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.
The president of the United States is not a king. You know? Barack Obama was elected by the American people.
You mention the Navy, for example, and the fact that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets.
Living political constitutions must be Darwinian in structure and in practice. Society is a living organism and must obey the laws of life, not of mechanics; it must develop. All that progressives ask or desire is permission-in an era when 'development,' 'evolution,' is the scientific word-to interpret the Constitution according to the Darwinian principle; all they ask is recognition of the fact that a nation is a living thing and not a machine.
We can have democracy and a prosperous, just, and sustainable human future. Or we can have corporate rule. We cannot have both.
The corporations are powerful only because we have allowed them to be. In theory, it is we, not they, who mandate the state. But we have neglected our duty of citizenship, and they have taken advantage of our neglect to seize the reins of government.
The U.S. is the last country that should see itself as an ally of the apartheid system.
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