vodianoj

"...It may well be true that our generation talks and thinks too much about democracy and too little of the values which it serves. ... Democracy is essentially a means, a utilitarian device for safe-guarding internal peace and individual freedom. ... in so far as democracy ceases to guarantee individual freedom, it may well persist under some form under totalitarian regime. ...
The fashionable concentration on democracy as the main value threatened is not without a danger. It is largely responsible for the misleading and unfounded belief that if the ultimate source of power is the will of the majority, the power cannot be arbitrary. ... If democracy resolves on a task that necessarily involves the use of power which cannot be guided by fixed rules, it must become arbitrary power. ...
...The idea that there is no limit to the powers of the legislator is in part a result of popular sovereignty and democratic government. It has been strengthened by the belief that, so long as the actions of the state are duly authorized by legislation,the Rule of Law will be preserved. But this is completely to misconceive the meaning of the Rule of Law. This rule has little to do with the question whether all actions of government are legal in the judicial sense. They may well be and yet not conform to the Rule of Law. The fact that someone has full legal authority to act the way he does gives no answer to the question whether the law gives him the power to act arbitrarily or whether the law prescribes unequivocally how he has to act. It may well be that Hitler has obtained his unlimited powers in a strictly constitutional manner and that whatever he does is therefore legal in the judicial sense. ... By giving the government unlimited powers, the most arbitrary rule can be made legal; and in this way a democracy can set up the most complete despotism imaginable."

Упаси меня Бог
От такой суеты
Где под топот сапог
На меня смотришь ты
Где из гомона слов
Выпадает одно
Как основа основ
На стеклянное дно
Где подкошенный мир
Оседает дрожа
И под вопли в эфир
Отлетает душа
Только взгляд твой за пятку
Как тонкая нить
Тонкий глас тишины
Ни порвать ни разбить
...
Что же делать потом
После пляски чертей
Когда вырванный дом
И игрушки детей
Белой ниткой подшив
В свой угрюмый архив
Жизнь пройдет, а ты жив
Не взирая на гриф?

The fear is gone. The pain remains.
Stark image focused with a start
Reality with bloody stains
From bitter searching of the heart
The vestiges of hope depart
No turning back, no way ahead
A bitter song, a broken heart
Just left for dead.

In bitter searching of the heart
There is no chance of lucky find
No secret map, no magic chart
And what you see will make you blind
There is no audience, no stage
And yet you cannot get away
There is no turning of the page
It's all to stay.

In bitter searching of the heart
In stately solitude of pain
When sadness gently draws apart
The curtains of the daily gain
There, in the mirror of your soul
I look for tiny shard of mine
'Tis not enough to make me whole
But it's a start