Democracy - Does it really exist?

Democracy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The 20th-century Italian thinkers Vilfredo Pareto and Gaetano Mosca (independently) argued that democracy was illusory, and served only to mask the reality of elite rule. Indeed, they argued that, 

elite oligarchy is the unbendable law of human nature, 
due largely to the apathy and division of the masses (as opposed to the drive, initiative and unity of the elites), and that democratic institutions would do no more than shift the exercise of power from oppression to manipulation.[133]

As Louis Brandeis once professed, "We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both."[134]"

OUR apathy - not our hard work - makes it possible !

WHY DO WE TOLERATE IT ?

 

Source: WalletHub

Theodore Roosevelt: “It is not the critic who counts”

Theodore Roosevelt: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
Well said, and timely.

Pbr

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-04/brazil-assets-poised-to-rally-as-lula-targeted-in-police-raid

Bitcoin beat dollar in 2015

Bitcoin beat dollar in 2015  http://money.visualcapitalist.com/its-official-bitcoin-was-the-top-performing-currency-of-2015/

Is this a sign of the times ?

Spud.News.2016-1

Which one is real ?