Shaw on democracy

George Bernard Shaw

 

The internet is filled with websites listing famous quotes by famous people, but few of them bother to provide the actual sources for these quotes. In some cases, the quotes are falsely attributed to their supposed authors, but because the world wide web is effectively a planetary-scale rumour mill, the connection between a particular author and a particular saying multiplies endlessly until everyone believes it.

A case in point is an observation widely attributed to the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950): "Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve." Clever indeed and boasting more than a measure of truth. We might well include it in our standard undergraduate political science textbooks as an easily verifiable principle.

Except that Shaw almost certainly didn't write it. At least not in these exact words. This pithy adage appears to be a summary of a paragraph in the preface to Shaw's 1919 play, Heartbreak House: A Fantasia in the Russian Manner on English Themes. Here's the relevant passage:

From what is called Democracy no corrective to this state of things could be hoped. It is said that every people has the Government it deserves. It is more to the point that every Government has the electorate it deserves; for the orators of the front bench can edify or debauch an ignorant electorate at will. Thus our democracy moves in a vicious circle of reciprocal worthiness and unworthiness.

However, the following quotable quote really did originate with Shaw: "He knows nothing and thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career." I heard it years ago on the stage at our nearby Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. It was uttered by the character Andrew Undershaft from Major Barbara (1905) and elicited laughter from the audience, including yours truly.