Maybe

Maybe representative democracy isn't such a good idea.

I read this article in the news today about U.S. Congressman Walter Jones, who was a huge supporter of the Iraq war, doing a complete 180 and suddenly realizing that maybe this war was a bad idea... and people really do get killed... and maybe the reasons for it weren't so good... And he was one of relatively few people responsible for making it happen in the first place. Now of course hindsight is 20/20.. but the concept that we have regular every day humans motivated mainly by public sentiment (rather than logic) who make such profound, irreversible decisions.. it just seems to me that there should be some kind of proven track record of reasoned, researched thought that is required of those that lead us.. rather than mere popularity. This, it seems, is why wars rage on century after century. Masses are lead by emotion. And to the extent you let the masses lead, the country's resources will be managed by emotion.