Mnr AM de Lange wrote:
> In other words, the thread "What is democracy" has taken a new
> direction for me. How much do we make sure that people can learn as
> much as possible from other people all over the world what democrcy
> amounts to? Only the few students who brush through the department of
> political science have the formal opportunity to learn something
> about democracy. They are less than 0.01% of the city's population.
a few thoughts about "democrats" extracted from a letter written by Thomas
Jefferson to P.S. Dupont de Nemours in 1816.
"We [of the United States] consider society as one of the natural wants
with which man has been created; that he has been endowed with faculties
and qualities to effect its satisfaction by concurrence of others having
the same want; that when, by the exercise of these faculties, he has
procured a state of society, it is one of his acquisitions which he has a
right to regulate and control, jointly indeed with all those who have
concurred in the procurement, whom he cannot exclude from its use or
direction more than they him. We think experience has proved it safer,
for the mass of individuals composing the society, to reserve to
themselves personally the exercise of all rightful powers to which they
are competent, and to delegate those to which they are not competent to
deputies named, and removable for unfaithful conduct, by themselves
immediately."
"I acknowledge myself strong in affection to our own form, yet both of us
act and think from the same motive, we both consider the people as our
children, and love them with parental affection. But you love them as
infants whom you are afraid to trust without nurses; and I as adults whom
I freely leave to self-government."
These are powerful thoughts from an intellect and heart that influenced a
world far removed from his own.
-- "The way out is via the door. Why is it that no one will use this method?" -ConfuciusRichard C. "Doc" Holloway Your partner for workforce development Visit me at http://www.thresholds.com/community/learnshops/index.html Or e-mail me at <mailto:learnshops@thresholds.com> Mailing Address: P.O. Box 2361 Phone: 01 360 786 0925 Olympia, WA 98507 USA Fax: 01 360 709 4361
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>