The word democracy is used in NewSpeak by 20th century liberal-progressive-socialists to mean a collectivized, Soviet-style government that tells its citizens how to live their lives, pacifying them with welfare-state handouts.
Maggie’s Farm has a wonderfully appropriate quotation from C. S. Lewis.
I am a democrat [believer in democracy] because I believe in the Fall of Man. I think most people are democrats for the opposite reason. A great deal of democratic enthusiasm descends from the ideas of people like Rousseau, who believed in democracy because they thought mankind so wise and good that every one deserved a share in the government. The danger of defending democracy on those grounds is that they’re not true. . . . I find that they’re not true without looking further than myself. I don’t deserve a share in governing a hen-roost. Much less a nation. . . .
The real reason for democracy is just the reverse. Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his fellows. Aristotle said that some people were only fit to be slaves. I do not contradict him. But I reject slavery because I see no men fit to be masters.
It is noteworthy that Rousseau, while he believed people to be inherently good, also postulated the General Will. Under Rousseau’s “democracy” the political state was to require all citizens to conform to whatever beliefs and lifestyles the General Will decreed.
And who was to interpret the General Will? Naturally enough, the intellectuals, as only they could understand the laws of nature, unfiltered by worship of God.
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