus. It was short lived and failed. Did this make it wrong?
No. never.
The human spirit will pursue freedom and true workable democracy until they are achieved.
James Madison: “Democracy was the right of the people to choose their own tyrant.”
Tyranny is always a possibility in any system, however without the right of the people to vote they will have a tyrant by default. The more democratic the government the less likely is tyranny for what people will vote to elect or re-elect a known tyrant?
John Adams: “That the desires of the majority of the people are often for injustice and inhumanity against the minority, is demonstrated by every page of the history of the world.”
And where is there a great injustice that the majority of the people of the United States desire?
I can’t think of any.
I can, however think of many that minorities desire. Here are a few.
Murder, rape, racism, slavery, dictatorship, more stimulus, forced socialism and communism, no free speech, no guns for protection and lots of others.
I’ll pick the will of the majority any time over the average will that the minority that rules in the present governments of the world.
The reader then noted that my book Eternal Words presents the Masters as requiring 100% agreement on weighty matters
He is seeing correctly here. The masters do not use the majority rule and the Molecular Relationship does not teach it or practice it. I have outlined in some detail how this works in my book The Molecular Relationship.
So why do I teach majority rule as a current political solution but not for the molecules? Here is the reason.
The Molecular Relationship is basically representative government with the right to vote the leaders in and out. The main way it differs from our Constitution is that a vote can be called for at any time.
Unfortunately, this type of government only works efficiently when there is little or no corruption and the most enlightened gravitate to the top with the power to replace them at any time a mistake is seen. In the current situation the most corrupt often rise to the top and become little tyrants.
Among the Masters, representative government works well because the enlightened rise to the top. One important ingredient that causes this is in the Molecular Relationship is the leader can be voted out at any time. This puts constant pressure on the leader to respect majority will except in the exceptional times he sees a controversial move that the others do not.
Because of corruption and power grabs of the unenlightened the representative system is not working for us and the majority of the people see with much more clarity than do many of our elected officials. Therefore, working with majority will makes sense at this time. The great part about it is that if you work with majority will you can eventually get to a greater place of power than any of those representing minority will as is the case today.
It is interesting that even though the Molecular Relationship is representative that it almost always represents majority will.
But…
In our system minority will is represented much more than the majority.
If the representative system is working properly then the majority will be represented around 90% of the time. If it is represented only half the time or less then it needs to be replaced by direct majority rule.
Finally, here is the danger if corruption goes to the limit. When this happens both the majority of the representatives and the majority of the people desire the wrong thing. At this point the nation is doomed to collapse. We are not there yet, as the majority still have a little sense. How much longer they can be usable to turn things around I know not. Perhaps not that long. – so we must act.
“The will of the majority [is] the natural law of every society [and] the only sure guardian of the rights of man.” – Thomas Jefferson, Letter to James Madison, December 20, 1787
Aug 8, 2010
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