Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.
Interpretation
This quote critiques the idea that democracy reflects the wisdom of the people when, in reality, many voters may lack knowledge.
H. L. Mencken's quote suggests a cynical view of democracy, arguing that it relies on the notion that the collective decisions made by the populace reflect wisdom, when in fact they often arise from ignorance. Mencken implies that the justification of democratic processes rests on a flawed belief that individuals, despite their lack of information, can come together to make sound collective choices, highlighting the potential pitfalls of relying on majority opinion in governance.
In practice
In a speech about electoral reforms, one might quote Mencken to highlight the need for better education among voters.
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently-and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himself to the idea that after all God will not help him
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.
If you think God’s there, He is. If you don’t, He isn’t. And if that’s what God’s like, I wouldn’t worry about it.
Don't believe the hype; don't believe what it tells you on your driver's license. You are an extension of the power that created this whole universe.
It is the habit of every aggressor nation to claim that it is acting on the defensive.
We rail at trade, but the historian of the world will see that it was the principle of liberty; that it settled America, and destroyed feudalism, and made peace and keeps peace; that it will abolish slavery.
Our technological society has no longer any place in it for wisdom that seeks truth for its own sake, that seeks the fullness of being, that seeks to rest in an intuition of the very ground of all being. Without wisdom, the apparent opposition of action and contemplation, of work and rest, of involvement and detachment, can never be resolved.
We have had in our nation a well-celebrated Declaration of Independence. But our success as a country will depend upon a new 'Declaration of Inter-dependence.' A belief in how much we need each other, how much we share one common destiny.
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