… is from page 81 of the 1993 reissue of F.A. “Baldy” Harper’s 1949 tract, Liberty: A Path to Its Recovery:
It is commonly believed that the “democratic process” will assure progress. But there is no way of designing excessive governmental activity so as to assure that it will aid progress rather than stop progress.
Progress arises in every instance out of an extreme minority of opinion, not the majority of opinion. The seedlings of progress are often so small and unnoticed that they are ignored by those who would otherwise destroy them in ignorance as “evil” thought or acts. But if everything were to be subjected to majority rule, every step of progress would presumably be destroyed in its infancy.
