3 quotes
Intellectuals are naturally attracted by the idea of a planned society, in the belief that they will be in charge of it.
Fools, Frauds and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left (2015)
The contradictory nature of the socialist utopias is one explanation of the violence involved in the attempt to impose them: it takes infinite force to make people do what is impossible.
Fools, Frauds and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left (2015)
Why is it after a century of socialist disasters, and an intellectual legacy that has been time and again exploded, the left-wing position remains, as it were, the default position to which thinking people gravitate when called upon for a comprehensive philosophy? Why are "right-wingers" marginalised in the educational system, denounced in the media and regarded by our political class as untouchable, fit only to clean up after the orgies of luxurious nonsense indulged in by their moral superiors?
Fools, Frauds and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left (2015)