No one said “Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance” at LSE Southeast Asia Centre‘s panel on “Hong Kong: The Struggle at the End of History” (10 February 2015).
If they had, though, it would have been an attempt to relate democracy to emergent properties in complex systems. Alas, that will have to be on some other occasion.
I would have much preferred a statement without the pre-judging adjective “pathetic”. Then the claim becomes a hypothesis to examine with evidence, not merely a witticism.
(Photo by @ChyeTLatte)