Ignorance, Its Uses and Nurture

Democracy may not be the silliest idea concocted by man, but for anything larger than a small town, it is crackpot. It consists in the idea that a public, on average knowing almost nothing, can choose leaders in popularity contests among provincial lawyers who know little more and are required to know nothing except how to get elected.

In a democracy, this ignorance is both a protected quality, like motherhood, and a valued resource. By common consent, the ruled do not look too closely at the me...