However — perhaps more
importantly — Pundita leaves us with at least one ray of hope, inspired by a
poor woman’s word to her village in
India:

We cannot all be
great people but no matter how small we are, we can all do great
things.”

And, from someone who can
come across as somewhat cynical about Grand New Initiatives, her quiet
confidence is striking:

The
age of democracy is here. It’s been such a long time coming. It has gathered a
force that cannot be
stopped.

I do not
romanticize “the people” or the democratic process. I see them as the only
workable solution to a central problem that government has never faced until the
rise of
megapopulations

People
in megasocieties have to see evidence that at the end of the road, their efforts
are going toward problem solution, as versus keeping in power an elite whose
only idea of problem solving is keeping themselves in
power.

It’s all over
for them; I know it might be hard to believe at this moment but we’re in the
mop-up period. No matter how ruthless the military commander, no matter how
silver-tongued the demagogue, huge problems rippling in falling-domino effect
through a megasociety are a force more powerful than guns and
rhetoric.

Populations
today are simply too large to hope that a vast bureaucracy laboring under an
emperor or oligarchy can fill the bill. Thus, democracy is no longer an option;
it’s the only edge humanity has against the downsides of our success as a race,
which is measured in our great
number.

Amen. Thank you, Pundita.
I don’t know whether you consider yourself great or small, but you have
certainly done great things. We have been blessed by your presence in the
Blogosphere. May your circle of influence and joy continue to expand, whatever
you do and wherever you go. God bless you.