January 5, 2025

Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many. Hatred, malice, rudeness, intolerance and suspicion are the fruits of weakness.

Eric Hoffer (1902–1983), San Francisco longshoreman, writer, The Ordeal of Courage (1963), Seldes p.188

All right, you probably agree that hatred, malice and the like are the fruits of weakness. But how do you get the weak to improve their diet? And what constitutes better fruit?

If we can agree that ignorance of the truth is the weakness that produces the listed fruits, then free, good-quality public education—education for the many, with an emphasis on civics—is the only antidote.