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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| "...the imperfection inherent in human affairs..." |
| 2009-10-30 |
| Free men are aware of the imperfection inherent in human affairs, and they are willing to fight and die for that which is not perfect. They know that basic human problems can have no final solutions, that our freedom, justice, equality, etc. are far from absolute, and that the good life is compounded of half measures, compromises, lesser evils, and gropings toward the perfect. The rejection of approximations and the insistence on absolutes are the manifestation of a nihilism that loathes freedom, tolerance, and equity. --Eric Hoffer, The True Believer |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #3 word, Mike |
| Posted by: KBK 2009-10-30 20:50 |
| #2 That's not it at all, my friend. What Hoffer was getting at is that you cannot build Heaven on Earth, and the people that think you can are fools at best and megalomaniacs at worst. The comprehensive transformation of society to be wrought by the People's Republic/Thousand-Year Reich/Juche Idea/Bolivarian Revolution/Great Leap Forward/Great Society/Hope and Change™/call-it-what-you-will is never going create utopia, and will likely only make things worse. You cannot perfect human nature. The best you can do is let free people work through life on their own. |
| Posted by: Mike 2009-10-30 12:20 |
| #1 In an article titled "Eric Hoffer would not have defined himself as a conservative." Apparently we weren't compromisers like the great Reagan and Bush the Elder were. Apparently they've forgotten the part where Bush the Elder labeled Reagan as a proponent of "Voodoo Economics." Don't y'all think it was really nice for him to stop insulting the man openly about that after the voodoo stuff worked? Unless we sign away our freedom with democrat-lite candidates we must be absolutist nihilists that loathe freedom? |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2009-10-30 09:40 |