Democracy: Future History

It is said that we democratists have no firm view of future history, that in our view, history develops in unpredictable ways.

When Soviet communism threw in the towel and started on the road to democracy, expressions such as "I can't believe it" and "I never thought it could happen" were commonplace in every city, town and community in our country. Actually we had every right to expect the Soviet collapse.

Jefferson and Lincoln both said in clear unmistakable language that it was only a matter of time before democracy spread to all nations. But we paid too little attention to those parts of the writings and speeches of Jefferson and Lincoln concerning the most important perceptions ever in the fields of political theory and world history, namely, the correct view of where the human race is going and their agreement on the fact that the human race is going to get there.

In all of the political treatises, in all of the volumes in all of the libraries containing hundreds if not thousands of political theories and predictions did anyone accurately predict the future development of human history as Jefferson and Lincoln did? How is it that in the field of political science, for example, Jefferson and Lincoln are not really looked upon as having made secondary figures out of all the other writers and theoreticians? Don't those who accurately predict the future course of human history rank ahead of and above all others?

It is important to realize that the course of future world history has already been largely determined. That may seem arbitrary and presumptuous, nevertheless that is what Jefferson and Lincoln have told us.

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