Democracy | Some revealing quotes

"The political class is supported by the many-thousand-voiced chorus of those who are committed to it by the already accomplished or still hoped-for awarding of offices and dignities. The proof of deficiencies is made difficult at the outset by the fact that there is an abundance of thought patterns (paradigms), formulas and theories that support the basic ideological thesis of the quasi-automatic functioning of the system. They seek to close the gap between norm and reality not by improving reality, but by interpreting the norm laxly or by obfuscating reality. Serving the cause of legitimizing power despite its democratic shortcomings" Hans Herbert von Arnim

"The politician who once had to learn to flatter Kings has now to learn how to fascinate, amuse, coax, humbug, frighten, or otherwise strike the fancy of the electorate." George Bernard Shaw

"It does not really matter whether democracy functions according to its original idea but rather that it is seen as functional by the population." Rudolf Augstein

"Universal suffrage did not give the masses the right to decide, but to approve the decision of one elite or another." José Ortega y Gasset

"What would be in store for mankind, for example, if one wanted to take advantage of the fear of bacilli and create regulations of a legal nature against the fight against bacilli. ( ) It is impossible to control all this, but it would lead to impossible conditions, to an intolerable tyranny." Rudolf Steiner

"The general population doesn't know what's happening, and it doesn't even know that it doesn't know." Noam Chomsky

"The ideal tyranny is that which is ignorantly self-administered by its victims. The most perfect slaves are, therefore, those which blissfully and unawaredly enslave themselves." James Dresden

"You're going to be a homogenized consumer class of worker drones in order for them to establish Elysium, and this is also where ... the metaverse comes in. Transhumanism, this is your bread and circuses now. It's virtual bread and circuses to distract you from the suffering that goes on all around you." Jack Posobiec

"We've arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. And this combustible mixture of ignorance and power, sooner or later, is going to blow up in our faces. Who is running the science and technology in a democracy if the people don't know anything about it? ... Science is more than a body of knowledge, it's a way of thinking. A way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we're up for grabs for the next charlatan, political or religious, who comes ambling along." Carl Sagan

"The perfect dictatorship would have the appearance of democracy, a prison without walls in which the prisoners would not dream of escape. A system of slavery where, through consumption and entertainment, slaves would love their servitude." Aldous Huxley

"So long as they (the Proles) continued to work and breed, their other activities were without importance. Left to themselves, like cattle turned loose upon the plains of Argentina, they had reverted to a style of life that appeared to be natural to them, a sort of ancestral pattern...Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult." George Orwell

"All governments use force and all assert that they are founded on reason. In fact, whether universal suffrage prevails or not, it is always an oligarchy that governs, finding ways to give to 'the will of the people' the expression which the few desire." Vilfredo Pareto

"Publicity is the deliberate attempt to manage the public's perception of a subject. The subjects of publicity include people (for example, politicians and performing artists), goods and services, organizations of all kinds, and works of art or entertainment." Marshall McLuhan

"In their moral justification, the argument of the lesser evil has played a prominent role. If you are confronted with two evils, the argument runs, it is your duty to opt for the lesser one, whereas it is irresponsible to refuse to choose altogether. Its weakness has always been that those who choose the lesser evil forget quickly that they chose evil.[....] Acceptance of the lesser evil is deliberately used to accustom officials, as well as the population at large, to accept the evil itself." Hannah Arendt