I Have A Theory Of Statistics: If

In General, Democracy And Individualism Have Advanced In Spite Of And Often Against Specific Economic Interest. Both Democracy And Individualism Have Been Based Upon Financial Sacrifice, Not Gain. Even In Athens, A Large Part Of The 7,000 Citizens Who Participated Regularly In Assemblies Were Farmers Who Had To Give Up Several Days' Work To Go Into Town To Talk And Listen.

We Must Discover How To Ask Simple Questions Of Ourselves.

The Best Defence [for A Democracy, For The Public Good] Is Aggressiveness, The Aggressiveness Of The Involved Citizen. We Need To Reassert That Slow, Time-consuming, Inefficient, Boring Process That Requires Our Involvement; It Is Called 'being A Citizen.' The Public Good Is Not Something That You Can See. It Is Not Static. It Is A Process. It Is The Process By Which Democratic Civilizations Build Themselves.

We All Need A Bit Of Self-delusion. It Gets Us Over The Difficult Spots.

Now Listen To The First Three Aims Of The Corporatist Movement In Germany, Italy And France During The 1920s. These Were Developed By The People Who Went On To Become Part Of The Fascist Experience: (1) Shift Power Directly To Economic And Social Interest Groups; (2) Push Entrepreneurial Initiative In Areas Normally Reserved For Public Bodies; (3) Obliterate The Boundaries Between Public And Private Interest -- That Is, Challenge The Idea Of The Public Interest. This Sounds Like The Official Program Of Most Contemporary Western Governments.