04 abril 2008

You deserved it, though


I certainly regret your demise. You deserved it, though.

Failure is an excellent opportunity for learning. Now, let me quote from a Jewish author:

"Freedom of mind requires not only, or not even especially, the absence of legal constraints but the presence of alternative thoughts. The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities (...). It is not feelings or commitments that will render a man free, but thoughts, reasoned thoughts".

"Flattery of the people and incapacity to resist public opinion are the democratic vices, particularly among writers, artists, journalists and anyone who is dependent on an audience (...)".

"(...) the democratic concentration on the useful, on the solution of what are believed by the populace at large to be the most pressing problems, makes theoretical distance seem not only useless but immoral".
(Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987, pp. 249-50).

As you can see I am not that anti-semitic as you often portrayed me to be. And yes, I do have admiration for many aspects of the Salazarist regime, including freedom of mind. Finally, next time try not to exclude peaceful people because such is the hallmark of antiliberalism.
(See also, for a few examples, here, here and here)

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