Pernicious Conceit and the Limits of Democracy

"In the long run democracy will be judged, no less than other forms of government, by the quality of its leaders, a quality that will depend in turn on the quality of their vision."  So wrote Irving Babbitt, the famed Harvard professor who left few acknowledged disciples, yet whose influence has been distilled to the contemporary world through his many students, T.S. Eliot most prominent among them.

Babbitt was no hater of democracy, but like most serious political thinkers, he understood the limits of any political system, and, particularly, our own.  He held no belief that a fixed theory of government could effectuate a permanent solution to the problems of order, justice, and freedom.  He did not believe that government, democracy included, could remake man or alter his fundamental nature.  But this did not preclude Babbitt from believing in the power of government to accomplish great things, so long as it was constructed upon the moral and ethical habits of virtue, discipline, and self-restraint.