George Bernard Shaw a penn State Electronic Classics Series Publication

The Cherry Orchard
The Heartbreak people neither could nor would do anything
of the sort. With their heads as full of the Anticipations of
Mr H. G. Wells as the heads of our actual rulers were empty
even of the anticipations of Erasmus or Sir Thomas More,
they refused the drudgery of politics, and would have made
a very poor job of it if they had changed their minds. Not
that they would have been allowed to meddle anyhow, as
only through the accident of being a hereditary peer can
anyone in these days of Votes for Everybody get into parlia-
ment if handicapped by a serious modern cultural equip-
ment; but if they had, their habit of living in a vacuum would
have left them helpless end ineffective in public affairs. Even
in private life they were often helpless wasters of their inher-
itance, like the people in Tchekov’s Cherry Orchard. Even
those who lived within their incomes were really kept going
by their solicitors and agents, being unable to manage an

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GB Shaw
estate or run a business without continual prompting from
those who have to learn how to do such things or starve.
From what is called Democracy no corrective to this state
of things could be hoped. It is said that every people has the
Government it deserves. It is more to the point that every
Government has the electorate it deserves; for the orators of
the front bench can edify or debauch an ignorant electorate
at will. Thus our democracy moves in a vicious circle of re-
ciprocal worthiness and unworthiness.