The Monkeys are Running the Circus
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Everett Piper Everett Piper's Blog
- Updated Mar 01, 2011
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Winston Churchill once said, "The best argument against democracy is a
five-minute conversation with the average voter," and Herman Melville added,
"Democracy is the art of running the circus from the monkey cage."
Watching the protests in Wisconsin this past week I couldn't help but wonder.
A mob strutting through the streets of Madison claiming to be the voice
of the people while ironically ignoring the majority of the people who just voted…
Pundits and politicians claiming to hate hatred while screaming
hatefully at those they hate…
I have to admit it (and I bet you do too), many a time I have found
myself scratching my head saying, "Did I miss something here?!"
A majority of the people in California vote for Proposition 8 yet a
handful of judges contradict those people while claiming to speak for the majority
that they just overruled.
Democratic legislators in Wisconsin who were democratically elected
refuse to participate in the democratic legislative process that they proudly
call a democracy.
Progressives, the self-proclaimed paragons of tolerance and open-mindedness,
condemn the "vitriol" of those they call intolerant and then turn around and
spew vitriolic venom at those they can't tolerate.
Unions, while claiming to be the voice of the people, denying those same
people a voice in opposing forced confiscation otherwise known as union dues.
The list goes on and on. If the duplicity weren't so tragic, it would
truly be comic. Indeed the monkeys are running the circus.
Maybe this is why H. L. Mencken said, "Democracy [is] the worship of
jackals by jackasses."
Maybe this is why Jefferson told us that "the republican"—rather
than the democratic form—"is the only form of government which is not eternally
at…war with the rights of mankind."