Philosophy Now Forum

Embedded in Rick Lewis' suggestion that we trust the people are the seeds of democratic wisdom. In any aggregate of unrefined material, there is a wide variance in quality. We deal with this throughout our lives. Raw materials are processed to separate the best from the worst, production lines reject substandard products, and each of us decide the degree to which we trust our acquaintances.

The amorphous mass we call 'the people' is no different.

There are, within the mass of humanity, individuals with varying degrees of all capabilities. The challenge of democracy is for the people to find the most trustworthy (and most talented) individuals among their peers and raise them to positions of political leadership. We have the intellectual and physical capabilities to meet that challenge, but we have failed, so far, to conceive a political system that allows the people to seek out, from among themselves, the best advocates of the public interest.

Lewis is right. We must trust the people. We must trust them to select their most capable men and women as their political representatives and leaders - and we must use our intellect to conceive a political system which allows that to happen.

Fred Gohlke