Who was it that said that childlike innocence is not a viable alternative to despair?

[sen_no_ongaku]

Is it possible for a nation or a people to lose its right to liberty and Democracy? If so, have we?

Comments

[2h2o.livejournal.com]

No. But Bush (and Kerry, and Frist, and Delay, and Schumer, ad nauseum) makes me want to throw things.

[sylvantechie.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit thrown off by the phrase 'right to' above. Does it mean 'ability to exercise' (yes,no), does it mean 'deserving-ness of' (yes,no), does it mean 'inalienable right (itself a semantic mess) of' (no,no), does it mean 'correctness to be labeled as having' (no,no)?

Except for the inalienable thing, the 'no's above should really be read as 'not yet's.

Then there's the whole question of what liberty and democracy mean, but I think we have enough of a common understanding to skip that discussion for the moment.

[ellinor.livejournal.com]

I don't think that liberty and democracy are things that one must earn, or even deserve. But they are certainly things that one may squander. I am afraid we are doing the latter.

What do you think? And was this query prompted by the State of the Union, or something else?