“Intellectuals can hardly keep away from politics any more than other citizens, and probably less, especially in decades like the nineteen-thirties (or this one, for that matter). But, because they typically bring to it an unstable mix of abstraction and narcissism, their judgments tend to be absolute, when nothing in politics ever is.”—George Packer, “The Spanish Prisoner,” The New Yorker, October 31, 2005, collected in Interesting Times: Writings From a Turbulent Decade (2009)
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Quote of the Day (George Packer, on Intellectual Blundering in Politics)
“Intellectuals can hardly keep away from politics any more than other citizens, and probably less, especially in decades like the nineteen-thirties (or this one, for that matter). But, because they typically bring to it an unstable mix of abstraction and narcissism, their judgments tend to be absolute, when nothing in politics ever is.”—George Packer, “The Spanish Prisoner,” The New Yorker, October 31, 2005, collected in Interesting Times: Writings From a Turbulent Decade (2009)
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