Raymond Aron:
Freedom flourishes in temperate zones; it does not survive the burning faith of prophets and crowds.
That comes from
a review of
The Faces of Moderation, a new book on some of the 20th-century's leading moderates by Aurelian Craiutu. Craiutu writes,
Moderates do not see the world in Manichaean terms that divide it into forces of good (or light) and agents of evil (or darkness). They refuse the posture of prophets, champion sobriety in political thinking and action, and endorse an ethics of responsibility as opposed to an ethics of absolute ends.
It can never be said enough that the essence of democracy is compromise. If we lose the ability to find common ground with our opponents, democracy will fail.
It's difficult to ignore that one's 'opponents' have succeeded at moving the entire political conversation into their court through fearmongering, fake news, subterfuge, hacking, smear campaigns, media manipulation and other strategies. The practice of democracy is quickly failing and it's not even 2017 yet; unexplained instruction to compromise with extremists leaves me no choice but believe that simply moves the compass further toward that extreme view. Sorry, I refuse.
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