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It is not good for him who makes the laws to execute them, or for the body of the people to turn its attention away from a general standpoint and devote it to particular objects. Nothing is more dangerous than the influence of private interests in public affairs, and the abuse of the laws by the government is a less evil than the corruption of the legislator, which is the inevitable sequel to a particular standpoint. In such a case, the State being altered in substance, all reformation becomes impossible, A people that would never misuse governmental powers would never misuse independence; a people that would always govern well would not need to be governed.
If we take the term in the strict sense, there never has been a real democracy, and there never will be. |
✖ Via The Social Contract, Or Principles of Political Right by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, tr. by G. D. H. Cole, public domain (original publication : Amesterdam, 1792), Book III, chap 4. Here’s the original French text:
Il n’est pas bon que celui qui fait les lois les exécute, ni que le corps du peuple détourne son attention des vues générales pour les donner aux objets particuliers. Rien n’est plus dangereux que l’influence des intérêts privés dans les affaires publiques, et l’abus des lois par le gouvernement est un mal moindre que la corruption du législateur, suite infaillible des vues particulières. Alors, l’État étant altéré dans sa substance, toute réforme devient impossible. Un peuple qui n’abuserait jamais du gouvernement n’abuserait pas non plus de l’indépendance; un peuple qui gouvernerait toujours bien n’aurait pas besoin d’être gouverné.
A prendre le terme dans la rigueur de l’acception, il n’a jamais existé de véritable démocratie, et il n’en existera jamais. (Du contrat social ou Principes du droit politique, Livre III, chap. 4) |
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Jul 29 link notes
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 | Everyman knows that he is stronger then certain of his fellows and weaker than others; that, living alone in a state of complete anarchy, he would be the scourge of the weaker and the victim of the stronger, and would live in perpetual fear. That is why in every society, even the crudest, the majority of men give up terrorizing the weaker so as to be less afraid of the stronger―such is the universal formula of social order. |
✖ Via The Principles of Power: The Great Political Crises of History by Guglielmo Ferrero, trans. by Theodore R. Jaeckel, New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1942, p. 32 (read a review of it on JSTOR) As quoted in Communitas. The Origin and Destiny of Community by Roberto Esposito, trans. by Thimothy Campbell, Standford: Stanford University Press, [1998]2010, p. 24 |
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Jul 01 link notes
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History
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 | The boundless sea rang terribly around, and the earth crashed loudly: wide Heaven was shaken and groaned, and high Olympus reeled from its foundation under the charge of the undying gods, and a heavy quaking reached dim Tartarus and the deep sound of their feet in the fearful onset and of their hard missiles. So, then, they launched their grievous shafts upon one another, and the cry of both armies as they shouted reached to starry heaven; and they met together with a great battle-cry. […] Astounding heat seized Chaos: and to see with eyes and to hear the sound with ears it seemed even as if Earth and wide Heaven above came together; for such a mighty crash would have arisen if Earth were being hurled to ruin, and Heaven from on high were hurling her down; so great a crash was there while the gods were meeting together in strife. Also the winds brought rumbling earthquake and duststorm, thunder and lightning and the lurid thunderbolt, which are the shafts of great Zeus, and carried the clangour and the warcry into the midst of the two hosts. An horrible uproar of terrible strife arose: mighty deeds were shown and the battle inclined. But until then, they kept at one another and fought continually in cruel war. |
✖ Via Theogony by Hesiod (tr. by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, 1914) When the Gods fought the Titans, Earth was not an hopistable place for the mortals. |
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