“Representative government cannot express the will of the mass of the people, because there is no mass of the people”

— Rose Wilder Lane

Give Me Liberty (1936)
Context: Representative government cannot express the will of the mass of the people, because there is no mass of the people; The People is a fiction, like The State. You cannot get a Will of the Mass, even among a dozen persons who all want to go on a picnic. The only human mass with a common will is a mob, and that will is a temporary insanity. In actual fact, the population of a country is a multitude of diverse human beings with an infinite variety of purposes and desires and fluctuating wills.

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Rose Wilder Lane 43

American journalist 1886–1968

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“Representative government cannot express the will of the mass of the people, because there is no mass of the people”

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Rose Wilder Lane 43

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