The common addiction to general words or concepts tends toproduce mind blockers or reality distorters. As Clive James has putit, "verbal cleverness, unless its limitations are clearly andcontinuously seen by its possessors, is an unbeatable way ofblurring reality until nothing can be seen at all."
"Democracy" is high on the list of blur-begetters--not a weaselword so much as a huge rampaging Kodiak bear of a word. Theconception is, of course, Greek. It was a matter of the free voteby the public (though confined to males and citizens). Pericles,praising the Athenian system, is especially proud of the fact thatpolicies are argued about and debated before being put into action,thus, he says, "avoiding the worst thing in the world", which is torush into action without considering the consequences. And, indeed,the Athenians did discuss and debate, often sensibly.
Its faults are almost as obvious as its virtues. And examplesare many--for instance, the sentencing of Socrates, who lost votesbecause of his politically incorrect speech in his own defense. Orthe Athenian assembly voting for the death of all the adult malesand the enslavement of all the women and children of Mytilene, thenregretting the decision and sending a second boat to intercept,just in time, the boat carrying the order. Democracy had the evenmore grievous result of procuring the ruin of Athens, by voting forthe disastrous and pointless expedition to Syracuse against theadvice of the more sensible, on being bamboozled by the attractivepromises of the destructive demagogue Alcibiades.
