An editor of the Washington Post on democracy

[cema]

As a Chinese journalist, you may have your own definition of democracy which corresponds to your history and your way of seeing the world.

I wonder what his definition of democracy is, and to what history and what seeing the world it corresponds.

Democracy in one sense means the majority decides, but it also means the rights of the minority are protected. As UK late Prime Minister Winston Churchill said, democracy is the least bad system that we have ever thught of. So democracy is never perfect. It always has problems. Our democracy here in the US has many contradictions, problems and challenges. So democracy is not a cure that could turn everything bad into good. It has its own advantages and its disadvantages.

Has he graduated from the kindergarten already?

Update. Apparently, my point was not understood. Read inside for more enlightenment.
Update. The editor is now saying he was misquoted by the Chinese agency. His point was milder, but still along the same lines.

Comments

Definition of democracy

[(Anonymous)]

Democracy, n. The condition of people having the government they deserve.

[cema.livejournal.com]

A joke is a four-letter word.

[(Anonymous)]

How I wish it were a joke! There are corollaries, e.g: a regime established in a backwater country by outside "progressionists" is never democratic (people do not deserve it), nor is an ochlocratic regime despite any external features (people deserve better). Some parts of the U.S. are pretty much ochlocratic, and the country as a whole is getting close.

[cema.livejournal.com]

I think the right word here is a "progressor", after the Strugatsky brothers.

I think your estimation of the level of ochlocracy in the US and its dynamics is not correct, but I am not sure I have the facts to support my point of view.

[(Anonymous)]

How I wish it were a joke! There are corollaries, e.g: a regime established in a backwater country by outside "progressionists" is never democratic (people do not deserve it), nor is creeping ochlocracy in a formerly democratic country despite the unchanged external features (people deserve better). Some parts of the U.S. are pretty much ochlocratic, and the country as a whole is getting close.