democracy, not decorum.

[ulysses]

Democracy is a generally ugly affair, by its nature. Other forms of government provide an easier, more straightforward road, as George W. Bush famously noted in 2000. And indeed, dictatorships offer their comforts. The trains do, indeed, tend to run on time. No one need spend their precious time haranguing their fellow man and woman from streetcorners - indeed, it is advisable to do otherwise.

On the other hand, if one is at all given to the idea of self-government, one is well advised to welcome dissent whether one agrees or not. It's the very blood-in-the-veins of a democracy, and a people can pretty fairly be judged by how they deal with it.

Dissent can be decorous, but usually isn't, and if it's effective, almost never is.

[Gregorian]

1. Oh how I welcome late trains.

It would give us time to sit and talk and think.

Right on.

[ulysses]

2. fair point.

Idleness has its advantages.

[Gregorian]

4. I was being metaphorical.

Idleness in the sense that there was no dictator. A freedom of rule from above. A society where discussion meant something. Lead to something. Was something.

We're still a country. I like what John Dean says. That the people always do the right thing, one way or another.

[ulysses]

5. as was I. n/t

[panader0]

3. Agreed. As ome poster noted the first day of the Petraeus

testimony--"Getting thrown out is part of protesting". It's the fools on the hill that are not
"decorous"