This seems both true and false. Plenty of apologia for monarchical governments exist, some of them quite famous). But there do seem to be some few latter-day monarchists glaring from beyond the edges of the Overton window. I’ve talked to a couple of them, and they’ve been quite clever in inventing rationalizations.
I imagine the same was true for republicanism when it was the low-status option.
The point is that the modified quote can be modified to talk about almost anything, so it’s not actually a useful statement to make as to whether or not something is good or bad.
I think it’s better treated as a statement about human psychology than about any particular system. If most people support the system they’re embedded in for biased reasons, then their opinions about it are suspect and so’s the appeal to popularity that comes with their aggregate; however, none of that means they’re necessarily wrong.
This seems both true and false. Plenty of apologia for monarchical governments exist, some of them quite famous). But there do seem to be some few latter-day monarchists glaring from beyond the edges of the Overton window. I’ve talked to a couple of them, and they’ve been quite clever in inventing rationalizations.
I imagine the same was true for republicanism when it was the low-status option.
Universal Counterargument Alert!
The point is that the modified quote can be modified to talk about almost anything, so it’s not actually a useful statement to make as to whether or not something is good or bad.
I think it’s better treated as a statement about human psychology than about any particular system. If most people support the system they’re embedded in for biased reasons, then their opinions about it are suspect and so’s the appeal to popularity that comes with their aggregate; however, none of that means they’re necessarily wrong.