You made an excellent point about the contradictions inherent in "democracy" (or any other governmental form) as well as in "religion", Ed! People are masters at fooling themselves, and most of them can engage in contradictory thinking and behaviour without a moment's hesitation. They never seem to see it in themselves, though, only in their "enemies".

That is mainly because most people's attention is directed outward at other people and the world, rather than inward. They live the unexamined life. It's interesting that the greatest spiritual figures like Jesus, Buddha, Lao-Tse, or Krishna all advised people to look within themselves to become enlightened! Dispassionate self-criticism and honest self-observation will get any person a hundred times farther down the road to maturity and compassion than doing what most people do instead, which is: they criticize and observe everthing outside themselves. By so doing, they never know themselves, and they stay largely ignorant and reactive. They do not question their own bad behaviour. This is also generally true of political systems which reflect the reactive state of mind of most of their citizenry. I think the human race is in a condition at this point in history which could be described as "late adolescence". We haven't grown up yet, but we've developed terrible weapons. That's a dangerous combination.