Michel Foucault: Quote of the day

"But popular power is not merely ignorant. It is inevitably impure since it is anomos. Popular power harkens only to its interests and desires. It is violent: it imposes its will on everyone. It is murderous. And in a privileged fashion, it kills the sage, as the one who occupies the place where the laws speak.Popular power is criminal in essence — criminal in relation to what, since it expresses the will of all? It is criminal in relation to nomos, to the law as foundation of the city's existence. Popular power is crime against the very nature of the city.The sage as pure keeper of knowledge and nomos therefore has to protect the city against itself and prohibit it from governing itself."