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Quote by James Baldwin

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The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings

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James Baldwin

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“No voter wants to believe he doesn’t really matter, so he buys into the idea that there are two substantively different parties frantically competing for his attention, the ideological fate of the country hanging on his decision every few years. It flatters the average citizen to think that way. The reality is that the dominant characteristic of our political system is the unchanging nature of the political consensus—while the two parties agree about most all of the important things, they disagree violently about the inconsequential stuff, providing the fodder and the drama for an endless political “struggle” that plays itself out in entertaining fashion every couple of years.”

ExtremismPolarizationPolitics Observation
Book:The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics, and Religion at the Twilight of the American Empire
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“The Thatcher government aimed for much more: a reshaping of the country's entire political economy. But there was no organised body of thought or practice about how to do such a thing. British politicians at that time had no successful post-war role models of strategic competence. Whatever their political gifts, ministers had no formal training for executive work. There was no political equivalent of the business school, no literature to help them think about the discontinuity of which even the dimmest politicians and businessmen were becoming aware. There was not even a common language for the task they had undertaken to enable ministers and their advisers to think and communicate with sufficient rigour and without misunderstandings, instead of muddling along with an armoury of empty phrases. And so, to start with, most of them had to rely, like their predecessors, on political history, traditional debating style and a collection of institutional assumptions. I suspect that, now things are more or less normal, all this will remain an immutable feature of British democratic government.”

Politics Observation
Book:Just in time: Inside the Thatcher revolution
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“First in opposition and later in Whitehall, there were cultural barriers to cross. Advisers from the business world were almost unheard of in Whitehall before the Thatcher years Government was confined to career politicians and their career civil servants, with a small sprinkling of journalists and academics on secondment. These four groups appeared to be the only ones entitled to enter the political playground. Their received wisdom was, and probably still is, that businessmen could never succeed in this unfamiliar environment. They tended to overlook the fact that politicians, civil servants and non-business advisers had not been particularly effective either, and that few business people had ever been allowed to take part. I shared Samuel Brittan's scepticism about 'businessmen's economics'. But I did believe that we could learn, and then perhaps offer better thinking than would otherwise be available. - page XIV”

Politics Observation
Book:Just in time: Inside the Thatcher revolution
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“What we said probably sounded pretty naïve even to the most open-minded of those present. Conceptual models, matrices, flow diagrams, decision trees - the bread-and-butter tool kit used by business schools and think-tanks to help them make sense of the real world in all its complexity- were unfamiliar and best disposed of by remarks of the 'politics isn't like that' variety. To say that there was no meeting of minds would be an understatement - Page 21”

Politics Observation
Book:Just in time: Inside the Thatcher revolution
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“Politicians seem to be more accustomed to being given words to say than thoughts to consider. Speeches are part of their everyday lives. Sustained, hard thinking about policy is often less familiar. When they are given ideas, they mistake them for speeches; and, too often, when they make speeches, they believe them to be a substitute for ideas.”

Politics Observation
Book:Just in time: Inside the Thatcher revolution
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