I recently joined facebook and noticed that people have some intriguing ‘favorite quotations’ on their profiles. I read a bunch of quotes on friends’ profiles and realized that quotations are really thought-provoking especially considering context and time. I heard this quote the other day while listening to the radio. It really made me think…. It is a quote from Hermann Goring, a leading member of the Nazi party and military leader during WWI and WWII.
Naturally, the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship. …voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.
I started thinking about Goring’s statement. Can the common people really be dragged along and convinced to follow a leader’s bad decision? Yes! I probably don’t need to say it, but Goring’s quote reminds me of the Bush/Cheney administration’s justification of the war in Iraq. Afghanistan made sense to me, Iraq didn’t and yet we, the common people, were dragged along. There are many common people who have scarified life and limb for our leaders’ poor decision.
How could this happen in the USA, the home of democracy and liberty? I have an idea. I remember learning in high school US history that our founding fathers did not believe in a true Greek democracy, they believed that the common people were not smart enough or qualified to make law. Said another way, “American government is a fusion of democracy and aristocracy (in Plato’s and Aristotle’s sense of the word); as a representative democracy, the principle of government is that the people elect (democracy) the individuals that they feel are the best and most qualified to represent them in government (aristocracy).” Our founding fathers believed that the common people should elect a smart person to represent them. Thus, law would be made by the elite on behalf of the people. The nonsensical Iraq war happened because the people didn’t choose, the elected elite with messed up motivations chose. Our elected elite made the decision to go to war in Iraq based on their future electability, their personal financial benefit, their friends’ and families’ personal financial benefit, not based on the right thing for the US & Iraq and the common people of both nations.
This mix of democracy/aristocracy, our American representative democracy, worked well until now. I think the reason it isn’t working is a change in the motivation of the elected elite. In the old days the elected elite were idealists (for the most part), focused on serving their country doing the right thing for the the people. In the 1800’s there was the concept that elected representatives served their country briefly if elected as a representative and then returned to their lives, they were not professional politicians. Now we have corrupt professional politicians using their power and influence to make money for themselves and their elite friends (think: Haliburton and oil companies recent record-breaking profits).
Maybe we’ve reached a point in our history where the common people are qualified enough to make laws and decisions. Maybe it is time to do away with the electoral college in favor of the popular vote, and referedum voting instead of representative democracy. I think then the common people would have more assurance that the professional politicians are making decisions on behalf of the people, not themselves and their powerful friends.
Since this post is about quotes, I leave you with 3 more
“On most major issues we’ve dealt with in the past 50 years, the public was more likely to be right -based on the judgment of history- than the legislatures or Congress.”
–George Gallup, Sr.
“Dissent Is the Highest Form of Patriotism”
–Historian Howard Zinn or Thomas Jefferson (there is debate, but either way, it’s a good quote!)
“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then.”
–Thomas Jefferson
