George Lucas to TIME: "All democracies turn into dictatorships..."

TIME Magazine via TheForce.net ^ | April 21, 2002

[Darth Sidious]

Red-font added for emphasis. Mr. Lucas, astute student of history that he is, has a far better grasp of reality than do most politicians inside the beltway.

[Darth Sidious]

Ping.

[leadpenny]

Ponderous, man, ponderous!

[snopercod]

The American system is not a democracy. It is a constitutional republic. A democracy, if you attach meaning to terms, is a system of unlimited majority rule; the classic example is ancient Athens. And the symbol of it is the fate of Socrates, who was put to death legally, because the majority didn't like what he was saying, although he had initiated no force and had violated no one's rights.

Democracy, in short, is a form of collectivism, which denies individual rights: the majority can do whatever it wants with no restrictions. In principle, the democratic government is all-powerful. Democracy is a totalitarian manifestation; it is not a form of freedom....

The American system is a constitutionally limited republic, restricted to the protectrion of individual rights. In such a system, majority rule is applicable only to lesser details, such as the selection of certain personnel. But the majority has no say over the basic principles governing the government. It has no power to ask for or gain the infringement of individual rights.

--Leonard Peikfoff

[dr_who]

This was the same guy that said Clinton was basically a well meaning individual facing "baseless accusations of corruption" from the eevil Trade Federation Republicans. Don't take this stuff too seriously. Am I worried about our civil liberties going down the drain? Yes, but I go to the movies to forget about stuff like that for a while.

[Darth Sidious]

Four years ago it dawned on me that the Clone Wars were going to take their cue from World War I, in terms of how the desperation/devastation would lead the Germans to rally behind Adolf Hitler. Apparently that's holding up well, 'cuz the way things are shaping up Palpatine is going to become Emperor-for-life with a gleeful rubber-stamp of approval from the public.

(BTW, I'll be at Celebration II later next week with the rest of TheForce.net staff. Looking forward to meeting any fellow Freepers who can stop by :-)

[tet68]

Thank you ,Lucas doesn't deserve the country he lives on.

[Darth Sidious]

I did a search but couldn't find anything where Lucas said that. He did tell Terrence Stamp to play Chancellor Valorum like "a beleagured Clinton", which Stamp later commented that that was before Clinton "became very beleagured" :-)

I know as much about Lucas's political leanings as anyone else does, and that's precious little in all honesty. I didn't post about that, so much as to point out that this man "gets" this much, whereas most people we've elected do not.

[leadpenny]

This was the same guy that said Clinton was basically a well meaning individual facing "baseless accusations of corruption" from the eevil Trade Federation Republicans.

Thanks for a reminder of a past irresponsible statement. Maybe he is having second thoughts.

[sinclair]

This country has been a Bureaucratic Dictatorship for quite a few decades now.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The American system is not a democracy. It is a constitutional republic.

When the leaders of a constitutional republic run the country by polling focus groups, it degrades into a democracy.

[gorush]

"The American system is a constitutionally limited republic, restricted to the protectrion of individual rights. In such a system, majority rule is applicable only to lesser details, such as the selection of certain personnel. But the majority has no say over the basic principles governing the government. It has no power to ask for or gain the infringement of individual rights"

That was the original idea...but so many words have been re-defined over the last two+ centuries that our Constitution retains little of its original intent. This change is, IMHO, the result of human nature, which always (eventually) responds to the siren call of socialism. It is unfortunate that mere humans inhabit the Supreme Court.

[bert]

"The people give their democracy to a dictator, whether it's Julius Caesar or Napoleon or Adolf Hitler"

Or perhaps Bill Clinton.

[gaspar]

Rome's Republic was an oligarchy. The Weimar Republic and the thing that passed for a democracy in Italy in the post-WWI period were the stirring of still youthful nation states trying to create something of a congeries of city states, landgraves, principalities, dukedoms, etc.

Generalizations are dangerous, and syllogistically speaking "all" is a dangerous position to take.

[crazykatz]

BUMP

[Darth Sidious]

Generalizations are dangerous, and syllogistically speaking "all" is a dangerous position to take

Except generally speaking, it is an observation that has held true 100% of the time over history.

Try as one might, there cannot be found any republic/democracy that has made it past, on average, two hundred years, and still maintained its principles. All of them deteriorated into either tyranny or stagnancy.

[smokeyb]

When the leaders of a constitutional republic run the country by polling focus groups, it degrades into a democracy.

I couldn't have said it any better ! Even GW refers to us as a democracy !

[ImpBill]

Ahhhhhhh, but it is a "republican" Bureaucratic Dictatorship as we elect the folks that initiate and then institutionalize the fiefdoms of Bureaucratic Dictators.

"We" the people, even as hard as "we" try to cry we are not, are indeed responsible, by either action or inaction, for the ever increasing weight of the black boot of tyranny we feel on our necks.

[Maelstrom]

Yes, and he's absolutely right...but he hasn't taken the additional step along this realization. Have you?

A government must be strictly *LIMITED* to prevent it from becoming tyrannical, whether it's a democracy or a monarchy.

Something of which the Anti-Federalists had an intuitive grasp and the Federalists sought to appease.

[ImpBill]

"When the leaders of a constitutional republic run the country by polling focus groups, it degrades into a democracy."

Might also read When the electorate continues to elect and then look the other way When the leaders of a constitutional republic run the country by polling focus groups, it degrades into a democracy.