Somewhere on here a while back there was a thread with pithy quotations, but I can't find it. I'll start another, with a couple of discussion-promoting statements:

I have long been convinced that institutions purely democratic must, sooner or later, destroy liberty, or civilisation, or both.

Thomas Macaulay

Capitalism fails to realize that life is social. Marxism fails to realize that life is individual. Truth is found neither in the rugged individualism of capitalism nor in the collectivism of communism. The Kingdom of God is found in a synthesis that combines the truths of these two opposites.

M.L. King

Comments? Additions?

Asa, I am not sure if this was the thread you meant or not, but we had one on pithy poems.

You are right; this is mental fertilizer! With the intellectualism on this site, I am hoping for a good discussion here. I would agree that a pure democracy could sooner or later destroy liberty. However, democracy is rarely pure.

The phrase "mental fertilizer" sounds like a euphemism for "BS" to me.

There is no, and probably never has been, "pure democracy". King's words presuppose the existence of a god, specifically the God of Christianity.

I agree with your premise, though, that no sociopolitical and economic system meets the needs of all its citizens throughout time. A developing nation often needs a strong leader to unify and organize the country, which encourages a dictatorship. As the country grows and the populace becomes more educated, the need for a democracy or limited democracy arises. The dictator is seldom willing to give up power, though, so a revolution results.

I've heard it likened to a family. A baby is completely dependent on its parents. As a child grows, parents provide guidance and assume responsibility for nurturing, education, protection, etc. But, as the child acquires education and ability, parents need to relax control to encourage the child's limited independence. The day finally comes when the child is "all grown up" and cuts the apron strings. Often parents don't want to let go for a variety of reasons. Letting go makes them feel less needed and they think they must protect their adult "children" from costly mistakes. Intellectually, the parents realize their children are now adults and must make their own decisions and make their own mistakes, but psychologically it's hard to take.

So it is with countries, though most dictators are not "benign despots". (Unfortunately, many parents aren't either.) Their citizen's welfare is secondary to theirs.

This is a forum about language, so I don’t want to turn it into a political discussion. I would like to emphasize, however, that “democracy” and “capitalism” are not synonymous. One is a political system; the other is an economic system. Most people understand and agree with that. Yet, they illogically compare “democracy” with “communism”. “Democracy” is a political system in which the people rule by majority, and “communism” is an economic system in which goods and services are owned in common (from each according to his ability; to each according to his needs). Pure democracy and pure communism are pretty much the same thing. Both are abstractions, though; neither exists in reality.

Off my soapbox.

Tinman

(Come to think of it, maybe this is "mental fertilizer")

By "mental fertilizer," I meant something like a stimulus to growth. If BS does it for you, so be it! ;-)

Tinman, I doubt that very many USA citizens understand that capitalism is NOT constitutionally linked to the US political arrangement. Let's do a test of my hypothesis: Let's ask a half dozen people how many times the term, "capitalism," or "capitalist" appears in the US Constitution. If they say they don't know, we could then say, "But you agree that capitalism is the constitutionally required economic system, don't you?" I suspect that our economic system's terms have become so embedded in the public's mind that they WILL NOT know that the constitution does not mandate it.

This IS about language, but also about the public's perceptions of the implications of word linkages. Whadda ya say?