Comment by CGMthrowaway
1 hour ago
Which is why Jefferson, who would agree with you, thought that a well-informed people (education) was critical and without it self-governance would fail. It's not an oxymoron - it just comes with caveats.
> "I think by far the most important bill in our whole code is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people...whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government"
> "The most effectual means of preventing tyranny would be to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large"
> Jefferson, who would agree with you
No, he wouldn't, because he used "self-governance" to mean the thing that contradicts what it says on its face.
> It's not an oxymoron - it just comes with caveats.
The kind of "democratic" governance we actually have certainly comes with caveats, yes--caveats that have basically never been really dealt with. Jefferson's ideal of a "well-informed people" has never been achieved.
Jefferson did claim to believe that the US Federal government should be as minimal as possible--until he became President and found that it's actually kind of nice to be able to use that power to do things you feel like doing, whether they actually meet that minimal government ideal or not.
But in any case, none of that justifies describing the governance we actually have as "self-governance".