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Thursday 23 April 2015

Those deliberate illusions

Sometimes her ardent imagination concealed things from her, but never did she have those deliberate illusions which cowardice induces.
Stendhal - La Chartreuse de Parme (1839).

An extremely pointed quote. Have you ever explained your own behaviour in a way which is far too lenient towards your motives? I have. It’s one of those deliberate illusions which cowardice induces.

It’s probably a factor in voting too. I vote ConLabLib because... Perhaps we are just too cowardly to sustain a worthwhile democracy.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

There are probably at least three reasons for doing anything - the deep reason, the reason you tell yourself and the reason as publicly stated. As for a worthwhile democracy - there's a question! Democracy seems to survive because it is such a flexible concept - all things to all persons. But in the end just a means of getting by.

Demetrius said...

I am tempted by our National Health Alliance for Action candidate. He is the only one with a coherent statement.

A K Haart said...

Roger - yes I think democracy was always more pragmatic than the ideal we supposed it to be. More like a way of conducting large scale opinion polls than a handle on the levers of power.

Demetrius - I am tempted to vote for the person an not the party.