Comments: The Purpose of PC
This is my favorite Dalrymple quote. I am sorrowful that it is not a truth which one may assert in today's society. I want to shout it from the rooftops and instead can only whisper it to my children.
Posted by RigelDog at January 10, 2010 6:46 AM
I am reminded of a quote from Eric Hoffer during one of Eric Sevareid's several interviews with him:
"I have no grievance against intellectuals. All that I know about them is what I read in history books and what I've observed in our time. I'm convinced that the intellectuals as a type, as a group, are more corrupted by power than any other human type. It's disconcerting to realize that businessmen, generals, soldiers, men of action are less corrupted by power than intellectuals.
"In my new book I elaborate on this and I offer an explanation why. You take a conventional man of action, and he's satisfied if you obey, eh? But not the intellectual. He doesn't want you just to obey. He wants you to get down on your knees and praise the one who makes you love what you hate and hate what you love. In other words, whenever the intellectuals are in power, there's soul-raping going on."
Posted by Kevin Baker at January 10, 2010 9:38 AM
And similar from C.S.Lewis: Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
Posted by Brett_McS at January 10, 2010 2:10 PM
What insight!
What strikes me is that it is so true, so accurate, that one can only be silent and reflect on it (although the quotes and comments above are certainly on target).
Posted by Deana at January 11, 2010 7:37 AM
What insight!
What strikes me is that it is so true, so accurate, that one can only be silent and reflect on it (although the quotes and comments above are certainly on target).
Posted by Deana at January 11, 2010 7:38 AM
Your silence shows you agree-Euripides//
Despotism corrupts the man who submits to it much more than the man who imposes it-Tocqueville// It is not possible to abuse me without insisting that I sing your praise--Dostoevsky
Posted by james wilson at January 11, 2010 8:41 AM
So Eric Hoffer callled Obama a soul-raper from the grave.
Cool!
Posted by Don Rodrigo at January 11, 2010 9:03 AM