Audacious Academic

David Dunning, a psychologist at Cornell, has just shown remarkable courage. In his recent study, Dunning openly stated what should have been obvious for many years, if not since the dawn of time: People are not intelligent enough for democracy to flourish. Not being very bright themselves, they're in no position to choose the best leaders or policies.

Democracy is such a sacred cow almost nobody dares to oppose it. In recent years, however, the failings of the system have become so glaring someone finally had to state the obvious.

Dunning softened his assault on democracy by claiming it is still preferable to dictatorship. Of course, he had to say that, regardless of his actual convictions. Attacking the great sacred cow is gutsy enough. Advocating dictatorship would really be pressing his luck. In fact, Dunning couldn't even imply a preferance for dictatorship (by attacking just the status quo) so he had to appear to rule it out. But dictatorship is the inevitable replacement for a democracy.