Listening to Grasshoppers

I've been thinking a lot about democracy lately since I'm reading the book "Listening to Grasshoppers" which is a litany of how democracy has allowed the tyranny of minorities and the dispossessed in India. It's a searing, gruesome account in essays by the celebrated writer, Arundhati Roy. It's the world's largest democracy but it's a sad day indeed when all the institutions have been corrupted so that it fails to function to protect minority interests. I think the tyranny of the majority definitely happens in places that are the bastion of democracy in the Western world as well with slavery, women etc all being prime examples but the sheer bloodletting is hard to get over in Arundhati Roy's book.

So I guess I'm cheerful then about living in a country where by and large it's a safe place for minority races and groups still. And I hope it remains that way although I do wonder what the best way of safeguarding that is. Pray for all our leaders then, because the temptation to use power for one's own ends can be strong indeed.

Does Winston Churchill's comment on democracy still hold, "...democracy is the absolute worst form of government except for all other forms that have been tried from time to time."