Democracy and Fallen Man

C. S. Lewis is one of my favorite authors.  He often crystalizes the truth in succinct quotes that touch on our most important issues.

This quote is worth sharing simply because it is so relevant at a time when we are so busy (and rashly) setting up officials to have more and more power over the citizens.

From a health care, to unionization, to stadiums, to education, to genetic privacy, our legislators are taking choices from us and giving those choices to officials.  Those choices are lost in tiny slices, not all at once, but the sphere in which we are free and independent is shrinking, and the sphere in which we are dependent on, and subject to, the dictates of the state is growing, without a doubt.

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 everyone deserved a share in the government. The danger of defending democracy on those grounds is that they’re not true. And whenever their weakness is exposed, the people who prefer tyranny make capital out of the exposure. 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. Nor do most people—all the people who believe advertisement, and think in catchwords and spread rumours. The real reason for democracy is just the reverse. Man 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.

- C. S. Lewis in Present Concerns

Amen.