The successful politician owes his power to the fact that he moves within the accepted framework of thought, that he read more

The successful politician owes his power to the fact that he moves within the accepted framework of thought, that he thinks and talks conventionally. It would be almost a contradiction in terms for a politician to be a leader in the field of ideas. His task in a democracy is to find out what the opinions held by the largest number are, not to give currency to new opinions which may become the majority view in some distant future.

...regrettable as it may seem to the idealist, the experience of history provides little warrant for the belief that real read more

...regrettable as it may seem to the idealist, the experience of history provides little warrant for the belief that real progress, and the freedom that makes progress possible, lies in unification. For where unification has been able to establish unity of ideas it has usually ended in uniformity, paralysing the growth of new ideas. And where the unification has merely brought about an artificial or imposed unity, its irksomeness has led through discord to disruption.Vitality springs from diversity- which makes for real progress so long as there is mutual toleration, based on the recognition that worse may come from an attempt to suppress differences than from acceptance of them. For this reason, the kind of peace that makes progress possible is best assured by the mutual checks created by a balance of forces- alike in the sphere of internal politics and of international relations.

I should have had a circuitous answer that was a non-answer.

I should have had a circuitous answer that was a non-answer.

It's a sad and stupid thing to have to proclaim yourself a revolutionary just to be a decent man.

It's a sad and stupid thing to have to proclaim yourself a revolutionary just to be a decent man.

Though God's attributes are equal, yet his mercy is more attractive and pleasing in our eyes than his justice.

Though God's attributes are equal, yet his mercy is more attractive and pleasing in our eyes than his justice.

Don't steal. The government hates competition.

Don't steal. The government hates competition.

[expressing John Locke's view]...whenever anyone threatens any other innocent human in a way that makes manifest an ignorance or disregard read more

[expressing John Locke's view]...whenever anyone threatens any other innocent human in a way that makes manifest an ignorance or disregard of the fundamental equality as regards the right to self-preservation, the creature in human shape who acts in this way is to be treated by any and all other rational humans as a wild, clever, and therefore very dangerous animal, to be destroyed (if necessary) in order to safeguard the rest.

Illegitimacy is something we should talk about in terms of not having it.

Illegitimacy is something we should talk about in terms of not having it.

Creation science is an attempt to give credibility to Hebrew mythology by making people believe that the world's foremost biologists, read more

Creation science is an attempt to give credibility to Hebrew mythology by making people believe that the world's foremost biologists, paleontologists, and geologists are a bunch of incompetent nincompoops.