QOTD: Julius Evola

I would like to start making "Quote of the Day" a regular feature.  Probably not every day, but as close to it as I can manage.  For today, here's Julius Evola again on democracy and aristocracy.  From Men Among the Ruins:

"We may add that the system that was established in Europe through the advent of democracies (i.e., the majority system based on universal suffrage) is characterized from the start by the degradation of the ruling class.  In fact, the majority, being free from every restriction and qualitative clause, is necessarily on the side of the lower social strata; in order to win the favors of these strata and be elected to office by their votes, it will always be necessary to speak the only language they understand and to give priority to their predominant interests (which are naturally the most coarse, material, and illusory), always promising but never demanding.  Thus, every democracy is also a school of immorality, an offence to the dignity and inner code of conduct that ought to be the trademark of a true political class."

 

This is a much more eloquent and accurate statement of the problem expressed in the variously-attributed quote, "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury."  An egalitarian democracy with universal suffrage is 99% of the way to socialism, and especially when combined with "diversity" will inevitably descend into Gibsmedat.