The man who stops and considers how each action will effect his bottom line may refrain from taking actions he should take, and may begin to take actions he should not... all to please the fickle and evil majority. All that we can do is our absolute best... And we should hope that the market rewards our good work with fair reward, but we should not be surprised if the market only punishes us for failing to put finances before the Right.
Yet when the market works, this is how it works -- that people recognize and desire quality, and are willing to give more and spend more to achieve it.
STUDENT: And can the political system work the same way that an ideal market system works? Can people recognize and reward quality?
STOCKMAN: It is possible, of course. In an ideal system, beaurocrats would be guided by the best and the wisest minority, chosen by those elected by the majority. They would have information unavailable to the public, and they would have incentives to use it -- either because quality was rewarded or from sheer public love. In an ideal system, the slow moving majority would not serve to destroy progress, but only to ground its excesses and make a creative challenge. In an ideal system, those who recognized truth would themselves be recognized... In an ideal situation, in short, I would be mayor!
And what would I be?
STOCKMAN: Why.... whatever you had the will to be, of course.
PETRA: Father... what are you going to do about the letter?
STOCKMAN: Of course, I must respond! I must go to London and testify about the sickness that is eating up our fair town... And not just the sickness of the baths, but the sickness of...
Of the subjugation of the masses by force?
STOCKMAN: By the aristocrats, those blue-blooded curs... never! But by men of science -- by men of technology, yes, indeed. The ideal political system is not the system of liberal democracy. I spit upon the parties and parodies of democracy! The ideal political system is a... why, there is not even a word for it! One must create a new word, for it has never been before. I would suggest... A technocracy! Rule by technicians, by the few and the wise who understand the needs of society and can plan it and guide it. E ven as a stockyard or a farm is not run by voting pigs and cattle, but by the ordered consideration of the farmer, so society should not be run by the masses, but by those with vision and dedication to its future -- by the educated, by the uninvested... Until society is run like a perfect farm, oiled and systematic -- (Student #2 raises his hand) -- until society is run like a perfect animal farm with the animals of the world answering to those who are wiser -- yes, Jared?
STUDENT #2 (Jared):
Doesn't your brother own a tannery?
STOCKMAN: I fail to see the point.
