Monday 15 June 2009

Thomas Jefferson



"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."
Similarly, we should recognise that we are better educated and informed than people 50 or 100 years ago; communication facilities have improved many times over; we are better educated. Interactive Democracy doesn't advocate the destruction of democracy as we know it today, but hopes to build on it with new technology that will empower, enable and enhance.
Here's more on Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of America. (Earlier, as minister to France, he expressed sympathy for the French Revolution, not knowing into what depravity it would sink.)

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