> the Internet has exposed many of the unpatched firmware vulnerabilities in the human mind These have long been very well known, and in fact those are the pro

> the Internet has exposed many of the unpatched firmware vulnerabilities in the human mind These have long been very well known, and in fact those are the problems that democracy is designed to solve: How can humans govern themselves? IIRC, at the dawn of the U.S., it was questioned whether self-governance was possible or whether we needed a king; the question is well answered by now. Democracy takes large groups of flawed humans, the only kind available, and forms them into groups that are more free, more prosperous, more safe, more creative than anything seen in human history. There are about 10,000 years of human history, and the current entire non-democratic world to look at for comparison. All of the most free, prosperous, safe, etc. nations are democracies; the correlation is almost perfect. Even the most free, prosperous regions in China are democratic, Taiwan and Hong Kong. But on a philosophical level, why is a dictator who must be a flawed human - we have no other option - any better than an elected President or Prime Minister who is flawed, or superior to the flawed voters? And how is that dictator selected, without democracy? What better process is there? Why should I submit to their claim of authority - who are they to tell me what to do? Churchill said, reputedly, 'democracy is the worst possible system of government, except for all the others'. (Sorry I don't have time to find or verify the quote.)