Francis Stuart

For lack of anything of significance to write about, allow me to quote from a favourite book of mine, by a wonderful writer. From "Things To Live For", by Francis Stuart.
He speaks of Dublin and Ireland.

"I walked through those streets that I once fought to defend, feeling a little like a stranger. And it was this spirit of smugness and deadness that we fought against and were defeated by. The spirit of liberal democracy. We fought to stop Ireland falling into the hands of publicans and shop-keepers, and she has fallen into their hands...
...Democracy is the ideal of those whose lives as individuals are failures and who, feeling their own futility, take refuge in the mass and become arrogant in the herd. The productive worker, who takes pride in his work and exults in it, is never democratic because he feels no need for this refuge. He stands alone. He does not believe in the rule of the majority because he does not feel himself to be one of the majority. The skill that he brings to his work is something unique and differentiates him."