The yardstick of a democracy
Received via Arvin Meyer, a fellow MVP:
The yardstick of a democracy is the degree of unorthodoxy permitted
- SOURCE UNKNOWN
I couldn't agree more. Full consensus is a bad starting point for decision making in any system - that being political, judiciary or business. Orthodoxy thrives where there's no democracy. Democracy may not be the best solution for everything (Down With Internet Democracy - Why you don't want anonymous volunteers powering your search engine). But dogmatism is a bigger danger - resulting in anything from useless security best practices to Taliban.