Voltaire
posted by dsk on August 28th, 2011 at 10:35PM
posted by dsk on August 28th, 2011 at 10:35PM
"It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere."
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posted by dennisn on August 28th, 2011 at 10:50PM
Well, the thing is, their chains aren't merely oppressive things -- they actually give them things -- they profit from them in the short-term. Statism has helped Obama, Bush and Layton tremendously. The real difficulty is in living a coherent and consistent life, since it involves more rigor and longer-term thinking and principles.
Reverence here is also ambiguous. Reverence for (the chains of) reason and justice is good. Blind reverence to authority is bad. Voltaire sounds like a cool dude. |
