If, then, you root out of the democratic philosophy the whole
assumption in all its ramifications that government is instinctive,
and that therefore it can be managed by self-centered opinions, what
becomes of the democratic faith in the dignity of man? It takes a
fresh lease of life by associating itself with the whole personality
instead of with a meager aspect of it. For the traditional democrat
risked the dignity of man on one very precarious assumption, that he
would exhibit that dignity instinctively in wise laws and good
government. Voters did not do that, and so the democrat was forever
being made to look a little silly by tough-minded men. But if, instead
of hanging human dignity on the one assumption about self-government,
you insist that man's dignity requires a standard of living, in which
his capacities are properly exercised, the whole problem changes. The
criteria which you then apply to government are whether it is
producing a certain minimum of health, of decent housing, of material
necessities, of education, of freedom, of pleasures, of beauty, not
simply whether at the sacrifice of all these things, it vibrates to
the self-centered opinions that happen to be floating around in men's
minds. In the degree to which these criteria can be made exact and
objective, political decision, which is inevitably the concern of
comparatively few people, is actually brought into relation with the
interests of men.
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