The Carl Sagan Case Against Democracy

by | Oct 6, 2022

 

We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.

– Carl Sagan, BrainyQuote

How has science and technology advanced when “we the people” never “voted” for such a thing to occur?

Democracy advocates claim that ‘if we don’t vote on X through the political process, we will have no influence on X, and X will benefit only the very few’.

Does anyone think Seinfeld would have been funnier if script writing had been put to a popular vote? Would printers work better if people who know nothing about printers voted on how printers should be made? Computers? Houses? Cell phones? Cars? Airplanes? Food?

Allowing tens of millions of uninformed people to shape anything is an unwise policy, especially when they pay no price for being wrong.

In the free market, people succeed by pleasing the mass of consumers. In government, politicians succeed by vilifying people of goodwill and rewards he who enrages the masses of ignorant voters.

If the government didn’t have a monopoly on security, only rich people would be able to have security just like when the government got out of other businesses, the only cars produced were limousines, the only clothes produced were tuxedos and the only food produced was foie gras

Keith Knight

Keith Knight

Keith Knight is Managing Editor at the Libertarian Institute, host of the Don't Tread on Anyone podcast and editor of The Voluntaryist Handbook: A Collection of Essays, Excerpts, and Quotes.

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