Democratic Process Quotes
Actually the program had been taped earlier and on the day of broadcast, Biti had been arrested in Zimbabwe for ‘treason’ by the vicious dictator, Robert Mugabe, who had been beaten by the opposition in the election for the presidency but refused to relinquish power and in a stunning example of Biti’s point, the Electoral Commission never “officially” released the results showing that Mugabe had been defeated despite his control of all of the media, goon squads, and prohibition, intimidation and murder against opposition. See {619882}.
This was much more the case in 1840 when this quotation was written. Since then, a much higher proportion of American society has become educated, and the cultures that American immigrants have come from had multiplied. Publications abounded and after radio and television there were more attacks on American majority positions. The major change came with radio call in talk shows, similar TV shows and then the Internet provided a painless way to publicly go against majority opinion. By the first decade of the 21st century, movements of majority rejectionists such as the Tea Party and the Occupy Movement were thriving and “futile contests” received much public attention and showed that there were others with the non-majority views who made it socially acceptable to be outside the norms of the majority.
See Walter Reynolds {32317} for a later English version. Also, Alcuin of York {593018} and William Tecumseh Sherman for an opposite view using a similar phrase. Hesiod's seems to be the earliest version of this idea that is with us today.
