Few discoveries are more irritating than those which expose the pedigree of ideas-Lord Acton- Explain meaning?

Question

I seen this quoted and I think I may know what he (Lord Acton) means but the articles I researched so far do not explain it. Most times in the fiction novels I read the author quotes something and I have no idea what they are going on about but in this case I would like to know. Could some very kind person out there please enlighten me. Thanks in advance.

Anonym · Accepted Answer

This comes from Lord Acton's 1907 "Essays on Liberty".

The "pedigree of ideas" is the history behind ideas: for instance, where does the idea of democracy come from?

Acton's saying you may get unpleasant surprises if you look back in history; you might find that an idea that you value highly came from your political opponents, or cultures with many negative aspects. For example, democracy originated from Ancient Greek city-states, which were not democratic in any modern sense (women were excluded, and these states were slave-owning).

You can see the quote in context here: pages 62-63 http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=0ztP_-8YwjMC&pg=PA62#v=onepage&q&f=false

JBROOK · Answer

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Few discoveries are more irritating than those which expose the pedigree of ideas-Lord Acton- Explain meaning?

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