I received the text of an article via email entitled We’re Brainwashed (Yup, Democrats, Too) by a young Emily Katz, which I subsequently located on LewRockwell.com.

We live in a time where everyone is entitled to their own point of view, however unsubstantiated it might be. And in such an era, it is not enough to make sound economic and philosophical arguments if people refuse to be receptive to them. Our problem is more foundational: we must make our culture one that values inquiry and intellect in the first place. Once that’s taken care of, the ideas will speak for themselves.

Of course, the general point is valid.

But I think she misses the point, or the underlying premise anyway. Democracy is not political system designed to discover and uphold truth, and it never has. Democracy is a system that rewards a majority and punishes a minority–period. As such, people adopt positions that they believe will be winning positions. It’s no more complicated than that.

So long as democracy is the law of the land, and I certainly see no end in sight, public policy will remain as far removed from truth and reality as it ever needs to be. Truth, integrity, justice, reason: these things are not final arbiters in a democracy. The final arbiter is merely a majority.