The Pope's speech to the German Parliament

[fpb]

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/the_listening_heart
As ever, the man is worth listening to. But the responses in the comments thread just show how bloody useless it is to deliver intellectually distinguished and morally valuable speeches in a world where most people know no history but are stuffed full of out-of-context factoids and believe themselves entitled to judge.

Comments

Re: Two

[ihuitl.livejournal.com]

Such instances like the Magna Carta and other similar arrangements were due to political factors: namely the unelected nobles and landholders putting pressure on the King to share power, as opposed to religious revelation. Pre-Christian Norse and Slavs were also indicated by scholars of the time as practicing representative democracy, but even then it was mainly the higher status individuals.

However, universal participation in politics of the kind we think of today when we say "democracy" is more recent, and an artifact of the continuing, ever-more-secular Enlightenment project that started in the late 14th century. These ended up including suffrage for women (opposed by the Catholic Church in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and spoken of disparagingly by the Catholic Encyclopedia of the time), non-whites and non-landed gentry, as well as the establishment of additional rights that did not exist during the middle ages or before.

Re: Two

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I never spoke about democracy, if nothing else because I wanted clear blue water between European civilization and the political structure of ancient Athens. I spoke, repeatedly, continuously, insistingly, of representative government, and of the sovereign (executive power) nominated and conditioned by the parliamentary assembly. That is what I am speaking of. That is what is fundamental to western civilization.

Re: Two

[ihuitl.livejournal.com]

I meant "representative democracy (a.k.a. a republic)" by "democracy".