Thank you for replying. Yes, the ignorance of our representatives is sometimes frightening - I think a remedial course in civics, American history, and basic constitutional law should be mandatory for all elected officials at every level... and yet, the system as a whole continues to function, at some level, and I can't say I'd prefer to live anywhere else. There is a element that folks like the gentleman you respond to below ,have which reminds me of the more arrogant and self-righteous of the folks who surrounded me in college: "The system is bad, straight through, therefore we must tear it down completely, and rebuild it." They want a nice clean tabula rasa, nothing so dirty and complicated as an actual system inhabited by real live human beings who refuse to behave in the way they should. And they are focused on destroying the "bad" system, with very little idea of what would be erected in it's place, much less any thought as to what messy process might have to be gone through to come up with a new one that is acceptable to the people made to inhabit it. As for condemning democracy to the "dustbin of history", well we know what happened the last time someone did this: Dustbin of History, the A handy phrase made famous by Leon Trotsky. The Second Congress of Soviets was being held in Petrograd when news of Bolshevik seizure of power was announced on 25 October (7 November, New Style) 1917. With this decisive turn of events, the Mensheviks and other left groups decided not to participate in the Congress, and as they were leaving the room where the Congress was being held, Trotsky taunted them by proclaiming -- truthfully, as it turned out -- that they were well on their way into the dustbin of history. http://www.voiceoftheturtle.org/dictionary/dict_d1.shtml#dustbin Personally, I'd rather avoid a repetition of the resulting socio-historical disaster. Regards, Thomas Leavitt -- Thomas Leavitt -- thomasleavitt@hotmail.com; ICQ #16455919 http://www.internetmanifesto.org/ http://www.sczenkarate.org/ http://www.space.org/ http://www.gnosis.org/ Wired since 1981. Internet enabled since 1990. Web enabled since 1993.

From: keyser-soze@hushmail.com To: cypherpunks@lne.com CC: "\\" Thomas Leavitt\ "" <thomasleavitt@hotmail.com> Subject: Re: Democracy is our enemy Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 17:46:44 +0000

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I'm tired of hearing my fellow Americans referred to as cowards, weaklings, sheep, ignorant, easily mislead - this is a profoundly undemocratic sentiment, the same kind of crap spewed by totalitarian and authoritarian types from the far left and the far right as justification for abandonment of the democratic process and the use of force to impose

At 04:58 PM 9/24/2001 -0700, Tim May wrote: On Monday, September 24, 2001, at 03:08 PM, Thomas Leavitt wrote: their ideology on the rest of us.

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We are not for "democracy." Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.

We are not a democracy, but a repubic (pun intended). The primary responsibility of our elected officials is to protect the minorities from the majority and to preserve protect and defend the constitution. Many representatives clearly show they have at best a poor understanding of the Constitution, the words and intentions of the framers. Some even show disdain for it. How many Congressmen do you think ever read Thomas Paine's works?

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Crypto anarchy is about undermining democracy, causing the house of cards to collapse.

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I refuse to give up on our way of life, my fellow citizens, or to write off my government as completely and irredemably lost.

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You are welcome to "refuse to give up on our way of life." Many others over the centuries have similarly refused to give up on royalism...I hear there are even clubs where people pretend to be various archdukes and viscounts, and even fan clubs for the grandchildren of royals deposed 75 years ago.

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Maybe there will be fan clubs for "democracy supporters." Maybe they will even launch little wars agains the royalists.

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Democracy will soon be consigned to the dustbin of history.

I hope representative government is not.

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