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.
A claim for equality of material position can be met only by a government with totalitarian powers.
He has come to the most dreadful conclusion a literary man can come to, the conclusion that the ordinary view is the right one. It is only the last and wildest kind of courage that can stand on a tower before ten thousand people and tell them that twice two is four.
Principles are the simplicity on the far side of complexity.
...life is a gift bestowed without anyone asking for it; that the thinking person has a philosophical duty to examine both the nature of life and the conditions it comes with; and that if this person decides to renounce the gift no one asks for, it is the moral and human duty to act on the consequences of that decision.
Ever since then I have believed that God is not only a gentleman and a sport; he is a Kentuckian too.
My dog does not care where heat comes from, but he cares that it comes, and soon. Indeed he considers my ability to make it come as something magical, for when I rise in the coal black pre-dawn and kneel by the hearth to make a fire, he pushes himself blandly between me and the kindling splits I have laid in the ashes, and I must touch a match to them by poking it between his legs. Such faith , I suppose, is the kind that moves mountains.
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