Not to derail or disrespect, but:
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The popularised version of the quote attributed to him is close enough in theme and intent to the actual statement he made. From your link:
In 1913 Mohandas Gandhi published a piece about snakebites that included a thematically matching passage: 2
“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him.”
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That line is the closest, but it doesn’t mean “Be the change” in the coffee cup quote version, it’s more “If you change, the world will also change, and that’s how you don’t get bit by a snake”, which is a lot more like The Secret, but for snake-bites, and the passage had nothing to do with social change.
It’s a good pithy saying, from a woman, mis-attributed to a more famous man. Happens all the time.
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Wait…when did MI top being better than WI? Who am I supposed to feel superior over now?
If this gains any traction, it’s no better than anything Scott Walker did next door, arguably worse.
At least there’s always Florida.
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That America is not a democracy? No, it should not be taught, as we’ve gotten more democratic over time.
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It wasn’t until I saw this story that the obvious dawned on me: that the reason people say the US is a republic not a democracy is because they support the republican party not the democratic party. The are actually haggling over which party has claim to rule.
Actually they cut that word out of the curriculum too.
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I thought it was because we elected representatives instead of having the people directly vote on each piece of legislation. Pure democracy being one of those forms of government that doesn’t work in the real world but is useful as a thought exercise.
It’s trying to twist the word “democracy” and pretend it is a very specific and technical term. There’s no one fixed definition of “democracy” that the whole world would agree on. But the vast majority of us walk around talking about democracies that actually exist in the world, and if they exist then the US is one of them. (And if they don’t exist then pointing out the US isn’t one is disingenuous)
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M-W has basically your take. “It depends”
Come on Political Scientists, get your definitions nailed down. You call yourselves scientists but you’re fucking up the basics here.
No. That it was a democracy.
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