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The Cunning of Freedom: Saving the Self in an Age of False Idols

Book by Ryszard Legutko · 3 quotes · Aristocrats, Body Soul, Ethics

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The Cunning of Freedom: Saving the Self in an Age of False Idols Quotes

“There are four things that an aristocrat should contribute to the modern world to countervail its ideological tendencies: the rejection of historical inevitability; the defense of the ethics of obligations; an acceptance of the body/soul dualism with the soul taking the dominant position; and a classical concept of shame. All of them are interrelated.”

Society Ethics Shame Modern World Political Philosophy Social Order Aristocrats Body Soul

Book:The Cunning of Freedom: Saving the Self in an Age of False Idols

Source: The Cunning of Freedom: Saving the Self in an Age of False Idols

“The actors in this sexual revolution bore a closer resemblance to Plato's "huge strong beast" that could be easily tamed by clever guardians than Nietzsche's independent Supermen impelled solely by their own inner dynamic.”

Sexuality Plato Social Change Repression Modernity Nietzsche Sexual Revolution Sexual Liberation

Book:The Cunning of Freedom: Saving the Self in an Age of False Idols

Source: The Cunning of Freedom: Saving the Self in an Age of False Idols

“As regards the modern liberal democrat who represents the class of victors in this process of emancipation, despite his loud bragging about transgressions, too much of his language and presuppositions sound discordant with the idea of freedom -- too much necessity, inevitability, irreversible change, and too many natural God-given drives. His language holds too many references to the tides of history and refers to excessive adapting, yielding, giving in, and indulging. There is also too much easiness in pursuing freedom, too much self-absolution, and too much nonchalance in dismissing all the caveats and counterarguments accumulated over the centuries. He appears more like an actor who takes part in a performance in which he has been ordered to play the role of a free man. He duly obeys the author's and director's orders but is utterly unaware that, by listening to those orders, he has already lost his chance to be his own master.”

Freedom Liberalism Liberal Democrats

Book:The Cunning of Freedom: Saving the Self in an Age of False Idols

Source: The Cunning of Freedom: Saving the Self in an Age of False Idols