Democracy
is the most difficult of all forms of government, since it requires
widespread intelligence, and we forgot to make ourselves intelligent
when we made ourselves sovereign. Education has spread, but intelligence
is perpetually retarded by the fertility of the simple. A cynic
remarked that, "you mustn't enthrone ignorance just because there is so much of it."
However, ignorance is not long enthroned, for it lends itself to
manipulation by forces that mold public opinion. It may be true, as
Lincoln supposed, that "you can't fool all the people all the time," but you can fool enough of them to rule a country.
