Sublime
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N.S. Lyons • The Upheaval
to participate in the great decisions of government. There was, Lippmann brooded, no “intrinsic moral and intellectual virtue to majority rule.” Lippmann’s disenchantment with democracy anticipated the mood of today’s elites. From the top, the public, and the swings of public opinion, appeared irrational and uninformed. The human material out of wh
... See moreMartin Gurri • Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium
The Straussian Moment
gwern.netWilliam’s 126-page record of the city makes him one of the first urban topographers, and illustrates a common paradox – that historians often learn more about a place from notes made by visitors than from records left by residents. Outsiders tend to be more acute observers than natives.
Roland Allen • The Notebook
But this ceases to be the case as we descend to States in which knowledge is less generally diffused, and where the township consequently offers fewer guarantees of a wise and active administration.
Alexis de Tocqueville • Democracy in America, Volume I and II (Optimized for Kindle)
“The enterprises of the country are aggregating vast corporate combinations of unexampled capital, boldly marching, not for economic conquests only, but for political power. The question will arise, and arise in your day, though perhaps not fully in mine: Which shall rule -- wealth or man; which shall lead -- money or intellect; who shall fill publ
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