Did the mass of men know the actual selfishness and injustice of their rulers, not a government would stand a year. - The world would foment with revolution.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that if people truly understood the selfish behavior of their leaders, they would rise up against them.
Theodore Parker's quote reflects the idea that the masses are often unaware of the true nature of their rulers' selfishness and injustice. It implies that a lack of awareness among the public allows governments, often built on greed and corruption, to persist unchallenged. The statement implies that if the public were enlightened about their rulers' misconduct, it would lead to widespread discontent and ultimately revolution against unjust governance.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of transparency in politics, one might use this quote to emphasize the need for awareness among citizens.
A democracy,- that is a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people; of course, a government of the principles of eternal justice, the unchanging law of God; for shortness' sake I will call it the idea of Freedom.
Want and wealth equally harden the human heart, as frost and fire are both alien to the human flesh. Famine and gluttony alike drive away nature from the heart of man.
The books which help you most are those which make you think the most. The hardest way of learning is by easy reading; every man that tries it finds it so. But a great book that comes from a great thinker, β it is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth, with beauty too.
No man is so great as mankind.
Outward judgment often fails, inward judgment never.
You may not, cannot, appropriate beauty. It is the wealth of the eye, and a cat may gaze upon a king.
Politics is the art of the next best.
The military destabilised my government on politically motivated charges.
I could end the deficit in 5 minutes. You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP all sitting members of congress are ineligible for reelection.
Every provisional political set-up following a revolution requires a dictatorship, and an energetic dictatorship at that.
The performance of international institutions will be symptomatic of the domestic political priorities of influential member states. International institutions don't really have a life and a mind of their own.
Irish tory employers hid[e] their sweatshops behind orange flags, and Irish home rule landlords us[e] the green sunburst of Erin to cloak their rack-renting in the festering slums of our Irish towns.
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