Democracy:
A form of rulership buttressed by the twin pillars of popularity and pedantry. Rulers are put in place when they win a popularity contest, during which they will say and do things they have no intention of repeating subsequently. It is acceptable and indeed expected that candidates should lie, kiss babies, and promise things which are mathematically, economically, and physically impossible. They should also freely pledge mutually contradictory things to interest groups.
The second pillar, pedantry, becomes apparent after the ruler has been appointed, and is mostly composed of careful parsing of the statements made during the first. This parsing inevitably reveals that what appeared to be promises to do something amount to assurances to maintain the status quo, and that solemn undertakings given as part of the popularity contest were in fact merely hopeful speculations. Some statements will be revealed as meaning the converse of what they appeared to mean when they were uttered, and these will be the object of particular derision by those who applauded them at the time and particular approbation by those who did not.
On the whole, Democracy yields a society which is moderately capable of seeing to the needs of the citizenry by a tacit policy of paternalism (that style of social governance in which a ruler acts in an entirely selfish fashion while asserting a common good) and neglect. It is therefore one of the fairer and freer forms of rulership, but also one of the most frustrating.
grantimatter said: Would you like to write a dictionary? I started one once, on a wiki named Pantywad (now out of service). It was from the persona of a drunk 19th century gentleman boor. I remember the definition of “porter” had to do with lifting burdens.
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