>I consider RIPE, more than anyting, a democracy. Alexis de Tocqueville
has written some excellent work on the dangers of democracies. “In
America, the majority draws a formidable circle around thought. Inside
those limits, the writer is free; but unhappiness awaits him if he dares
to leave them. It is not that he has to fear an auto-da-fe, but he is
the butt of moritifications of all kinds of persecutions every day.”

see
http://www.williampmeyers.org/republic.html