ght for the Day: Kenneth Minogue on Polis // (Steven Hayward).

Kenneth Minogue’s Politics: a Very Short Introduction (highly recommend):

Thomas Mann observed that “the destiny of men” is a political concept in our time. He said this to be true for many university students who believe that it is impossible to enjoy a poem or have a love affair while making a political statement. This view is not more foolish than the sub-Freudian belief that every action we take is a sexual revelation. . .

Common sense is the key. Politics is all about reality. Propositions can be true or false. People die and bleed. Politics is difficult. It sustains the common universe in which we can talk to one another. Philosophers who transform experience into perspectives and horizons, senses, values, dominations and cultures will destroy this common world. Politics is the activity that sustains human life; it is not the life itself. While the skeptical philosopher, the moral relativist and the rancorous academic socio critic, as well as the religious visionary and the artistic seer, have their place in our society, their intrusion into politics has been a problem, particularly over the past two centuries. The experience has shown that politics, despite its ability to order many ways of living, must keep its distance from these adventures. Politics is human life at a stretch, full with heroism as well as duplicity. It is important to understand how diverse it can be at any given time and place.

Comment: Thomas Mann was a political kid, if not an idiot most of the time. But that’s another story.

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