Trego's Mountain Ear

Raymond Aron was a French sociologist who opposed all totalitarian governments.  Here are some of his thoughts;

“In politics the choice is never between good and evil but between the preferable and the detestable.

Despotism has so often been established in the name of liberty that experience should warn us to judge parties by their practices rather than their preachings.

Communist interpretation is never wrong. Logicians will object in vain that a theory which exempts itself from all refutations escapes from the order of truth.

There is no correlation between the cause and the effect. The events reveal only an aleatory determination, connected not so much with the imperfection of our knowledge as with the structure of the human world.

Rational action is merely a question of calculating the chances.

What passes for optimism is most often the effect of an intellectual error.

Foreknowledge of the future makes it possible to manipulate both enemies and supporters.

Freedom is not the last word. Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness.

The essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison. It was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.

The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.

Conventions are not rules; they are not absolute and unchanging. They are habits of the mind, widely shared. Therefore they can be changed; indeed, they should be changed when circumstances require.

Freedom and responsibility are inseparable. Whoever renounces freedom must give up responsibility as well. He who refuses it does not remain free; he escapes responsibility only to be crushed under a load of chains.

The very fact that there is a bureaucracy is an argument against its importance.

Politics is an art like any other. But with one essential difference: its operations must not be clouded by personal ambition. Its purpose is the public good, not private gain.

In a world of change, the clever survive, the bold prosper, and the ignorant flourish.

Ideas have consequences, and bad ideas have a high human cost.

The true measure of a man is not his intelligence or how high he rises in this freak establishment. No, the true measure of a man is this: how quickly can he respond to the needs of others and how much of himself he can give?

Democracy is less an ideology than a form of government. It is less concerned with what people ought to think than with how their rights can best be protected.”